A little repeat for those who have not read the whole thread:
It is indeed more powerful, but its not as compact either as some of the competition.
The Herc has a continuous duty cycle...."it doesn't overheat".
It even has an external power jack for long term use in commercial applications.
Mine is the 300mw....
http://www.laserglow.com/hercules.html
It stays above 400mw the first several minutes of being on.
Note the chart of the 300mw they have depicted.... those were of the 2.0w diode versions.. these out now are 2.5 watt diodes with better crystals.
Put your mouse over the chart on the right here
http://www.laserglow.com/hercules.html
and note the minutes of runtime.
This chart goes to 50 minutes!.... who else demonstrates such a runtime iwth stablity?
The catch is "most" of us don't need that long of a runtime.
But the other catch is, if its stable that long, how good is it for shorter durations?
Should you want to, you could adjust the power pod on top to go even higher, if you were sure you would never use it for too long of a period.
In those cases, there is an overheat light that comes on "mine has never come on" that lets you know you are getting above normal temperatures.
*Overheat Protection Red LED lights at 38°C, however there is no danger of
Damage to the internal parts unless the temp was to reach 80°C.
There is also "no" thermal shutdown... you get to choose how far to push the limits.
Hows that for a "buffer!".
The pod is to turn the unit down should you be in very high ambient air temps that required it for continous use.