50mw bottle shape laser(cr2) from FOCALPRICE.pro and cons...

[realista]

hello
today i received my 50mw green laser from foclaprice. i opted to buy a newstyle of laser...the bottle shape.
i also have a 30mw kaleidoscopic laser from DX...and it is good...1mrad...i think up to 30mw to spec.When i received the new laser... the first think i tryed to see... is the POWER.

---POWER
i must say it is not so powerful as extected with cr2 3volt ...compared to my 30mw laser.. it is worste. it has less power. not so much.. but less. i also tryed with 3.6 volt cr2 at 4 volt..and the brightness is a bit better.......quite the same of my 30mw...but for a PRECISE laser entusiast like me.. i can slithly notice the difference.

UPDATE: i opened the laser ....putted out the diode.. and it seems to be little...i think a 5mw diode. i made a FUNNY circuit with a....(se photo ahahha).i tryed to adjust the pot.. but i have not increased the power. it was at the max my factory.
i only left the pot on the nearest right point(turn left.. decrease. turn right.. increase...at a certain moment when you turn too much right the laser goes OFF. i just went a little left and the laser went ON) where the laser is ON...because i think that this is the max point in which the potentiometer get more energy.

however now the laser is about equal to my 30mw... but it has a worse duty cycle...hey.. the kaleidoscopic from DX seems to have INFINITE duty cycle...i left it on for about 5 minutes... and it didn't get too hot!!STABLE power(reccomended buy),this bottle laser instead.. becomes hot after a minute and the beam visibility decrease a little.
CONCLUSION: pot mod failed: it was just potmodded by factory ..you should pay 28$ from DX to have a 50mw TRUE....or go to rayfoss/suse certified 40/50mw but at a price that is 40/50 $ shipped...not a good deal!

---DESIGN/quality
i love this design... it is true! it is HEAVY....i love the material of the laser... lucid metal. very durable and well made! i THINK that it could be a nice host to use another diode. is possible for you?? i am a noob on changing diode.. i've never done this thing.
but i think that the HEAT DISSIPATION is very good- BUT i noticed the enteire body of the laser seems to ged hot after 1 minute or so...( yes... heat conduction good... but why so heat?maybe a 5mw potmodded/overvolted?)

---BEAM QUALITY
the beam diameter is very low.. like my kaleidoscopic 30mw. about 1 millimeter. to be precise...it is 10% less focused in diameter( maybe a little oval.. but A LITTLE... i can say you is seems to be EQUAL to everyone..sometimes also by me aahaha)

the divergence is worste (not so worse)than my kaleidoscopic that was 1mrad about. UPDATE. doovergence is very good!! about 1.2 mrad.or 1.1(more 1.1). only a LITTLE worse than my kaleido. i had a oike 120+ laser pen(returned back for bad power) that was worse in divergence.. about 1.5.
so.. i am very very happy for the divergence of this laser... really god for a CHEAP pointer.

---PRICE
for $ 21.94...so.. 22.....and it seems to be good.. for a nominal 50mw. for example DX has it for 21.34$ 5mw... $24.86 for a 50mw potmodded..and $28.32 for a TRUE 50mw( really true? bho)
so...i think that my laser from focalp....could probably be the 25$ potmodded from DX.
if DX could REALLY ASSURE to sell true 50m at 28$... i would had bought that laser! but... WHO can assure WHAT? sincerely.. i read the rewiew of a member that bought my same laser from focal.. and got a 60mw..... so i expected to have a same unit... but it is not what happened.....

SUGGESTIONS( please suggest me)

what should i do now?
1......return back the laser and ask a better powered laser?probably they could give me a best power checked laser...BUT i son't know if they can REFUND ME as credits...the shipping cost to return it back( dealextreme... made it!shipping cost REFUNDED for defective item).if the cost is at my charge i will not return back it.(about 6/7 dollars for me..too much for a replacement)
2.... i keep it ..trying to not get angry. XD and use it with 3.6 volt battery to have about the same power of my 30mw.( hey....but..is maybe my 30mw overpowered?it is wonderfull...on night..really visible also in daylight the spot....normal for a "cheap" 30mw?)

3.... i keep it..thnking of the near future to change the diode and use the stunning metal host,and get a 100mw diode from susie..but i am REALLY TEMPTED to put inside it.. the new 200mw from olike...(new item.. maybe it could have some problem at this power.... i will wait until susie is SURE to give good product).......because..HEY....WOW...a 200mw beam starting from a LITTLE and sort laser pointer.. ..is an awesome thing! maybe battery duration could be low.. but you can change it

PS: next day i wil try to podmod(turn the pot on right side)the laser driver. so i hope to have a little improvement in power. i must understand if the diode is replaceable only by the end cap.. or you can open the laser (see the pic)

please suggest me

 

[ideas]

WOW..
Please start using real sentences.
Not just bundling groups of words and separating them with '...'
Starting with a capital, using a verb and ending with a point, will make your text a lot more understandable & readable, now it is almost impossible to read / follow you.
Like you just wrote loose toughts one after another.
When you writea post: always think 'what would people find attractive to read' your own personal plans of doing stuff, your excitement about some product, your own mind-questions,.. don't interest most people.
If you have a question, please write it down in a real sentence.

To answer you (if I understood it well )
You will have to pay shipping back yourself, so I don't think that will be worth it. So just keep the laser and use it in another project.

 

[cust11]

Ya know, not everyone uses English as their first language and may or may not be very fluent with it. We are here to talk about lasers not to critique others grammar and sentence structure. Realista got his point across and I found it quite easy to understand.

tl;dr:
Laser seems to be slightly underpowered, good construction, not a bad deal for the price.

@Realista - Good review! I know jayrob was looking into those bottle shape lasers from focalprice as well although I think you were the first to purchase one and review it.

-Mike

 

[Fortyfive]

First off.

Hows is this for a well constructed sentence?

Ideas, your a f**king d**khead!

Can you understand that? Not everyone on the internet happens to speak english. Id like to see you try to speak, and or type in french, spanish, or some other language and see how well you do. No one forced you to read this thread. What a joke.

Anyways,

Great review Realista, as far as your laser is concerned, I would try to exchange it for another unit if you really like the design. Not a bad deal if its up to spec. Can we see a comparison picture with your 30mW next to the new one?


-Greg

 

[realista]

UPDATE: i opened the laser ....putted out the diode.. and it seems to be little...i think a 5mw diode. i made a FUNNY circuit with a....(se photo ahahha).i tryed to adjust the pot.. but i have not increased the power. it was at the max my factory.
i only left the pot on the nearest right point(turn left.. decrease. turn right.. increase...at a certain moment when you turn too much right the laser goes OFF. i just went a little left and the laser went ON) where the laser is ON...because i think that this is the max point in which the potentiometer get more energy.

however now the laser is about equal to my 30mw... but it has a worse duty cycle...hey.. the kaleidoscopic from DX seems to have INFINITE duty cycle...i left it on for about 5 minutes... and it didn't get too hot!!STABLE power(reccomended buy),this bottle laser instead.. becomes hot after a minute and the beam visibility decrease a little.
CONCLUSION: pot mod failed: it was just potmodded by factory ..you should pay 28$ from DX to have a 50mw TRUE....or go to rayfoss/suse certified 40/50mw but at a price that is 40/50 $ shipped...not a good deal!

 

[realista]

add photo

 

[larrball]

realista,
I thank you should keep it for the host, and maybe a o-like mod will fit in the host and you can use the old driver (just for the switch part)?
I know you doin't like on/off clicky switch.
good pic's and review.
Your laser rules! (keep the ruler)

 

[nikokapo]

/NAZI MODE ON

First off.

Hows is this for a well constructed sentence?

Ideas, your a f**king d**khead!

Can you understand that? Not everyone on the internet happens to speak english. Id like to see you try to speak, and or type in french, spanish, or some other language and see how well you do. No one forced you to read this thread. What a joke.

Ok man, this is simply not true. I'm from Argentina and I speak Spanish. I've been studying English since I was 4 years old. I've also studied many more languages such as Hebrew and what I can tell you about it is that even though I've never achieved perfect writing skills (yet), EVERY language has punctuation signs.

ideas' remark is valid, it may have come out a bit harsh but he is indeed correct.

Why am I taking part of this right now? Because I was gonna add this review to the review compilation thread. But now that I look at it I'm having second thoughts.

realista, don't pay attention to me or any negative feedback. I do really like the fact that you are doing a review on a laser product




Oh, I don't think it's a 5mW diode. If that was true then after the KTP crystal the amount of green that the laser would put out would be virtually invisible

 

[realista]

the diode is not heavy... and has small driver. in my hopinion it is not a true 50. maybe.. a true 30. however.. ..i think it is one of the best host for laser diodes..... it is durable... nice.. and little. maybe cr2 does not get the power for so much time if i will put a 100me diode... but it is not a problem.....and imho a 100mw greenbeam ( or more....like 200mw new olike diode) starting from a little "thing" like this... it is awesome.. also for who could look at you

 

[Fortyfive]

NikoKapo,

Im not sure how you can defend or agree with Ideas post. I have read numerous posts by Realista and have had no problems reading his posts. Sure the his grammer and punctuation is a bit off, but this is a laser forum, Im sure you understand that, you have almost 3,000 posts. I was going to comment just like you and I happened to see what Ideas said, and It pissed me off.

You happen to be in a small group of people that can fluently speak / write in multiple languages which is great. Im happy for you, and wish I could speak other languages too. Ideas could have commented without being so disrespectful, and Im not sure how you find that acceptable on this forum. Ideas could have stopped reading and moved on to another thread, or if he really felt the need to comment on his grammar and not the review itself, he could have sent him a PM. Im not saying your opinions are wrong, but how he went about it is wrong.

-Greg

 

[lasersbee]

Agreed.....
Not everyone on the internet (or the Globe) has perfected the English language..

@niko.... I don't think that because Realista lacks a bit in English grammar skills
that he should be penalized and not be included in your Reviews Thread...
After all this is a Laser Review... even if it would have been written in Chinese...IMO


Jerry

 

[Alexizupinhea]

niko, I bought this laser too. I've had it for a long time now. I can probably write a review if you want. I unfortunately didn't test it on my diy LPM (not VERY accurate, prob + or - 5 to 10%). However, after some months, it now mod hops and goes into TEM00,TEM01, and TEM02. It was definitely more powerful than my 30mW True green, less powerful than my 100mW True green, and more powerful than my 30mW Romisen LC-030. It was quite nice, and is definitely a nice host. It has a good feel, was kinda powerful (still is, it just now mode hops and power is unstable), but... it was working fine for a couple of months. I'd say it was worth it, I just got kind of a dud. It's cheap and works well. I'll test the power now and post the results (will test the power while it's in mode hop mode where it's weak)

Update: Okay, so it mod hopped at first, but then when i turned it on again, it didn't mode hop for a WHILE, like a min. or two. Anyway, I tested it on my LPM (isn't the best LPM by any means, I built it for $10), but it measured to be 48mW. I think the LPM is pretty accurate, at least close. I measured my True 100mW green to be around 70mW, my 100mW O-like to be 97mW after passing through a clear glass lens (used for waterproofing), and, I just went to check the power on my Dilda, and it was going, then seemed dim. I was like, what happened? I tried new batteries, and it didn't work. I hooked it up to a Lab power supply, and yes... the thing burned out . I HARDLY ever used it. Probably less than 20min. total, and yet it broke. Oh well, I guess it's unrelated; I'm just grunting because I'm in a bad mood. I guess it's time to replace it with a PHR. (btw, does anyone know, will a rkcstr run off of two CR2 3.0V?)

 

[nikokapo]

NikoKapo,

Im not sure how you can defend or agree with Ideas post. I have read numerous posts by Realista and have had no problems reading his posts. Sure the his grammer and punctuation is a bit off, but this is a laser forum, Im sure you understand that, you have almost 3,000 posts. I was going to comment just like you and I happened to see what Ideas said, and It pissed me off.

You happen to be in a small group of people that can fluently speak / write in multiple languages which is great. Im happy for you, and wish I could speak other languages too. Ideas could have commented without being so disrespectful, and Im not sure how you find that acceptable on this forum. Ideas could have stopped reading and moved on to another thread, or if he really felt the need to comment on his grammar and not the review itself, he could have sent him a PM. Im not saying your opinions are wrong, but how he went about it is wrong.

-Greg

And

Agreed.....
Not everyone on the internet (or the Globe) has perfected the English language..

@niko.... I don't think that because Realista lacks a bit in English grammar skills
that he should be penalized and not be included in your Reviews Thread...
After all this is a Laser Review... even if it would have been written in Chinese...IMO


Jerry

G Fourty, Jerry, and especially realista, I'm really sorry. You guys are correct, Ideas' language was not correct indeed and I shouldn't have defended that kind of language. I'm adding this review to the review thread (which is not "mine", it belongs to everybody, I couldn't do it without other people's reviews) and I assure you this will not happen again.

G Fourty, your point of view made me see things differently, thanks for answering in such a mature manner.


Again I'm deeply sorry.

 

[dr-ebert]

Alex: would work, but only for a red LD, since the dropout voltage of the driver is ~3.0V (LM317) resp. 2.4V (LM1117), taking the current sense resistor into account. Vf of the LPC-815 diode is about 3.4V (400mA) resp. 2.8V (250mA). The batteries would sag to 2.8...2.9V under load.

 

[potatorage]

Focal's service never impressed me. Keep the laser, it is not worth the cost to ship it back.

 

[HIMNL9]

Uh, i just seen the pics of the inside module, and they was familiar, so i just took these ones from one of my 5mW modules from o-like ..... do you think they match enough ?

The only difference i see, is the diode in series of the power supply, that in the version i got, was substituted with a zero ohm bridge .....

It's a 5mW module, perhaps ..... i checked also the 30mW, 50mW and 150mW ones i have here, and are all differents, the only identical one it's the 5mW one .....