Welcome to Laser Pointer Forums - discuss green laser pointers, blue laser pointers, and all types of lasers

Buy Site Supporter Role (remove some ads) | LPF Donations

Links below open in new window

FrozenGate by Avery

Got my DL 95mw - Now What?

A

atz413

0
Joined
Dec 29, 2006
Messages
28
Points
0
Hi,

I'm sure this sounds stupid, but I just received my 95mw DragonLaser (I ordered it less than a week ago), and now I'm not sure what to do!

Some initial comments:

1. The box it came in is rather shoddy, wood and it just kind of fell apart when I took it out of the shipping envelope.

2. The laser was NOT shipped with batteries. Not a big whoop, but the foam inside the case has cutouts for batteries, so it seems a little cheap to me.

3. The instructions state: "On-press the button switch. Do not light it over 7 seconds." Does this mean I can kill the thing by letting it burn for 10 seconds?

Anyway, I put some batteries into this thing (liberated them from my 5mw greenie) and shone the light on the wall in my office (beige). It looked like there was a lot of "spread" in the beam, but I think that may be because it was so bright to my eyes. Even over an hour later, I still have a little "after image" from the diffuse beam off of a flat-painted wall! This has given me a high level of respect for this "toy," and more than some caution!  :o

So, my questions are:

1. I guess I should get a pair of goggles if I'm really going to play with this, yes?

2. What can I do to test this out, if I don't have any goggles at present?

I promise some pix, just as soon as I can figure out how to take them safely! I'm sure I'll come up with more questions by and by.

Thanks,
Drew
 





And yes...I suggest u get a pair of those stylish goggles
i know an optician who said anything over 5mW is not recommended so....get them goggles
 
Until you get good laser protective eyewear - wear a pair of GOOD sunglasses. It will not protect you from most of the intense light, but it will at lewast help until you get some good protective eyewear. If you wanna try some experiments without eyewear - go home, hang a piece of electrical tape down from the edge of the table - aim the pointer at it - then look DOWN as you fire at the tape. The reflection from the floor will show you the smoke patterns rising from the tape, and it is not direct exposure. Nothing short of good protective eyewear can totally make you stay safe, but at least looking away is better than nothing. Wait for it to get dark tonight - shine it up at a 45 degree angle - making sure there are no aircraft in the area, and take a peek at what laser power is all about !!!
 
BeautySoulQueen said:
How satisfied r u with it?
Click to expand...

I can't say yet, since I'm at work, and haven't had a chance to play around, but it's MUCH more powerful (as far as brightness goes) than the 5mw. I got some more batteries, so I've been able to play with them a little bit, side-by-side, but I see that I really do need those goggles!!!!
 
One thing that I CAN say is that the beam is totally visible when I shine it in a deserted conference room, even with the lights (flourescent) on!
 
atz413 - Good you recieved your laser and they are normally shipped without batteries due to shipping regulations.

It would be advised to use only the best new batteries to get the very best output from your laser.

I wasn't aware that the dutycycle of the dragon lasers was only 7 seconds?? Where does it say this??

As for goggles...YOU NEED THEM....and must be specific laser goggles at 532nm to efficiently block the harmful laser radiation!!

When using your laser at close range eg lighting a match, many, many mW's of light will be reflected from the match head going into your eyes and unless you are wearing LASER GOGGLES designed to filter out the 532nm, you may damage your eyes!!!!

Sunglasses may seem to lessen the brightness but it is suggested that your eye pupils will dilate(open wider) when you wear sunglasses because its darker and that will actually cause more damage to your retina when the lasers 532nm passes through as this wavelength of light WILL NOT be blocked effectively.
So I would NOT wear sunglasses....just buy laser goggles. Wickeds goggles are tried and tested and a very good price!!

Any laser above 5mW in the USA is deemed a hazard to the eyes. A laser at 95mW is definitely a hazard to the eyes. :o

Hope this helps. ;)
 
NairB said:
atz413 - Good you recieved your laser and they are normally shipped without batteries due to shipping regulations.

It would be advised to use only the best new batteries to get the very best output from your laser.

I wasn't aware that the dutycycle of the dragon lasers was only 7 seconds?? Where does it say this??

As for goggles...YOU NEED THEM....and must be specific laser goggles at 532nm to efficiently block the harmful laser radiation!!

When using your laser at close range eg lighting a match, many, many mW's of light will be reflected from the match head going into your eyes and unless you are wearing LASER GOGGLES designed to filter out the 532nm, you may damage your eyes!!!!

Sunglasses may seem to lessen the brightness but it is suggested that your eye pupils will dilate(open wider) when you wear sunglasses because its darker and that will actually cause more damage to your retina when the lasers 532nm passes through as this wavelength of light WILL NOT be blocked effectively.
So I would NOT wear sunglasses....just buy laser goggles. Wickeds goggles are tried and tested and a very good price!!

Any laser above 5mW in the USA is deemed a hazard to the eyes. A laser at 95mW is definitely a hazard to the eyes. :o

Hope this helps.  ;)
Click to expand...

Damn - I didn't even think about the pupils dialating.....Thanks, NairB ! I was thinking at least SOME protection was better than nothing....dead wrong ! I stand corrected
:o
 
NairB said:

I wasn't aware that the dutycycle of the dragon lasers was only 7 seconds?? Where does it say this??
Click to expand...


In the printed instructions that came with the laser.


As for goggles...YOU NEED THEM....and must be specific laser goggles at 532nm to efficiently block the harmful laser radiation!!

When using your laser at close range eg lighting a match, many, many mW's of light will be reflected from the match head going into your eyes and unless you are wearing LASER GOGGLES designed to filter out the 532nm, you may damage your eyes!!!!

Sunglasses may seem to lessen the brightness but it is suggested that your eye pupils will dilate(open wider) when you wear sunglasses because its darker and that will actually cause more damage to your retina when the lasers 532nm passes through as this wavelength of light WILL NOT be blocked effectively.
So I would NOT wear sunglasses....just buy laser goggles. Wickeds goggles are tried and tested and a very good price!!

Any laser above 5mW in the USA is deemed a hazard to the eyes. A laser at 95mW is definitely a hazard to the eyes. :o

Hope this helps. ;)
Click to expand...

OK! I'm ordering goggles today! Thanks! :D
 
My 125 came with the same instructions, I've been keeping it to about 45-60 seconds and it's stable as a MF and is a great laser. Draws 545mA and runs OK on Nmih but e2 liths are the real deal. My nexus draws 645mA, but it's less powerful. What's up wid dat? The e2's are 1.7v out of the package and make these lasers get down, James Brown.

Dragon don't ship with batteries because batteries are hazmat and subject to additional regulation that you don't want when you're expecting a IIIb device in the mail, these guys know thier shit!
 
Here's a quote from CPF - regarding the 7 second rule......

Over-powered Pointers:

While there is no problem in running a laser pointer at full-tilt which has a 200mW pump diode for short periods of time, thermal issues really come into play when you use a 500mW pump diode unless you have a pretty beefy heat sink. For this reason, CNI recommends a duty cycle of only 7 seconds on the black+gold high power pointers that we are all familiar with. This has been confirmed by someone who posted a review of a Dragonlaser, where the retailer left the original CNI instructions in the box. CNI is very conservative when it comes to specs, so we can safely say that the duty cycle should be ~15-20seconds.
 
Placebo said:
Dragon don't ship with batteries because batteries are hazmat and subject to additional regulation that you don't want when you're expecting a IIIb  device in the mail,  these guys know thier shit!  
Click to expand...

Same guys who decided to ship them without warning labels for a little while? Possibly hoping to avoid customs? I daresay they've done some very foolish things in the past and we can only hope they've learned from their mistakes.

As for the mA difference, the diode will have different electrical efficiencies, and the crystals will have different optical efficiencies, and those combined will determine the total output. Therefore every laser will be different in terms of power input and output.
 
So... Just an update:

I finally got two different pairs of goggles: one Mil surplus from a guy in Hawaii (via eBay) and the other from a company that makes laser gunsights (see the thread I started in the "Safety" section).

Now I just have to test the goggles (I think they're OK) and find time to perform some experiments.

I figure I can run the pointer off of a pair of AAA 900 maH NimH batteries, freshly charged, for best effect?

Be back soon,
Drew
 
I got my DL95 today !!!!! ;D 5 days to get it - Super service but it is too cold to try it here until it warms to room temp.
I can't wait :) Are E2 Lithium cells OK in these ??

Mike
 
You must log in or register to reply here.





Back
Top