Green Lasers at Radio Shack

[jayhawker08]

I recently got a job at radio shack (yeah, i know lots of you don't like them) and we just received about five green <5mw lasers. We haven't even put them out to sell yet. I think the price on them will be about $49.99 That's not too bad considering you don't have to pay any shipping and you can have it right away. Not trying to promote business, just thought it was interesting.

 

[Things]

are they just modules, or actual portable lasers you can just stick batts in and off you go? i know jaycar sells 10mw green modules, but for a hefty price of $150AU maybe some pics would be nice

 

[pseudonomen137]

I was recently eating a meal at a local Sonic when I saw the distinctive flash of a green laser on the asphalt. I quickly went to that spot and shined my own greenie at the ground until I was able to find where the first laser was coming from. I then walked over and talked to the Sonic employee who had been shining a 5mW RadioShack laser around the parking lot.

He explained that he used to work at RS, where they sold them for $60 apiece (apparently he got it cheap on an employee discount?). Anyway, the laser was clearly a silver NewWish unit with the RadioShack logo on the tube - the same type of laser you can get for <$20 off dealextreme.com if you don't mind the black case style and can live without your laser being a RadioShack advertisment.

Not sure if we are talking about the same laser here jayhawker, but if so I'd personally just get one from DX. Customer support will obviously be better from Radioshack, but at <1/3 the price I'm fine just buying another DX if the first one fails.

 

[Rhith]

I was in RS the other day and saw these. They are obviously of a cheap build and just a way to get money. They are in fact the "pen style" lasers. They also had weak red pen style lasers for $39.99 and I just laughed.

 

[Greyfox]

These RadioShack green lasers look almost exactly like the silver pen-style with black rubber grip on DX. Power output, optics and such are the same. I'd be willing to bet that if you cut one open, you'd see NewWish written on the driver board, too.

 

[divdiv]

Years back I bought a red laser pointer from radioshack that died before the red laser I bought from the dollar store. I talking about 2 weeks. Sometimes you get what you pay for, at the dollarstore, not so much at radioshack.

 

[jayhawker08]

These RadioShack green lasers look almost exactly like the silver pen-style with black rubber grip on DX. Power output, optics and such are the same. I'd be willing to bet that if you cut one open, you'd see NewWish written on the driver board, too.

This sounds like the one I saw. The grip on it had the same dimpled rubber as the DX ones. I'm sure they are from the same company, but since they are being shipped here and resold by a major company there is obviously price markup. I just thought it was interesting how accessible green lasers are becoming to the general public. I'm willing to bet after the holidays green lasers won't be so rare. makes me a little sad that i'm no longer unique, but not many people will have one that can light matches ;D

 

[Greyfox]

I was out at the Shack earlier. Here's the one I've seen and looked over.

 

[sambo5472]

They seem to be getting much easyer to buy here in Belgium aswell. What worries me though is that they are beginning to turn up at parties quite a lot. I've been going out now for a good 5 years and the first time i saw one at a party was about a year ago, the dude claimed it was 150mw i didn't believe him as it was about as bright as my 15mw. Now this was last year, last weekedn i went to a big aprty and i saw at least 4 guys with a green laser, 3 wich i'm pretty sure were cheap 5mw's but this one guy was waving around what looked to me as at least 50mw.
I have to say that the fact that evrybody has such easy acces to these lasers worries me alot. The guy waving around the laser at the party didn't know shit about lasers i asked him how much mw his laser was to wich he replied what is a milliwat, al he knew was that he got it from the internet.
When i told him he could blind people round him in the blink off an eye he looked quite surprised and replied that the lasers in the room were much more powerfull and didn't blind anyone. I gave him a short explanation, wich i think he only understood half and got away from him as far as possible.

Anyhow my point here is that i don't think it's a good idea to make these lasers so widely available to the public, cause the public just doesn't know how to handle them. Too many people just regard it as a toy. And even though the radioshack ones are only 5mw at best some kid living near a highway or busy street could do some serious damage with it.
I don't know it just scares me a bit.

 

[RA_pierce]

Damnit. Now everyone will buy these and think my X-105 is a piece of crap Radio Shack laser when they see the beam. Now I have to get a blue laser to be 'the only one.' And now people will be irresponsible and f++k everything up. Ahh I'm so sad. I hate people.

 

[JacKz5o]

Damnit. Now everyone will buy these and think my X-105 is a piece of crap Radio Shack laser when they see the beam. Now I have to get a blue laser to be 'the only one.' And now people will be irresponsible and f++k everything up. Ahh I'm so sad. I hate people.

Haha. When they talk about how bad your X-105 is, burn their arm and then when they try to burn you with their RS laser, you laugh

 

[lamborghini_LP640]

I agree witht this point although im being abit hipocritical because im new to green lasers but have done alot of research on these forums and have ordered an x-105 but the problem with cheap lasers and them being widely available is that your own high power one kinda looses its cool status when u have to explain why yours is better and why it cost so much!!

 

[wooooooolazer]

Notice something?

Its even 30mw and its cheaper

[smiley=smiley_down.gif] [smiley=smiley_down.gif] [smiley=smiley_down.gif] [smiley=smiley_down.gif] [smiley=smiley_down.gif] [smiley=smiley_down.gif] [smiley=smiley_down.gif]

 

[Hemlock_Mike]

No worries here in North Iowa --- I walked into my local Rat Shack and asked to see the new greenie !!! HUH? was the reply. The manager didn't even know they are available or what they are.

The DUH factor lives here ;D

Mike

 

[xanatos]

OK... I snagged a ratshack greenie yesterday for $50. Battery contact is an issue - I have to twist the battery container end to get a good beam. Beam is often dim until I do so. One lens abberation with about a 0.5 degree divergence from the main beam - not sure if it's on the optics or deeper in the pointer.

All in all, I'd give it a mediocre review at best. I bought one wayyyyyyy back in 98 when they first came out - pain $400 for it, and it degraded after about a year until I had this hideous fuzzy spot with all sorts of abberations and interference patterns. So I hope this one will at least be better than that... at only a bit more than 1/10th the price!

I'm going back to burn more things with ny Senkat diode!

D

 

[amkdeath]

back when i was a complete nub at lasers, these things came out at my local RS for 60 bucks each. I had just seen that video on metacfe about soldering a component to make it burn. I decided to buy one and try it. LUCKILY for me, they said their comuter propts "verify the customer is at least 18 years of age" when they scan it, and they couldent sell me one. I was still interested, and asked for a star wars laser (to mod) and LUCKILY they couldent sell me that either.

now I know the mod doesnt work

and they sell the same laser for 25.99 now LOL

the associate kept saying "these are so bright that if you look at the beam you can go blind

now that im no nub anymore, I know how stupid I was and I laugh every time i remember it