Help first laser 200 mw Dragon Laser Spartan

[Xeon]

So I decide to take my first laser outside. I put the battery in... screw the base on. Then I unscrew the cap.

I adjust the googles I bought from Dragon Lasers. Wow everything looks orange/red.

I point towards my brick wall about 20 feet away and press the button on the back.

1 second later the I see a red dot on the wall and it feels like I felt a flash? I turn off the laser... hmm thought I saw light coming out the back?

I further adjust my googles... need to make sure nothing seeps in.

I push the button again and it looks like more light is escaping out the back end... and all I can see is a red looking dot on the wall. It feels like it is coming through the hole where the rubber button is. I push the button quickly. Hmm I could be imagining this, but I think my thumb is burnt a bit???

One note - after the first try I tightened the heck out of the battery back end conductor.

Thoughts?

 

[paul1598419]

You might have to look at it without the googles. You didn't say what wavelength it is, but from the googles it must be green or blue. If it is indeed 200 mW, you aren't going to lose your vision from looking at the laser pointed away from you. There are times for googles and there are times to leave them off. This is one of those times. Just make sure you don't have anything to reflect it back to you.

 

[CynicalBrad]

Did it get damaged in shipment? I believe the only 200mW spartan is the 532nm green and that red "flash" might be IR coming out instead of green. We can't see those wavelengths very well but just about any cheap camera will see them quite well.

Also a crazy question but is the battery inserted correctly? I also believe that the driver in the spartans happens to have a red indicator LED on them even though the host does not use it. My 638nm spartan had one when I took it apart out of curiosity.

 

[diachi]

Did it get damaged in shipment? I believe the only 200mW spartan is the 532nm green and that red "flash" might be IR coming out instead of green. We can't see those wavelengths very well but just about any cheap camera will see them quite well.

Also a crazy question but is the battery inserted correctly? I also believe that the driver in the spartans happens to have a red indicator LED on them even though the host does not use it. My 638nm spartan had one when I took it apart out of curiosity.

Really not going to see the IR coming out of those that well even if there's no green, it'll be an unfocused, barely visible blob. Seriously, even at 15W 808nm is barely visible.

Sounds like OP is talking about light leaking through the hole for the button? I don't know ... doesn't make much sense to me.

 

[10fenny]

Fishy fishy.. we need more details.. pics?

 

[paul1598419]

Yeah, I don't get it either. Where could light be coming from to be leaking out of the back switch?

 

[Xeon]

Ok... I am back from work. I felt like light was coming back from the rubber button hole ... i am noob I know . I will try again tonight without googles. I will let you know what happens. It is a green laser.

 

[CynicalBrad]

"felt like light was" or " saw light coming from" the back tailcap? The driver in these is located pretty far up in them and I don't even see how the non-used indicator LED could shine out the tailcap.

 

[Xeon]

Alright lets classify this as unexpected radiance for a first timer in the dark. Not sure what was yesterday... I was next to the outside of my house. I think i didn't have a perfect seal on my protective glasses and a bit of light lit up my peripheral where my upper cheek met the seal of the glasses. Granted like a new person who didn't see the green laser at all, but only a red dot on cinderblock without a beam.... I assumed something was wrong with the laser. I am not sure why I feel like my thumb is burnt.

Anyways I took it out while we still had some blue in the sky and I was able to see the beam and almost painful to look at green focus pt on the wall.

Not light could be seen emitting from the location of tje rubber button.

Please accept my humble apology, and Um thank you for the welcome to the forum!

 

[paul1598419]

If you will make the distance to the wall about 20 feet the spot won't look so bright. It will be like a point source of light coming from 20 feet away.

 

[diachi]

Had a feeling you were talking about visible light leaking around the rim of your goggles. It happens, at those sorts of powers diffuse reflections like that are nothing to worry about. Seems a little weird at first if you're not used to it.