How powerful are 5 mW eBay pointers in reality?

[FutureOne]

I've metered ebay pens on my LPM from 1mw to 170mw. You really can't tell what the output is without a LPM. Any other method is just not accurate.
Ed

That is just unbelievable!!!

So there's little kids out there with 170mw lasers thinking they have a "safe 5mw" laser, with zero eye protection?

 

[The Lightning Stalker]

Question is, how to get a good enough LPM without spending a fortune? I am not yet so much into this that I would want to invest more than what is absolutely necessary. What about Bauer's HLPM II?

Sometimes it's cheaper to buy the pieces separately. There were some Scientech heads on
ePay a while back and later the display portion. It was quite a bit cheaper than buying them
both together. The only thing is you need a good multimeter to do the calibration. I needed
one anyway, so it was a good excuse to buy it.

Note that the IR is -not- collimated with the green light usually. What leaks out is 808 nm pump light which usually has a much larger divergence than the green, meaning it is mostly hazardoes at close range, but at several meters range its contribution is likely to be marginal.

There was a thread a while back with some pictures taken with an IR camera that suggest
quite to the contrary.

 

[Rifter]

I just ordered 6 more eBay laser pointers, I'll post back with results. I bought 2 bundles that have a red/green/violet lasers in them for 8$ shipped each bundle, they are listed as 5mw lasers.

 

[mortuus]

most are way above 5mw.

 

[Rifter]

most are way above 5mw.

Turns out you are correct, most of the time

Just received my 6 ebay pen lasers today, they tested as follows. Note all are labeled less than 5mw.

405nm#1 = 19mw
405nm#2 = 24mw
532nm#1 = DOA
532nm#2 = 55mw
650nm#1 = 8.4mw
650nm#2 = So low and dim i could not get a reading

so the 4 functioning lasers were all over spec, the green by ALOT.

FYI that green at 55mw is uncomfortable to look at dot on white wall 10 feet away without goggles. thought it was going to read higher than 55mw when i tested it but i checked 3 times and all tests were 50-60mw.