Is there a better bang for buck laser than this o-like 50mw?

[eb2phkingood]

I think you would be better off buying one from one of the veterans on this forum like I did. YOBREASAL did a bad-ass job on the 2 I got from him! I'm sure you can get a lot more bang-for-your-buck dealing in LPF!!!

I totally agree! I made a "want" thread and just waiting for approval from the mods so that it gets posted. Thanks for the input! Rep +

 

[Benm]

Once you get used to using Li-ion batteries you'll never want to go back to AAA

Indeed. AAA batteries may be commonly available, but they are also shitty power sources for laser pointers. This is mainly because they often use 2 of them in series to drive the pump diode. This works okay when they are actually 1.5 volts each, but since their voltage drops under load and with losing charge, it basically means that your laser will only work well for the first 10-20% of energy extracted from the battery.

Green lasers are often powered using a single lithium cell that provides a steady 3.7 volts all the way from full to empty ensuring more reliable and constant output power. As you probably will want to use rechargable batteries with your laser, i'd recommend going with something lithium powered - chargers for those only cost a few bucks and will spare you a lot of frustration.

 

[Super Critical]

Swimsurfers overspec greens

 

[Bionic-Badger]

Yeah, AAA batteries suck. The AAA batteries that can actually output 1.5V--as opposed to 1.2V for NiMH) are the Alkaline batteries and those types of batteries like low discharge rates. However, those lasers have high current requirements and that causes the batteries to lose capacity even faster.

A word of note: many of those pen-host lasers like having their voltage at exactly 3V, so a LiPo battery may not work with them.