Kaidomain 50mW CR2 - inital review

[styropyro]

Thanks Benm for the second Review, I am definitely getting this one now.

 

[bob12345]

[quote author=bob1122 link=1193766153/180#189 date=1207077722]Great laser pron! I ordered two more.

When did you order yours? I am unable to add it to the shopping cart. :-/
[/quote]

Yes, same.

E-mail Kai at sales@kaidomain.com and he (she?) will sort you out.

 

[Benm]

Is your old laser modehopping there? The dot seems to be that distinct oval shape.
And is the new laser IR filtered?

The old one is modehopping, sort of.. it's not really hopping between modes but seems to be stuck in TEM02 or 03. When i remove the outer lens the beam that comes out is more of a short stripe with 2 or 3 darker and ligher bands in it. The optics do make good for it to some degree though, as you can see long-distance effects are limited.

I haven't opened the new one up far enough to see if there is an IR filter now, but i have no reason to believe there is. It is also reliable enough not to product no-green-but-some-ir due to bad contacts etc, so havent seen the IR spew out of this one (yet).

Two of my lasers seem to compete for the place of the best one. Every now and then i get a feeling, that one got weaker, but then i notice, it's the other one, that is getting stronger. One slowly increases in power as it warms up, and the other slowly decreases, and becomes slightly weaker than the other, even tho it starts stronger.

When i only had one, i didn't notice any of this.

True, the battery voltage and temperature have an effect on power. Side by side this is visible, you can see which battery is dying first and such.

On the other hand, these units have far more consistent output power than for example the DX line of pen-style pointers. They come on immediately with no warm up, and then slowly dim a bit due to battery sag and/or heat-up (the former mostly i guess). I'll do some trials off a regulated power supply to see.

When did you order yours?

About 10 days ago, it shipped within 3 days of placing the order.

 

[Hemlock_Mike]

I hate to say this -- I am a laser abuser I have carried my Kaidoman 50 for months in my change pocket. It's scratched and the labels are coming off. I have to blow the lint off the lens about once a week -- BUT --if that 3V LiIon cell is in good charge, it puts out 57 mW max -- 45 mW min. Keep the threads clean -- that's where the current passes.

Mike

 

[Benm]

I guess its good to hear that it still works after a couple of months of regular (ab)use

For $26, i still think its an amazing piece of afforable technology... not in the ranks of $500 baton-style green lasers at all, but considering dollar value i'd recommend getting one.

 

[bob12345]

I ordered three more (total), just can't stop bloody ordering lasers!

This thing is built to take abuse but not the type involving a solder gun and the IR diode leg, I can tell you that for sure.

So KD is shipping withing 3 days now. That sounds quite great. Did the "Add to Cart" feature work for you?

 

[styropyro]

I can't get the "add to cart" feature to work either. I registered there and I still couldn't add it to cart.

 

[Benm]

Add to cart button worked when i ordered it, but it doesnt work anymore - perhaps a technical malfunction?

I was surprised by the fast shipping too, last time i ordered it took them over a week to send it off.

 

[IgorT]

I also had to email them for the new order, as the shipping cart didn't work, and send the money through paypal to their email address. They manually created the order and will be shipping it soon.


This morning they said they are out of stock, but an hour ago, they told me they just got a new shipment, so at the moment these lasers are actually in stock, if anyone is thinking of ordering.... (My first one took a month)

 

[IgorT]

I ordered three more (total), just can't stop bloody ordering lasers!

I know how you feel. While ordering the one for my friend, i almost ordered two. But then i thought "What do i need four for?"

These are just so good and sooo cheap! When i go to a cinema with a friend i spend the same amount on drinks and snacks.
Damn, now i want to order another one again.. I have to resist the urge.

This thing is built to take abuse but not the type involving a solder gun and the IR diode leg, I can tell you that for sure.

I don't know what exactly happened with yours, but i will be desoldering the PCBs and putting in my own in all three, and i'm not worried about that they would die.

I did it at least ten times with the DX200 while aligning it (and many other much worse things), and it's still alive. I even managed to bend the part of the leg, that is inside the diode, where the hair thin wires go from to the laser chip (no idea how). After bending it back it still works.


Is your soldering gun the big powerfull type with a weird U shaped "tip", that warms up in just a second or two? That is way too powerfull and clumsy for fine electronics. In that case you should consider buying a cheap soldering iron with a fine tip.

 

[bob12345]

Yeah I need a decent fine-tipped thing. I used to have the monstrous type but it broke (thankfully without running 200W through my body). In this case however, I was using a uh... red hot phillips screwdriver. It works great for those jobs where nothing sensitive is around but I learn my lesson. Still, I did use it to repair a fair few things. Oh, I also broke the push button switch on the driver off with the solder gun (melted solder, would not move, so I just melted the button off).


Can't wait for the uh, 5 models hopefully on their way.

 

[Benm]

But then i thought "What do i need four for?"

I reckon you could easily resell them with a decent profit... at least to people not familiar with our friendly hong kong based suppliers

 

[IgorT]

Yeah, but then i would also want to include a rechargable cell and a charger. And, i would want to convert them to current regulation before selling them, in which case they would actually be worth the extra price..

In my country it is impossible to buy lasers at all (except some <1mW red pointers for 20-40 Euro). So it might actually be worth it. Why not. This one is a quality product after some minor modifications.


The parts for my LPM finaly arrived! Well, the thermopile is stuck at the customs, but i should get it the day after tomorrow.

I want to measure them all before doing any modifications, so i don't make them worse in the end.



BTW: Benm.. I still don't understand the currents you measured with a 3.6V Li-Po. I have three different versions of this laser and they all have exactly the same current with a 3V Li-something cell - 320mA when full.

I asked Kaidomain, if i could get the blue 3.6V CR2s as well, but they say they don't have them, and that they never did. Maybe they accidentaly received the wrong ones at one time. I ended up buying them at more than double the price of the 3V ones, but i need them, so i didn't have a choice...

These are the ones i bought: http://www.newexcite.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=70

Do yours look like that?


EDIT: Do not use the above NewExcite link. They don't reply to any of my e-mails, and i don't know if i'll ever receive my batteries.

 

[Benm]

I still don't understand the currents you measured with a 3.6V Li-Po. I have three different versions of this laser and they all have exactly the same current with a 3V Li-something cell - 320mA when full.

It's just what i measured.. the old one takes 300 mA, the new one 320 mA. This could be a change between models, but also just tolerance - i have only 2 units here and no way to tell.

The batteries look -like- that, but are not stamped ultrafire or any other brand. I am sure they came from kaidomain (http://www.kaidomain.com/WEBUI/ProductDetail.aspx?TranID=1259) at the time though, so i wonder what the story is there. The pictures show green ultrafires, i got blue unbranded ones, but at least they work as expected.

I also ordered http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.932 - i'll measure the actual voltage once i've picked them up from the post office. If they are 3.0 or 3.3 i'll just use them for the 200 mW red.

 

[IgorT]

The DX CR2s are what i use in my KD50s.

Those actually are 3V batteries. I charge them on my own charger set to cut off at 3.7V and  they work nicely.
With these i measured a peak of 380mA, stabilizing at 320ma. Let me know, what current you measure, once you test them in this laser..

If i were to use a 3.6V Li-Po, i would probably get 420mA average, like Knimrod. But i don't want to try.

 

[Benm]

I've experimented a bit with the "3.0v" ultrafire batteries (the green ones) from DX. Some voltages with them working in KD50's (i tested 2 t the same time, results nearly identical):

- Fresh off the charger when it says charge complete: 4.05 volts
- After standing for an hour or so: 3.5 volts
- After powering the KD50 continously for 10 minutes: 3.4 volts (out of circuit)
- After another 20 mins of continous operation (30 min total): 3.25 volts (out of circuit)
- I also did an in-circuit measurement at the end of 30 minutes: 3.05 volts.

Output already dropped a bit within the first 10 minutes, perhaps just to warming up the laser. I'll do some more in-circuit measurements to figure that one out. But even after 30 minutes on time (except for a minute to take the battery out for measurement) the light output was still very useful (i'd say around 20 mW).

I also ordered 2 3.6v ultrafire CR2s from ebay ($8.5 shipped, http://cgi.ebay.com/UltraFire-15266...1038962QQihZ006QQcategoryZ40975QQcmdZViewItem), i'll see if they perform any better when they get here.

I think i'll keep the 3.0v's for the 200 mW red, as that doenst have any use for the extra voltage.