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Wow.
Okay, so here's the long and short of it - I got this from a guy in Canada - He was selling on eBay and was ONLY shipping to Canada. I figured, might as well. If it's even close to 400mW, and I get it for around $250, it's a steal.
Well, I got it for $260, and it arrived today.
The only reason I mentioned Rayfoss is because he's the only person I've found that has this specific style. o-like is CLOSE but there are some differences.
(Here is the version that Rayfoss has here)
Anyway, here's where I start the review.
This laser came in a very pretty package. It's very soft padded rubber material, and has a magnetic clasp like a lot of the laser packages come in.
The inside says "Laser Pointer" in a gold font. It MUST be high quality! lol
What an understatement... "pointer". Not exactly.
Anyway, I digress.
Let me throw in a couple of end-cap shots:
Okay. So a couple things to note: The end cap doesn't gracefully go on. The threads are fine, just no lube or grease of ANY kind at all. It's very much metal on metal, but that's actually a pretty easy fix.
The end cap supports both protected and unprotected cells, and both fit without any movement. This laser DOES take the 18650 cells.
Also noteworthy: The key. The key is a real key and if you have a similar key that doesn't have the same tumbler configuration, it won't unlock. This is the first laser I've had that actually does this RIGHT. Even my Sky-lasers has a generic O-Key.
This laser, instead of having a dead-man's switch or pulley, this is more of a pin instead.
I'll show the actual pin hole shortly, but for now some comparison pics.
This is the whole laser. it's HUGE. It's no hulk, but it's larger than the other PLC styles I've seen.
This is my Sky-Lasers greenie vs the... umm... no-name Chinese laser? I don't know exactly what to call it yet. My eBay laser I suppose.
And in case anyone's interested... a little ruler action:
Just for a comparison of actual size, in case you don't have a PLC style, here's a pretty standard pen-style host to compare with.
Now something that's "backwards" for me about this laser is that the light around the button (which is a toggle, not momentary button) is ON when the laser is OFF. Maybe it's just me, but I would have expected it to be the other way around.
I guess the idea is that "If you're playing with it in the dark, you need to know where the button is"
*shrugs*
Anyway, carrying along:
Oh, I have to be careful to not take this apart. Could void the warranty!
Something else I noted about the heatsync here is that it has air holes! There's no fan or active circulation system, but they're there. The laser gets hot anyway if you leave it on for more than 1 to 1 1/2 minutes at a time.
Here's that pin hole for the dead-man's switch:
Here's the output side of things. I do take this thing apart in the next few pictures, but this is more of a "so you have a good idea" of what's going on here.
The head is "focusable" but how they implement the focusing mechanism is really a pain in the butt. it's not smart nor smooth in that you can lock the focal point in place easily. It's really quite clumsy where you have to loosen the top part, focus and then when you re-tighten the top part, it'll throw off the focal length so you have to do it all again... It's not fun/convenient. I've left it set for focus to infinity, and because it actually burns stuff without the need for focusing... That's where I leave it.
This is the outer head itself taken off the laser. This is also doubling as the "lock" that holds the focal part in place.
This is the focusing lens with rotating thread system. Anyone who's seen the cheaper flashlight looking style lasers from PriceAngels, Deal Extreme or similar already know how this works.
The focal lens section separates into 3 parts.
Left is the lens housing, middle is the bridge thread assembly (yes, I'm making these up as I go along, humor me here lol) and the right is the focusing ring.
As we start to dive deeper into the laser here, we get to the crystal assembly/collimating lens.
When I take the housing off for that, we finally see the heatsink, complete crystal assembly as well as the diode itself. It looks like a variation of a C-Mount diode, though I've never quite seen anything like it before.
I did my best to get some close-ups.
It looks like I might be having the laser lasing right now, but it's actually just the blue reflection off of my keyboard on my laptop.
So here's a very quick shot of the dot against my blinds here.
Well, being a cheaper laser from China *I'm assuming here* I can ONLY assume there is no IR filter. I mean, when I disassembled, I didn't see any along the way, and in no way did I turn on the laser with it taken apart.
I can be daft, but I'm not a complete moron.
I'll get to some beam shots later. What I wanted to point out first was this:
Yes - that is a little eclipse of IR right there. It started to burn the glasses I was using to filter out the green, but it really bothers me that there is *THAT* much IR floating around. I do have IR filters that are on their way, and I will **DEFINITELY** be putting them in on this laser. It's simply not safe, even with 532nm goggles. (They don't block IR, and even if it's not "much", it's still there)
That all being said, I did to some beam shots compared to my 200mW Sky-lasers shown above.
The beam on this thing is TIGHT. The divergence isn't as good as my Sky-lasers, or my ItemQuickShip, however I think part of the issue is the stupid focusing assembly. It's so hard to get it "right" that I could be off simply because my manual dexterity isn't what it needs to be for aligning this laser.
The eBay laser is the one on the right. ^^
Oh well. Some more pics are in order
eBay on the left ^^
eBay on the left ^^
Overall not too bad. I have a couple of videos and there's another weird nuance that doesn't make sense to me.
The shutter isn't an "Open/Close" shutter. It's an "Close/Open/Close" shutter. You have to turn the shutter part way in the middle to get it to open. Once open, it doesn't really close by itself, but it's bizarre.
Here's a video showing what I mean:
Odd huh?
Well, onto some burning vids.
This is WITHOUT focusing *I hate focusing this thing*
I think the match would have lit faster if I weren't moving it around so much, and I also wonder how much IR is responsible for causing it to light as well... But I'll do some comparisons I think when I get my IR filter put in.
I want to do a variation of the "balloon death valley" to see how far away this will pop balloons, but again only after an IR filter is added.
Overall here's what I'll say:
The build quality is acceptable. It's missing some finishing touches like the grease that makes the endcap or shutter turn smoothly.
The focusing ring doesn't make sense to me. It's not really a locking system... but is capable of being focused... I dunno. It's not intuitive/executed well.
The button that is ON when the laser is OFF is also counterintuitive to me. I would suspect it be the other way around but I guess I see why they did it that way.
The host itself is very solid, very large and fits well in the hand. I figure if I were ever attacked, and the battery ran out, it would be a fantastic club.
I REALLY like that the tailcap is an actual KEY and not just some substitute pretend excuse for a safety mechanism.
The thing is BRIGHT. It's far brighter than my 200mW greenie, and I'm not just talking about the beam being tight either. The entire laser itself is very bright, including the beam. It also burns without needing focusing.
The IR is a problem though. It's VERY prominent, and you can actually see dull RED with the safety glasses on when the laser is being pointed in your general direction. As soon as I realized what I was looking at, I immediately turned away and turned the laser off and haven't used it since. I was over 20 feet away when I saw it, and I also was at quite an angle compared to the laser beam itself, (over 15 degrees outside the beam) so I'm hoping that it was just a reflection off of the inside of the housing from the diode itself.
At any rate, this thing is getting an IR filter before I use it again.
Also, when I get a LPM, this will definitely be getting metered and I'll update this thread. I'm extremely doubtful that it's 700mW however based on other lasers I've seen that are 400-500mW, this seems to fall into a very close range to other 400-500mW lasers I've seen.
Anyway, please feel free to ask questions, I'd be more than happy to answer whatever questions I can
**EDIT**
After a few people read the review, they were nice enough to point me in the direction to show where this laser ACTUALLY originated from:
BOBLASER--Green laser pen,Green laser pointer,Blue laser pointer,Red laser pointer
It's actually a boblaser.com laser.
And it's a hunk of junk as far as I'm concerned... There's a HUGE amount of IR leakage, the power of the laser itself is fluctuating a LOT (I have suspicions as to why, though it's still pretty powerful in it's own right)
We'll see how things go.
Okay, so here's the long and short of it - I got this from a guy in Canada - He was selling on eBay and was ONLY shipping to Canada. I figured, might as well. If it's even close to 400mW, and I get it for around $250, it's a steal.
Well, I got it for $260, and it arrived today.
The only reason I mentioned Rayfoss is because he's the only person I've found that has this specific style. o-like is CLOSE but there are some differences.
(Here is the version that Rayfoss has here)
Anyway, here's where I start the review.
This laser came in a very pretty package. It's very soft padded rubber material, and has a magnetic clasp like a lot of the laser packages come in.
The inside says "Laser Pointer" in a gold font. It MUST be high quality! lol
What an understatement... "pointer". Not exactly.
Anyway, I digress.
Let me throw in a couple of end-cap shots:
Okay. So a couple things to note: The end cap doesn't gracefully go on. The threads are fine, just no lube or grease of ANY kind at all. It's very much metal on metal, but that's actually a pretty easy fix.
The end cap supports both protected and unprotected cells, and both fit without any movement. This laser DOES take the 18650 cells.
Also noteworthy: The key. The key is a real key and if you have a similar key that doesn't have the same tumbler configuration, it won't unlock. This is the first laser I've had that actually does this RIGHT. Even my Sky-lasers has a generic O-Key.
This laser, instead of having a dead-man's switch or pulley, this is more of a pin instead.
I'll show the actual pin hole shortly, but for now some comparison pics.
This is the whole laser. it's HUGE. It's no hulk, but it's larger than the other PLC styles I've seen.
This is my Sky-Lasers greenie vs the... umm... no-name Chinese laser? I don't know exactly what to call it yet. My eBay laser I suppose.
And in case anyone's interested... a little ruler action:
Just for a comparison of actual size, in case you don't have a PLC style, here's a pretty standard pen-style host to compare with.
Now something that's "backwards" for me about this laser is that the light around the button (which is a toggle, not momentary button) is ON when the laser is OFF. Maybe it's just me, but I would have expected it to be the other way around.
I guess the idea is that "If you're playing with it in the dark, you need to know where the button is"
*shrugs*
Anyway, carrying along:
Oh, I have to be careful to not take this apart. Could void the warranty!
Something else I noted about the heatsync here is that it has air holes! There's no fan or active circulation system, but they're there. The laser gets hot anyway if you leave it on for more than 1 to 1 1/2 minutes at a time.
Here's that pin hole for the dead-man's switch:
Here's the output side of things. I do take this thing apart in the next few pictures, but this is more of a "so you have a good idea" of what's going on here.
The head is "focusable" but how they implement the focusing mechanism is really a pain in the butt. it's not smart nor smooth in that you can lock the focal point in place easily. It's really quite clumsy where you have to loosen the top part, focus and then when you re-tighten the top part, it'll throw off the focal length so you have to do it all again... It's not fun/convenient. I've left it set for focus to infinity, and because it actually burns stuff without the need for focusing... That's where I leave it.
This is the outer head itself taken off the laser. This is also doubling as the "lock" that holds the focal part in place.
This is the focusing lens with rotating thread system. Anyone who's seen the cheaper flashlight looking style lasers from PriceAngels, Deal Extreme or similar already know how this works.
The focal lens section separates into 3 parts.
Left is the lens housing, middle is the bridge thread assembly (yes, I'm making these up as I go along, humor me here lol) and the right is the focusing ring.
As we start to dive deeper into the laser here, we get to the crystal assembly/collimating lens.
When I take the housing off for that, we finally see the heatsink, complete crystal assembly as well as the diode itself. It looks like a variation of a C-Mount diode, though I've never quite seen anything like it before.
I did my best to get some close-ups.
It looks like I might be having the laser lasing right now, but it's actually just the blue reflection off of my keyboard on my laptop.
So here's a very quick shot of the dot against my blinds here.
Well, being a cheaper laser from China *I'm assuming here* I can ONLY assume there is no IR filter. I mean, when I disassembled, I didn't see any along the way, and in no way did I turn on the laser with it taken apart.
I can be daft, but I'm not a complete moron.
I'll get to some beam shots later. What I wanted to point out first was this:
Yes - that is a little eclipse of IR right there. It started to burn the glasses I was using to filter out the green, but it really bothers me that there is *THAT* much IR floating around. I do have IR filters that are on their way, and I will **DEFINITELY** be putting them in on this laser. It's simply not safe, even with 532nm goggles. (They don't block IR, and even if it's not "much", it's still there)
That all being said, I did to some beam shots compared to my 200mW Sky-lasers shown above.
The beam on this thing is TIGHT. The divergence isn't as good as my Sky-lasers, or my ItemQuickShip, however I think part of the issue is the stupid focusing assembly. It's so hard to get it "right" that I could be off simply because my manual dexterity isn't what it needs to be for aligning this laser.
The eBay laser is the one on the right. ^^
Oh well. Some more pics are in order
eBay on the left ^^
eBay on the left ^^
Overall not too bad. I have a couple of videos and there's another weird nuance that doesn't make sense to me.
The shutter isn't an "Open/Close" shutter. It's an "Close/Open/Close" shutter. You have to turn the shutter part way in the middle to get it to open. Once open, it doesn't really close by itself, but it's bizarre.
Here's a video showing what I mean:
Odd huh?
Well, onto some burning vids.
This is WITHOUT focusing *I hate focusing this thing*
I think the match would have lit faster if I weren't moving it around so much, and I also wonder how much IR is responsible for causing it to light as well... But I'll do some comparisons I think when I get my IR filter put in.
I want to do a variation of the "balloon death valley" to see how far away this will pop balloons, but again only after an IR filter is added.
Overall here's what I'll say:
The build quality is acceptable. It's missing some finishing touches like the grease that makes the endcap or shutter turn smoothly.
The focusing ring doesn't make sense to me. It's not really a locking system... but is capable of being focused... I dunno. It's not intuitive/executed well.
The button that is ON when the laser is OFF is also counterintuitive to me. I would suspect it be the other way around but I guess I see why they did it that way.
The host itself is very solid, very large and fits well in the hand. I figure if I were ever attacked, and the battery ran out, it would be a fantastic club.
I REALLY like that the tailcap is an actual KEY and not just some substitute pretend excuse for a safety mechanism.
The thing is BRIGHT. It's far brighter than my 200mW greenie, and I'm not just talking about the beam being tight either. The entire laser itself is very bright, including the beam. It also burns without needing focusing.
The IR is a problem though. It's VERY prominent, and you can actually see dull RED with the safety glasses on when the laser is being pointed in your general direction. As soon as I realized what I was looking at, I immediately turned away and turned the laser off and haven't used it since. I was over 20 feet away when I saw it, and I also was at quite an angle compared to the laser beam itself, (over 15 degrees outside the beam) so I'm hoping that it was just a reflection off of the inside of the housing from the diode itself.
At any rate, this thing is getting an IR filter before I use it again.
Also, when I get a LPM, this will definitely be getting metered and I'll update this thread. I'm extremely doubtful that it's 700mW however based on other lasers I've seen that are 400-500mW, this seems to fall into a very close range to other 400-500mW lasers I've seen.
Anyway, please feel free to ask questions, I'd be more than happy to answer whatever questions I can
**EDIT**
After a few people read the review, they were nice enough to point me in the direction to show where this laser ACTUALLY originated from:
BOBLASER--Green laser pen,Green laser pointer,Blue laser pointer,Red laser pointer
It's actually a boblaser.com laser.
And it's a hunk of junk as far as I'm concerned... There's a HUGE amount of IR leakage, the power of the laser itself is fluctuating a LOT (I have suspicions as to why, though it's still pretty powerful in it's own right)
We'll see how things go.
Last edited:
