My experience with Sanwu

[diachi]

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It's more turquoise than blue in person. Also, it's not stated on their website but the inside of the honeycomb-style head accessory is threaded, with the same size threads as the un-accessorized laser head module. This means you can thread on a diffraction grating/kaleidoscope accessory, like this one I have laying around from an old DX laser.
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Has a sonic screwdriver look to it, eh? I can only imagine what it would look like in a fog-machined room, with the little "chamber" of the honeycomb head housing a 1cm bit of beam between the aperture and the diffraction bit.
Here's some bonus of the pocket 520nm which has a scandalously bright beam that is perfectly round at the aperture.
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Also, should have put this in the first review but I got absorbed in writing about the stellar customer service; the collimating lens is set uncannily perfectly within the head module of the laser. You can partially unscrew the lens part of it to focus the laser for burning, but it's worth noting that the precision with which the lens was set in the laser is perfect. When the threads are all tight, you can trust that the beam is collimated to absolute infinity. It's been over two months since I originally bought these lasers and I'm still blown away by how they just scream quality. Sorry, I can't stop gushing about these things.

488 is a blue/cyan that sometimes looks a little green, real nice wavelength. Varies depending on what you compare it to, looks very blue next to 532, looks quite green next to 445. One of my favourites. You'll fall in love with gas lasers if you like 488nm and ever see a multi-line argon laser in person.

Had good experiences with Sanwu myself, good to see more positive reviews.

You are very lucky. I have yet to see a direct diode 520nm laser that has a round beam. Like all multi mode diodes they have a rectangular beam. But, even the much lower power single mode diodes have a square to rectangular beam too.

Not quite rectangular on the single modes, but certainly not circular. Beam out of a 3W Kvant projector running 520 green is real nice, a little beam correction makes a world of difference. All diode RGB with matching beam specs results in an impressive PJ, blew a cheap 5-6W TTL projector with DPSS 532 out of the water. Looked way brighter and sharper even though it was doing 2-3W less.

 

[AdamWiddow]

The laser you ordered isn't a 304, AKA 303 host. It's a generic Thor M.2 host 3W version. It takes two 16340 batteries and it will look like this:
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Looks cool, But on the website it was under the 304 body page.

As long as its good quality ill be happy.

 

[paul1598419]

Those Thor hosts are carried by many Chinese sellers. I have a Thor H2 from Laser pointer stores that I got some time ago. That particular one uses two 26650 batteries, so it is a much larger host than the M.

 

[Snecho]

Looks cool, But on the website it was under the 304 body page.

As long as its good quality ill be happy.

It may be under the 304 body page but that is because the site isn't made for the low end lasers. When you click on the version you want on that page from the drop down box, the image will update to the actual one you are buying.

Can't wait for the results and testing when you get it. Cheers!

 

[hakzaw1]

Are you well informed about duty/rest cycling? Often the cause of 'early' laser death,
My general 'rule' is STOP and rest if the host feels very warm-- as inside it will be hot not warm.
Some like to do equal times for both but erring on the side of safety and lifetime of your lasers is smart.. so own many and you can rest one while using another.... hak

 

[Snecho]

Are you well informed about duty/rest cycling? Often the cause of 'early' laser death,
My general 'rule' is STOP and rest if the host feels very warm-- as inside it will be hot not warm.
Some like to do equal times for both but erring on the side of safety and lifetime of your lasers is smart.. so own many and you can rest one while using another.... hak

Whatever the run time is, the cooldown cycle should be double at least. Good general rule of thumb me thinks.

 

[Mumbly]

Hello.
I have this "304" 3 W 445 nm Laser from Sanwu since January an I e-mailed Francis/Podo to know the duty cycle with this.
He answered he recommends one minute on & 90 seconds off.
Hope this helps.