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FrozenGate by Avery

Need help buying my first laser!

Wow thank you so much everyone that gave me all this information!
Pretty much every single thing I ever questioned was answered!
It seems like everyone is recommending a Pocket Series laser from Sanwu. I feel very comfortable purchasing from Sanwu now is it is what I am strongly considering now.
The Challenger II is still extremely tempting to me... Oh, and here's the thing now. I got my friend to pay me back some money he owed me and I decided to add it directly to my laser budget. So I feel comfortable spending $210 on a Challenger II with Expedited Shipping now.

I understand that 3W is a hell of a lot of power in the hands of somebody like me with it being my first laser and all, but i'm going to select the Multi on the Mode option so that I can have a low power setting so I can use it inside and outdoors when just shining it around. When I wanna burn stuff i'll set it on the high power setting. Does that sound good?
As I post this i'm going to go ahead and order my Challenger II!

Now for that Green Laser around $20 - $30, anyone have any suggestions?

OH, also some nice protective glasses? Or would any old pair of laser protective glasses work?
 





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Eagle pair are good. I ended up spending a lot on a pair of certified OD7 glasses when I probably didn't need to. Don't even think regular civvies can get hold of lasers which require more than OD 3 or 4 to be eye safe anyway.
 
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If you play will unfiltered greenies, the eagle pair that also has 800-2000nm might be a good choice for $59.99
 
Klawsome said:
Wow thank you so much everyone that gave me all this information!
Pretty much every single thing I ever questioned was answered!
It seems like everyone is recommending a Pocket Series laser from Sanwu. I feel very comfortable purchasing from Sanwu now is it is what I am strongly considering now.
The Challenger II is still extremely tempting to me... Oh, and here's the thing now. I got my friend to pay me back some money he owed me and I decided to add it directly to my laser budget. So I feel comfortable spending $210 on a Challenger II with Expedited Shipping now.

I understand that 3W is a hell of a lot of power in the hands of somebody like me with it being my first laser and all, but i'm going to select the Multi on the Mode option so that I can have a low power setting so I can use it inside and outdoors when just shining it around. When I wanna burn stuff i'll set it on the high power setting. Does that sound good?
As I post this i'm going to go ahead and order my Challenger II!

Now for that Green Laser around $20 - $30, anyone have any suggestions?

OH, also some nice protective glasses? Or would any old pair of laser protective glasses work?
Click to expand...
Sanwu pointer. 80mw of 532nm. They are great.
 
A Sanwu Challenger 2 , Nice! Can't go wrong with a Sanwu!:drool:
 
You've gotten generally good information here except for the following. This is not correct.

Jhop said:
...Single vs Multimode: Single mode means you click button, laser turns on, its full power. Click again and its off. Multimode means every click puts the laser in a different setting: low power, high power, flashing, safety ect. I personally prefer single mode...
Click to expand...

Single vs multi mode does not refer to user switchable variable power output of the laser but rather it refers to how the laser is formed. There is a discussion of laser modes in this thread below. It's complex and may require several readings to grasp the concept if you're not familiar with laser diode construction.

http://laserpointerforums.com/f54/single-mode-multi-mode-laser-diodes-53695.html

In simplest terms, a singlemode laser tends to put out a nice round dot while a multimode laser's output tends to be more of a rectangular bar. The following illustration shows a singlemode laser in the upper left corner of the picture (00). All the others are multimode.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hermite-gaussian.png

Ed
 
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CoherentRays said:
You've gotten generally good information here except for the following. This is not correct.



Single vs multi mode does not refer to user switchable variable power output of the laser but rather it refers to how the laser is formed. There is a discussion of laser modes in this thread below. It's complex and may require several readings to grasp the concept if you're not familiar with laser diode construction.

http://laserpointerforums.com/f54/single-mode-multi-mode-laser-diodes-53695.html

In simplest terms, a singlemode laser tends to put out a nice round dot while a multimode laser's output tends to be more of a rectangular bar. The following illustration shows a singlemode laser in the upper left corner of the picture (00). All the others are multimode.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hermite-gaussian.png

Ed
Click to expand...
I believe the single vs multi is in regards to Sanwu's driver functions. But what you posted is valuable info for a newcomer as well.
 
CurtisOliver said:
CoherentRays, whilst what you are saying is true, they are on about single/multimode drivers. :)
Click to expand...

Ahhh...gotta read more carefully. Thanks for the correction.

It's confusing when that term is used for both the driver and the diode.

Ed
 
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No problem :) I nearly done that once on another thread. The knowledge was good for others to know anyway.
 
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