New FOCUSABLE 200mW Red on DX

[Crossfire]

It might have a fairly fat beam. I was impressed that it could ignite a match unaided at all.

 

[Razako]

here is someone else's review on DX
"Have had mine for a day to play and have just posted a review but can answer some of the points I see in earlier threads...

Power:
(1) I measured the board drawing 240ma @5.9V so ~1400mw in, I don't think it is all lost as heat, the circuit has 20 odd components (including a pot to fiddle with) so I guess the diode is getting lots of power...
(2) I compared the output to my homebuilt burner with a Sony SLD 1239JL-54 cranked up to 180 ma diodeinto the diode (it is rated at 1.25mw per mA)which rates at 220mw output and this is one is similar. Unfocused spot at a distance is very similar (mine has Azix Lens).
(3) Match lighting ability much the same, needs to be focused accurately, easy up to 4 feet with a brown match. Further needs a rock steady hand and good eyes to focus the beam, eventually the spot size is to big...
(4) Lens is coated and gives better spot than std Azix, tried swapping them.
... so I think 200mW is realistic.

Visability:
It looks just like my 650nm lasers, not much of a beam to see.

The diode:
Unfortunately the circuit board is potted to the diode so to inspect risks broken toy but
(1) all 3 connections are soldered so perhaps optical feedback is used.
(2) The diode can looks a little taller than most I have seen would love to know the spec. Has a window, not open can.

Infrared:
This is only really an issue with greenies where the green is derived from an infrared diode so without a filter stray IR will always be present. I don't know of a 650nm diode that gives out IR too.

Batteries:
I guess with the regulator circuit an extra volt going in will not boost the output. If it does I am sure this would be overdriving, there is a lot of power going in already.

To buy or not:

At the price it is a no brainer, nothing else is close.

If you are looking for a top quality build, this has some way to go but it would surely have to cost more... if not tell me where to go look!

I ordered some more, at this price it is not much more than the component cost, if I knew the diode spec for sure (is it rated 200ma continuous??) it may be even better value. People pay $30 to get a dvd rewriter to extract the diode only and risk breaking it.

Warranty:
If the 1yr warranty - no restriction on cycle time remember - is followed then that has to be outstanding for any high output laser. Also it may imply that they are driving the diode within spec, best of all with feedback control..."

 

[Switch]

it is rated at 1.25mw per mA

Huh, what? :-?

Oh, and that guy's other video still sucks :

 

[CL_]

Cool, That is a very informative review. I am glad to see that it likely outputs 200mw or greater. I am sure that more great reviews are soon to come as people on this forum get theirs.

 

[Curiously_Coherent]

hehehe ;D teh Dilda-lazor... LOL

Finally got tracking for mine today, so time will tell... That review looks promising though.

Cheers, CC

 

[Switch]

Cool, That is a very informative review. I am glad to see that it likely outputs 200mw or greater. I am sure that more great reviews are soon to come as people on this forum get theirs.

Yea, great review...and what about that diode rated at 1.25mW per mA? That's seems to be a pretty sweet diode. 220mW at 180mA : It's funny how people have to overdrive the cr@p out of a SONY 16x diode to get 220mW : It looks like he doesn't have testing equipment and doesn't know what he's on about , if you ask me :-/ If the dilda-lazor compares to a sony 16x diode at 180mA it has significantly less power that 200mW, IMO

220mW at 180mA....and what? 6 Volts?

 

[iewed]

Bah, I was planning on buying a 10mW 405nm laser for $80, but now I'm tempted to buy this and a pair of safety goggles. I'm going to wait to read some more reviews, if this thin is over 150mW in power I'll probably buy it.

 

[drlava]

yeah his math/logic doesn't add up. :-? The 1.25mW/mA rating is pulsed only, CW it's about 1.1 and that's when you take into account the lasing threshold. so at 180mA with a lasing threshold of say 50mA, (180-50)*1.1 = 143mW. He says this laser is similar, so you're looking at about 150mW according to the reivew comparison.

 

[Benm]

Well, the 240 mA reading is interesting. The regulating circuit isnt likely to use more than a few mA itself, so it'd be safe to assume the diode is seeing well over 200 mA.

If that 200 mA is survivable for any length of time for the diode, i'd say it must be a 16x diode at least. Since there is some kind of warrantee i reckon the manufacturer must be faily confident that it will last for a while.

All in all i'd think this laser is likely to be very comparable to a homebrew based on an aixiz module and the GB 16x laser diode. It's probably a bit short of 200 mW, but then again, if it reliably delivers 150 mW or so, it's not half bad for the $55 price tag.

 

[Odicforce]

Hi, I'm new to this forum and it was my notes in the discussion thread at DX...
I did post a bit more info. in a review but DX did not put it up so I put up that bit quickly in the discussion thread, sorry about the garbling, it was not intended to mislead...
A bit more detail if it helps...
The diode I referred to in my homebuilt had a threshold of about 45 ma when driven by a HP lab PSU. - When I first got a few of these diodes ( freebies a mate gave me from a trade show) I ran one in a heatsink improvised from a aluminium block sitting in a Peltier cooled DNA cycler, set at 15C, until I got scared to crank the current up any more and recorded a rough current voltage curve up to 250 ma at 3.0V. In the homebuilt I referred to ( for this quick test only) I used a DX driver SKU 10084 in the low mode which I think I measured as giving me about 215ma from 2x nimh. and 228ma from Duracell - I don't have any real kit at home and quickly wanted to get as close as I could to the output of the DX intensity - So I was guessing the diode got about 180ma max. Then whoops, I took the wrong figure from the Sony datasheet :-[ of 1.25mW/mA which I now see is the max figure :-[ But... I did measure the DX laser as taking 210ma draw on the 2xCR2 batteries so a lot of power is going somewhere - quite a lot more than my homebuilt!

 

[Odicforce]

Typo in the above - replacing the switch in the DX with a multimeter gives 242 to 245ma with my primary CR-2 NOT the 210ma I typed above!

 

[drlava]

Hi Odic, welcome, and thanks for posting! soon some of the members who have laser meters here will receive their lasers and measure the output, so we will know for sure.

Does the driver you mention pulse the laser rapidly in medium mode, or is it CW? Rmember to factor in the lasing threshold when you approximate the power output based on current and optical gain.

I hope you like it here!

 

[Grn_n_TX]

Today my tracking said:
Destination - United States of America
The item left Hong Kong for its destination on 12-Mar-2008
so maybe mid or latter part of next week?

 

[iewed]

Probably next Saturday/Monday. I'm assuming by your name that your in Texas (as am I), I had a laser ship from Hong Kong on the 8th, and it hasn't arrived yet (13th).

 

[BlueFusion]

I happen to have seen the original wholesaler for these... they are rated <140mw... somehow at 100mA... ;D

DX rebadges them I think, and overrates them.

 

[john_lawson]

who cares 140 mW 53 dollars i ordered 2 if its nice I'll get 2 more



got mine in kinda cheap feeling end adjustment cap loose threads overall great unit I am very happy I do recommend this fgor fifty bucks great buy