New green pointer laser noob

[Jay Does]

Hello all
I need to be able to hold the top and bottom of my laser casing together. If I can I’ll post a pic it is a strong, infinity green laser light and I love it.

The spring action to hold the batteries in tight and having it loose in my bag caused the thin aluminum? threads to wear out.

In the pic I have electrical taped over one side trying to hold it together but no go. I had the threads refitted once already. I would hate to rehouse this casing and lose use of it’s brilliant green because I don’t know what I’m doing.

Also near the end of it’s functioning well as a whole piece, the batteries were draining so that two Duracell AAAs would only work one time.

Can you help please?

 

[Lifetime17]

Hi,
Those look like 532nm Chinese pointers. If the issue is that bad just simply get another one , they sell for a cheap price 5 to 8 bucks on line.

Rich

 

[smallfreak]

If you have bought the pointer some years ago, as the wear might suggest, you probably paid a fortune for it - as I did. But today these things are shamelessly cheap, so any attempt to fix it is not worth the hassle. It‘s probably cheaper to get a complete new one, than to get a spare case to fit the current module in. And even then, you might break something ripping the old one apart or re mounting the module into a new case, if you have not done this before.

You get the better chances to buy a new one for small money on eBay. Look out for 301 / 303 style pointers with battery and charger. They have quite a sturdy case. Build quality is „cheap“ but usually sufficient, unless you have special requirements.

They are advertized as legal <5mW but indeed they are all class 3 Lasers with about 50 to 80 mW, so be careful when using them! Keep them off children.

 

[Jay Does]

Hi,
Those look like 532nm Chinese pointers. If the issue is that bad just simply get another one , they sell for a cheap price 5 to 8 bucks on line.

Rich

Ah ok. I paid a lot more so good to know. Thanks.

 

[Jay Does]

If you have bought the pointer some years ago, as the wear might suggest, you probably paid a fortune for it - as I did. But today these things are shamelessly cheap, so any attempt to fix it is not worth the hassle. It‘s probably cheaper to get a complete new one, than to get a spare case to fit the current module in. And even then, you might break something ripping the old one apart or re mounting the module into a new case, if you have not done this before.

You get the better chances to buy a new one for small money on eBay. Look out for 301 / 303 style pointers with battery and charger. They have quite a sturdy case. Build quality is „cheap“ but usually sufficient, unless you have special requirements.

They are advertized as legal <5mW but indeed they are all class 3 Lasers with about 50 to 80 mW, so be careful when using them! Keep them off children.

Thank you so much for all the information, SmallFreak.
I did pay over $100 for it.
What do you do with your lasers?

J.D.

 

[Encap]

Those pen types lasers are $2 to $5 on eBay-- you can get 3 of them in different wavelengths at Laser pointer store for $7.50 --click on the LPS advert link at top of page

 

[paul1598419]

I was going to say, that looks like it takes AAA batteries making it one of the least expensive lasers on eBay. Like Encap said, they are as little as $2.00 each up to $5.00, but you shouldn't pay more than that as they are mass produced and there aren't better ones out there for more money.

 

[smallfreak]

What do you do with your lasers?

I use it for astronomy classes. Pointing stars and constellations in the night sky. I recently found my precious dead due to spilled battery. But fortunately a suitable replacement now costs only a tiny fraction compared to what i did pay 10+ years ago.

Agreed, the cheap green (532nm) pointers lack some extras that were granted back then. They do not block residual IR radiation from the primary diode and YAG crystal and the power is „unregulated“. This may cut costs. And it leads to a less stable beam an added risk to your eyes, as you don‘t know how much IR passes your safety goggles without your knowledge. This is something to keep in mind when pointing around. The leaked IR might hit someone, even if the visible beam misses him, as the lens is built for the visual wavelenght and the invisible ray is more spread.

But there are people feeding snakes and scorpions and still survive this hobby. You just have to know which end to touch.

 

[paul1598419]

Do you and everyone around you use safety goggles when you are pointing at stars in the night sky? Seems like that would defeat the purpose of having a green laser for astronomy. If you are worried about the amount of IR coming from a 50 mW 532nm laser, I assure you it is less than 10 mW and is poorly collimated. This can be seen easily with a spectrometer.

 

[smallfreak]

Do you and everyone around you use safety goggles when you are pointing at stars in the night sky?

No certainly not. The advice to think about the IR that might pass otherwise safe „for green“ goggles or might hit someone „nearby“ is not directly related to my answer on what I do with my module, at least for what it was intended. If you know about it, you can handle it properly. Someone who bought such a pointer at a time when IR filters were common, might evenually rely on that, no matter how high or low the leakage actually is.

It may be low,
but you don‘t know,
so better err
on the safe side.

 

[hakzaw1]

to find out if your 532 green laser has an IR filter++
Shine it thru your green laser eye protection use a place FAR away from the center of your glasses.. Look at the dot with and without and if there is still a lot of beam going tru most of that will likely be a mix of 532 (that passed) and the IR. This can be done even easier with any LPM-- 1st see the numbers from your 532-- do that again with your glasses blocking -- since that should be very little 532 whatever passes and shows on your meter is the IR from the pump.

To get an idea of how much is leaked try reading the beam (with glasses)away from the center some.. IR spreads a lot and only if your are within the 'cone'of IR are eyes at risk....So the danger from IR is never very much w/ low power 532.. since to make that power the laser will have a lower power IR pump. ONLY DPSS lasers have IR pumps...the 'P' in DPSS is 'Pumped' 'SS' is Solid State....'D' is Diode.
There are others that are DPSS like Yellow, Orange and some blues.. these will likely never be really cheap ...the 532 , due to the HUGE amount of them being made/sold has become very low priced.. We all paid a lot.. long ago.. for 532. The better and more expensive 532 s will almost always be IR filtered..like JETLASERS lasers.

My very first JL was to be a 532/250mW and by mistake I got the IR/250mW and some buyer in London got my green PL-C.
I had been in the habit of opening laser packages while AT the PO just in case there was damage-- the PO employee makes a great 'witness'.
I contacted Gray at JL not knowing that this error would eventually have 'life-changing' efx on me. It was the beginning of a wonderful and exciting relationship between us.. Gray has treated me exceptionally well.. & I became the 'link' between JL and LPF. This allowed me to host many JL Group buys.. and that had a great effect on my relationship with dozens of members... I had to get a LPM in order to meter every laser ordered in these GBs and that meant I was going to handle many JLs --and test each one after a close inspection of the host.

Back to the PO.. I brought a fully charged 18650.. and opened the box to try it out... and was very unhappy seeing a very dim 'blob' of a spot on the far wall--I would say it was 'fist' size.. Then I looked at the label and saw it was NOT a 532 --instead a 250mW IR.
Gray was saddened about this even tho it was certainly no fault of his. He quickly DHL Expressed my 250 green .. The guy in LONDON changed his mind because he was very impressed.. so Gray sent him an IR and me a 532--arrived in about 72 hours.
I offered to buy or sell the IR for JL.
However our timing on this could not have been worse.. 'Kenon' somehow ended up with several IRs he got very cheap and was selling them at the Forums.. I let Gray know and he just told me to keep it!!!

I would guess we did >100 JLs via the GBs. AND ALL arrived fine & only one failed.. and I was bummed that it went to my new LPF 'bro' Jordan DTR--prolly the last member I wanted to let down.. It passed inspection here in Tx but soon failed for DTR-- I gave him the address to send back to me. Meanwhile Gray had sent another w/o needed to have the failed one back. The new one for DTR arrived BEFORE the failed one came back to me..go figure..
I learned that Gray & JL had an 'arrangement' with DHL- an 'in-house' shipping agent ( or something like that) Every box had 'DHL INSPECTED' yellow tape placed AFAIK before they were sent to DHL for shipping. Therefore none of the boxes were ever opened on their way to Texas. NONE.

There was one snafu somehow & someone at JL failed to add IR filters to their new 473nm DPSS Pl-C(?) At first we all thought we were getting hugely overspec blues..However that power reading was both IR and 473. Gray felt terrible about this.. and filters were sent to all ASAP I got like 4 of them!! (need one?) I would say the JL/Gray have s damn good record of happy buyers.
Gray got a promotion a while back-- found a place closer to work(IIRC he had to commute by train several hours every day)--and like many there he had NO CAR.
Then -- they had their baby girl come into their lives. Win Win Win or should I say Blessed Blessed Blessed..

btw JL has a sale going on for Xmas --5% discount. I too have one too- you get the 5% PLUS free shipping (a 38$usd value) if you buy any new JL that I have here in Tx 1W 520-& 3.5 and 4W 450 all Pro PL-E, all black. down to just one JL BE 10x in the silver grey 'color' on sale for 90$ and made to fit very well (threaded) on the Pro PL Es. I also have a few Eq series. -- ALL these are new and covered by the awesome JL warranty. AND a black Pro- Pl-E mini- w/ matching BE made for the Mini. BLue & iirc 473nm.

I also send MANY free 18650 batts (good pulls)... first buyers get a nice free camo nylon sheath for PL-Es.
I have military hard cases in three sizes- as good as any Pelican at a much lower price... (you puck-it foam inside)
ya'll have a great Xmas. len

 

[smallfreak]

to find out if your 532 green laser has an IR filter++
Shine it thru your green laser eye protection use a place FAR away from the center of your glasses.. Look at the dot with and without and if there is still a lot of beam going tru most of that will likely be a mix of 532 (that passed) and the IR. This can be done even easier with any LPM-- 1st see the numbers from your 532-- do that again with your glasses blocking -- since that should be very little 532 whatever passes and shows on your meter is the IR from the pump.

I still try to make sense on your suggestion. Do you suggest, anyone unsure about spilled IR from a cheap 532nm DPSS laser might easily check this with his LPM? I'm quite confident, that most buyers of such cheap pointers do not have access to an LPM.

"Watching the dot" from behind the safety goggles (on the back side of the goggles?) does not make much sense to me either. You certainly cannot "watch" the 1064nm unconverted light from the YAG by this method, as it is entirely invisible. Even the 808nm from the pump diode can hardly be glimpsed. Once you see even the faintest red, you better assume there is much of ist - you just don't be sensitive enough to this color. Both wavelength do not reveal themself by inducing visible fluorescence either.

Watching the dot of the full power green laser on any surface with goggles on on might not necessarely tell something about the contained IR, but probably something about the induced fluorescence by the bright green light. Wouldn't it?

I tried with my goggles. The spot (reflection on any surface) can be seen quite good with the goggles on. When I shine the beam through the goggles as a filter onto a white surface, that I watch without goggles - not the faintest trace of anything can be noticed. So I assume with the goggles on I am not really watching the residual power of the primary beam or the leaked IR, but rather the induced Fluorescence, which certainly is missing, when the green is blocked by the goggles. If it would be otherwise, the perceived brightness of the "passing light" might be comparable either way.



Thanks for sharing your Experience with JL. They seem to to it the right way.