New purchase! 95mw from DL and I have some ?s

[omniwing]

Hello forum!

I recently purchased the 95mw Viper from Dragon lasers. From what I read here, and as advertised, this should easily be able to light matches, but I have not been able to do so. However, the batteries I used were normal (non high output) triple As, and I got them out of a remote control, so they were partially used.

I have also noticed that that after about 2 days of a lot of use, the beam is a lot less bright than with "more fresh" batteries.

so my questions are these: Will the high output batteries made for digital cameras and such get my laser up to match-burning power? And if so, on good batteries, how much use can you get out of it before the power level starts to drop off to say, 90% or less of its max?

I wish the laser would output at 100% power until the batteries died, instead of operating at a lower power for a longer time as the batteries slowly die out!

Thanks!
-Ev

 

[omniwing]

Oh and also...

I don't have to remove any kind of filter on this thing for it to burn stuff, right?

Is there any kind of lens that you can use to amplify the burning power of lasers?

 

[Things]

replacing the batt's with new lithiums or related should boost power a bit, but having 100% output from a laser till the batt's die is impossible (as you should already know )

 

[omniwing]

thanks things!

Yes I know thats impossible, but I'm wondering,

lets say that my laser can only light matches at 90%+ output.... will that power level be for only the first 10% of my total battery life? I'm hoping with high power batteries, it will be closer to 50% of the batteries total life, or something along those lines.

-Omni

 

[Things]

if you decide to get rechargeables for the laser, get the highest milliamperage rating possible. but basically it depens on alot of things like temperature, battery power, colour of thing to burn. Actually, did you colour the tip of the match black?

 

[pseudonomen137]

The far more expensive energizer lithiums are made for that type of "high-drain" situation. Still though, you're talking about a 500mW pump diode that probably pulls in excess of 1.5Watts from the batteries, so even with liths, you're only going to be getting near full power for the first few minutes of use.

Perhaps you would want to try making your own external power supply, or just carry a lot of rechargeables around with you?

 

[Things]

oh, pseudonomen137 i posted at exactly the same time as you, you gave some good info. just one thing, have you coloured the match head black?

 

[omniwing]

Ah, yes, I indeed was thinking about getting rechargeables, and now I know what to look for
-milliamperage rating

(thank you very much thing!)

Regarding the maximum power only for the first few minutes, that is kind of unfortunate, but very expected.

I tried coloring the tip of the match black with a black marker, it was strike on box matches with a red tip. But as I said, these batteries came out of my remote for a TV, so they were far from fresh.

In any case, even when you can obviously tell the batteries are running low, its STILL pretty impressive outside at night. I think I am going to invest in very high power rechargables though, since I don't like the idea of limiting my laser fun time

Also, could you help direct me to external power supplies for this type of laser? (Dragonlasers Viper model, takes 2 Triple As)


Thank you for the info very much pseudonomen137 and things!

-Omniwing

 

[Things]

if it takes 2 AAA's, you need a 3 volt dc power supply. i don't have a viper (yet) so i don't know the configuration of the laser, but usually it's negative to the inside spring, and positive to the case. check first though, i don't want you blowing up your laser!!!

 

[SenKat]

For an external type of power supply, you can get the insulated aligator clips, so they will not enrgize anything except what you want to energize ! THAT would really be the way to go, other than that, you should get the 1000mah AAA rechargables to get teh most lifetime out of your batts, and your laser - if after placing new batts you still cannot burn with it, I would return it, stating it cannot possibly be 95mw if it cannot light a match !