Fonduman
0
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2010
- Messages
- 341
- Points
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First off, I should apologise that there are a few things I planned for this review that I couldnt put in due to equipment issues, including beamshot, picture of a laserbee with output rating, output graphs, and a more accurate divergence figure. Apart from problems with the computer installing the laserbee hardware properly, the rest are due to my camera not picking things up very well.
Overview
Product pages
Violet laser: $95.99, rated at 150mW, 405nm.
I got this over the 200mW model as the sleek pen-like host appealed to me.
Pic of laser as arrived:
Red laser: $53.99, rated at 200mW, 650nm.
I thought the normal (new) model was a bit too torchy.
pic:
Shipping/packaging
Ordered: 22nd june
Shipped: 26th june
Recieved: 14th july
Not great shipping time personally, but taking into account chinas repuation for shipping, it does seem perfectly reasonable.
Very well packaged. Each laser had a seperate case, package was very heavily taped, lots of bubble wrap.
Safety notes
Remember to wear safety goggles with powers of these levels, such as these ones for "blue" wavelengths:
Apart from the obvious beam in the eye, be careful of direct and diffuse reflections, and close range scatter, particularly from white objects. I wouldnt advise using it around other people.
As a specific note, with the violet laser im finding myself getting slight headaches if using it inside for more than a few minutes at a time. Try to limit eye exposure to the violet. It could just be eye strain: at times the dot seems difficult to focus (retinaly), but for all I know its something more sinister.
Power
As mentioned, my camera seems incapable of resolving the figures on the display of a laserbee lpm. However, here is a pic of my lpm to show I have one:
My readings were taken from this and so are fairly reliable.
The violet laser was quite stable, staying at 155/156mW for a good 60 seconds.
The red laser also stayed at 210mW for 60 seconds.
With these hosts I thought leaving them on for longer would make heat start affecting results. More important is the capacity of the violets batteries, which probably wouldnt last more than a minute without their output being affected.
I would have liked to have a graph produced, sorry about that.
Beam specs
The red laser in particular has great beam specs. The unfocused profile is round and symmetrical:
Divergence also great, can be pointed very far with small dot. Focused to infinity, the dot grows approximately 1.5times in size at 10 feet.
The violet seems to be multimode, with an oblong profile, though not so noticeable in this pic:
Having said this, the shape is no problem when focused small. It is noticeable at long distances though, growing 2-3 times in overall size at 10feet. Not great for pointed at long distances, beam spread becomes noticeable by 30feet, although still reasonable at that range.
Visiblity
In daylight the violet beam is effectively invisible. The dot appears more like a light lilac colour than true purple to me.
The red beam is more visible in daylight than I expected, although not very obvious unless it catches a larger particle. Dot of course is very bright, but violet dot is not insignifant either.
Strangely, these attributes are reversed at night, when the violet beam becomes easier to see than the red one. I believe this can be explained by the following graph:
Fluorescence
I havent got the violet to leave a trail in anything yet, but here is an example of it on paper. The camera picked it up as purple for some reason, but I have edited it back to a closer representation of the real colour:
Build/host quality
Host
Both seemed quite sturdy, especially the red. However, the tail cap of the red one broke upon it falling off a table. I know its my fault, yet it cannot say much for the quality of the tailcap. The rest seems undamaged. bottom line, if you take care of it it will last as long as needs be, but its best to be careful as a fall is likely to cause damage.
Focusing
My only major criticism is the focusing mechanism. The red ones is too tight, such that pointing the laser an an object and focusing at the same time is not possible. Instead it must be focused, repointed, focused closer, repointed again etc. This is ok really, but the violets focusing is a problem. So loose that moving the laser is liable to defocus it. However it does make it an easy to focus laser if you're careful.
Both are small enough and light enough to not be of any consequence or problem.
Batteries
The red uses an 18650 which is great. I have a few of them so I can keep a constant charge cycle up- while ones in use 2 are charging, so I can replace as soon as levels start to drop. There are some minor issues with the violets battery system. It uses AAAs which tend to run out fairly quickly, and need to be bought to be replaced. To give some scale, about 30mins use reduced the violet to 100mW. Of course, this is to expected from a pen-style host, but something else to bear in mind when considering models.
Duty cycle/heat issues
The red one can go a few minutes before heat starts to be any problem. As a duty cycle i'd recommend 2minutes on, 30 seconds off. The violet of couse, gets hot alot quicker. Still a reasonable duty cycle, i'd say 80 seconds on, 25 seconds off.
Burn performance
Both burn very well when focused. Overall, the red burns better, as expected for the power, but the violet does tend to make up for it for being easier to focus and able to burn non-black objects very well.
Quick demonstration vids of them burning my brown leather wallet, from around 2 foot away:
red:
violet:
Conclusion
These may not be top of the line lasers, but the flaws are quite easy to ignore when you consider the price tag. Superficials like the host cannot detract fundamentally from the important aspects: these lasers are upto and slightly overspec, as well as stable. For the prices, the overall laser performance is great. I must detract points for their few flaws, but overall i'd give a 4/5. Definitely recommended for an introductory buy, but more experienced members will probably prefer something a bit more long lasting and well made.
Overview
Product pages
Violet laser: $95.99, rated at 150mW, 405nm.
I got this over the 200mW model as the sleek pen-like host appealed to me.
Pic of laser as arrived:
Red laser: $53.99, rated at 200mW, 650nm.
I thought the normal (new) model was a bit too torchy.
pic:
Shipping/packaging
Ordered: 22nd june
Shipped: 26th june
Recieved: 14th july
Not great shipping time personally, but taking into account chinas repuation for shipping, it does seem perfectly reasonable.
Very well packaged. Each laser had a seperate case, package was very heavily taped, lots of bubble wrap.
Safety notes
Remember to wear safety goggles with powers of these levels, such as these ones for "blue" wavelengths:
Apart from the obvious beam in the eye, be careful of direct and diffuse reflections, and close range scatter, particularly from white objects. I wouldnt advise using it around other people.
As a specific note, with the violet laser im finding myself getting slight headaches if using it inside for more than a few minutes at a time. Try to limit eye exposure to the violet. It could just be eye strain: at times the dot seems difficult to focus (retinaly), but for all I know its something more sinister.
Power
As mentioned, my camera seems incapable of resolving the figures on the display of a laserbee lpm. However, here is a pic of my lpm to show I have one:
My readings were taken from this and so are fairly reliable.
The violet laser was quite stable, staying at 155/156mW for a good 60 seconds.
The red laser also stayed at 210mW for 60 seconds.
With these hosts I thought leaving them on for longer would make heat start affecting results. More important is the capacity of the violets batteries, which probably wouldnt last more than a minute without their output being affected.
I would have liked to have a graph produced, sorry about that.
Beam specs
The red laser in particular has great beam specs. The unfocused profile is round and symmetrical:
Divergence also great, can be pointed very far with small dot. Focused to infinity, the dot grows approximately 1.5times in size at 10 feet.
The violet seems to be multimode, with an oblong profile, though not so noticeable in this pic:
Having said this, the shape is no problem when focused small. It is noticeable at long distances though, growing 2-3 times in overall size at 10feet. Not great for pointed at long distances, beam spread becomes noticeable by 30feet, although still reasonable at that range.
Visiblity
In daylight the violet beam is effectively invisible. The dot appears more like a light lilac colour than true purple to me.
The red beam is more visible in daylight than I expected, although not very obvious unless it catches a larger particle. Dot of course is very bright, but violet dot is not insignifant either.
Strangely, these attributes are reversed at night, when the violet beam becomes easier to see than the red one. I believe this can be explained by the following graph:
Fluorescence
I havent got the violet to leave a trail in anything yet, but here is an example of it on paper. The camera picked it up as purple for some reason, but I have edited it back to a closer representation of the real colour:
Build/host quality
Host
Both seemed quite sturdy, especially the red. However, the tail cap of the red one broke upon it falling off a table. I know its my fault, yet it cannot say much for the quality of the tailcap. The rest seems undamaged. bottom line, if you take care of it it will last as long as needs be, but its best to be careful as a fall is likely to cause damage.
Focusing
My only major criticism is the focusing mechanism. The red ones is too tight, such that pointing the laser an an object and focusing at the same time is not possible. Instead it must be focused, repointed, focused closer, repointed again etc. This is ok really, but the violets focusing is a problem. So loose that moving the laser is liable to defocus it. However it does make it an easy to focus laser if you're careful.
Both are small enough and light enough to not be of any consequence or problem.
Batteries
The red uses an 18650 which is great. I have a few of them so I can keep a constant charge cycle up- while ones in use 2 are charging, so I can replace as soon as levels start to drop. There are some minor issues with the violets battery system. It uses AAAs which tend to run out fairly quickly, and need to be bought to be replaced. To give some scale, about 30mins use reduced the violet to 100mW. Of course, this is to expected from a pen-style host, but something else to bear in mind when considering models.
Duty cycle/heat issues
The red one can go a few minutes before heat starts to be any problem. As a duty cycle i'd recommend 2minutes on, 30 seconds off. The violet of couse, gets hot alot quicker. Still a reasonable duty cycle, i'd say 80 seconds on, 25 seconds off.
Burn performance
Both burn very well when focused. Overall, the red burns better, as expected for the power, but the violet does tend to make up for it for being easier to focus and able to burn non-black objects very well.
Quick demonstration vids of them burning my brown leather wallet, from around 2 foot away:
red:
violet:
Conclusion
These may not be top of the line lasers, but the flaws are quite easy to ignore when you consider the price tag. Superficials like the host cannot detract fundamentally from the important aspects: these lasers are upto and slightly overspec, as well as stable. For the prices, the overall laser performance is great. I must detract points for their few flaws, but overall i'd give a 4/5. Definitely recommended for an introductory buy, but more experienced members will probably prefer something a bit more long lasting and well made.
Last edited:
445nm is better tnan 405.... and green is more attractive tha red......
