Pen sized lasers or Big chunky lasers

[Laserbeamk]

What do you pefer? (If they are the same amount of mWs)

*no duty cycle just the feeling and size*

Big chunky and heavy lasers?

Small portable pen lasers?

Thank you.

This is also a comparison between 250mw 520nm and 1.8-2W 445nm Power.

 

[trussmonkey25]

About the size of a lipstick or Magik Marker would be ideal since I use them as engravers

 

[Pi R Squared]

I suppose something medium sized. I have 3 pens and they are ok but I don't plan on having anymore. Of the lasers I built, the smallest one is a C6, my next build is something you would call big chunky and heavy however I am not sure that's what I would normally want unless it was a very powerful laser that needed extra good heat sinking or if I wanted it to have a long duty cycle.

Alan

 

[Laserbeamk]

About the size of a lipstick or Magik Marker would be ideal since I use them as engravers

As I know for an engraver, they must go blue to be strongest. But for brightness and visibility, do you think a 250mw 520nm is close to 2W 445nm blue?

 

[trussmonkey25]

The greens always trump the blues. I never had a 520. Only a 532

 

[Lifetime17]

Hi L,
Well i can't decide I like them all Pen or Large. And as for the WL and mW's ill take all of them too.. You seen a few i built i just don't set my sights on a particular size host. Ill be building 2 Saik Sa 305's next both will be high power for WL . I just bought a Sinner MS V5 Copperhead press fit. And about 5 of Harolds host from him. So ill be busy for a little while.

Rich..

 

[Laserbeamk]

Hi L,
Well i can't decide I like them all Pen or Large. And as for the WL and mW's ill take all of them too.. You seen a few i built i just don't set my sights on a particular size host. Ill be building 2 Saik Sa 305's next both will be high power for WL . I just bought a Sinner MS V5 Copperhead press fit. And about 5 of Harolds host from him. So ill be busy for a little while.

Rich..

Do you have a picture of the copper head? I really like the 700mw 520 you built in an Harold host but I like smaller hosts better. For example, take a look at the guardian host from Sanwu which is the size or smaller of an lip stick can. For that kind of package, I have to admit, it's the best a host can go. I'm about to get one with the 200mw 520 rating and see how it goes.

 

[VisibleGreen]

For a high powered laser I tend to first think about proper/decent heatsinking and then I look for sleekness.
For lower power lasers I used to be all about compact design but over the years I guess I grew out of that.
To me if I can carry around a flashlight then I can carry the same sized laser.

 

[autonomousperson]

Solely on looks: Pen style
That would be awesome if there was a pen style 5w+ laser that can run for a full minute.

 

[Alaskan]

Green trumps blue or red, medium to large size/ I've killed too many small 100mw pen lasers by running them too long, but I did buy a <5 mw Laserglow pen from LeHap and try as I may, it never dies? No, I'm not really trying.

I prefer ultra low divergence lasers, because of this the lens must have a much larger diameter, small lasers have small lenses, so for me, I like large lasers I can put high power diodes into with large enough batteries to give them a decent amount of run time.

 

[Laserbeamk]

Green trumps blue or red, medium to large size/ I've killed too many small 100mw pen lasers by running them too long, but I did buy a <5 mw Laserglow pen from LeHap and try as I may, it never dies? No, I'm not really trying.

I prefer ultra low divergence lasers, because of this the lens must have a much larger diameter, small lasers have small lenses, so for me, I like large lasers I can put high power diodes into with large enough batteries to give them a decent amount of run time.

There is a driver safety feature built in to the guardian host according to Podo, it will never let the diode overheat, which it automatically lowers the output due to time so I won't have to worry about that.

 

[GSS]

Most definitely green then blue and violet. Red has been around for so long it lost its appeal to me. As far as a host my biggest is a 501 so far but I think 1 size up would be the perfect feel Yellow is really starting to grow on me

 

[Atomicrox]

Medium/small: C6, DX dilda and 501B are good examples. I will suffer a large host in some cases, but I tend to prefer things that can fit in my pockets

I also love portable box hosts, but there aren't many out there.