Okay, to get down to the nitty gritty on this laser –
The beam diameter is excellent – coming out at 1.5mm, with a divergence of .82mrad !
The measurements were taken at 100ft, and measured 25mm. I used Psuedonomen137’s Divergence calculator that can be found here:
http://www.pseudonomen.com/lasers/calculators/mRadCalculator.html
It is showing less than 1mw of residual IR leakage, which is phenomenal ! It cuts tape, lights matches, and pops balloons with no issues. Over a test period of 10 minutes, the head was little warm, but not HOT ! The output power did dip over that time frame – from an initial peak of 143.7mw to a lowest point of 134.2mw where it remained rock steady for a full 4 minutes, and then dropped consistently, in power to 124.9mw to finish up the 10 minute test run. The batteries I used were Energizer E2 Lithium AA batteries, starting voltage of 1.7v each – finishing voltage was 1.1v each after the 10 minute run. This laser LOVES batteries ! I do not have any rechargeable Lithium batteries to try in it – and am not certain the circuitry would handle that voltage, as I understand they can easily exceed 1.9v off of the charger, and I do not want to blow this laser up ! I am not privy to the complete design notes of it, so cannot tell for certain what the max voltage would be. The beam intensity was very bright, and did not seem to dim that much after the test, either. This test was a very intense test – and I do not expect that most folks will use the laser constantly for 10 minutes at a stretch – but it is great to see that zero duty cycle will only affect the batteries, and not have too much of a detrimental effect on the laser output. The laser disassembles easily to insert the batteries, and if you want to check out the heatsinking of the diode, the head unscrews fairly easy as well. It comes equipped with an aperture laser emission warning sticker, in front of the power button. This laser is very well constructed, and I fully expect it to be a very popular seller because of its’ ability to withstand a zero duty cycle, less than 1mw IR leakage, ability to use AA batts, and overall appearance of this wonderful little laser. I will take some more beam shots and publish those in this thread, and will post some vids of it performing the popular tricks, as well as showing of its ability to “write” on a Lightscribe Disc.