Review: BangGood 532nm built-In battery laser pointer.

[CurtisOliver]

Hi everyone, I just want to post a review of one of BangGood's products.
As some may be aware. Swi from BangGood allowed me and a couple of others to test out some of there laser stock.

532nm USB Charge Green Laser Pointer 5mw Built-in Battery

Communication:

I found that Swi was good at communicating. Sometimes there can be a slight delay, but that’s due to Swi being busy outside of LPF and is to be expected. Swi was friendly and professional and was a pleasure to deal with. There was a time where the item I chose was out of stock, so I was let know and given the choice to swap with something else. I decided to wait for the item to become available again. Soon as the item was available I got an email saying that the order had been processed and then a follow up saying the item had been shipped.

Delivery and packaging:

The order was placed on the 9th June and the item was dispatched the next day (10th June) with Priority Air Mail at a cost of $1.87. The item arrived on the 16th June, but I had to wait till the next day to pick it up. This makes an order to arrival time of 7 days which from China is a pretty quick delivery time for the UK.
The packaging was more than adequate to keep the item safe. The laser and charging lead are kept inside a magnetic folding box which has foam cushioning inside. It is basically what you would expect.

Overall the delivery and packaging is more than acceptable.

Cost:

The cost of the item was $12.69 which is subject to change depending on the stock.

Quality/Value:

For the price it isn’t bad at all. It has a basic host with a rubber sleeve on the tubing for nice grip. With a built in li-ion and a quite powerful laser inside, it is definitely good value for money. The li-ion bumps up the price compared to the 303’s however.

Specs:

Power: tbc (stated 1-200mW). This is something that surprised me. It is a very compact laser for 532nm but its power is incredible. I will LPM when I get a chance, and without overstating the power I estimate it to sit around 35-40mW. In lower light conditions the beam is highly visible, and in near darkness the beam is a nice solid pencil lead like beam. As for the dot, it remains highly visible in daylight and I have even shone it outside with the sun glaring and it is still noticeable visible.

Wavelength: 532nm

Type: DPSS

Beam Shape: Circle/Round

Beam Diameter: tbc (not stated). I will test the diameter tomorrow.

Beam Divergence: tbc (not stated). I will also run divergence tests tomorrow.

Transverse Mode: TEM00

Longitudinal Mode: Single

Power Input:

built-in 3.7V Li-ion (unknown capacity) with DC 5V 500mA Mini-USB charging cable. The capacity isn’t too high as it doesn’t take that long to run the battery out. But for me that isn’t a problem as I can just charge the laser during the day via my laptop. I have found that it takes roughly an hour to complete a full charge.

Size: L 87 (mm) x D 13 (mm)

Weight: 47g

Safety:

The safety label states <5mW and the safety class is vague with just Class III. Something I have noticed is that the laser starts to auto-shut off when the battery is running low. This is a good feature due to the laser containing a li-ion. It appears to be timed as after a 4-5 seconds I can switch the laser back on again, but quickly fades to darkness. Also it should be noted that the laser gets pretty warm, but the instructions does state to not run it more than 20 seconds at a time.

Photos:
How bright the dot is in full daylight.

How bright the dot is in a dull room.

A nice beamshot in a dull room.

I found that this laser is using the same 532nm module as most Chinese lasers despite its incredibly small size in comparison.

On top is my Chinese 302, and the bottom is this laser. In life I found it slightly brighter than the 302 but not by much.

Also did some playing around with a ruby rod.

Conclusion:

Overall, I would highly recommend this laser. It is surprisingly bright for such a compact laser. The beam is very nice and tight. It feels good to use, and for people like me the in-built battery is a good touch. I can charge the laser while I’m working, and then have plenty of play at night. And for the price you can’t complain. Here is the link to get your own. I would love to find out how consistent these are.

532nm-USB-Charge-Green-Laser-Pointer-5mw-Built-in-Battery

Thank you for reading this review.
Curtis :beer:

I'll update beam specs later on.

 

[diachi]

That didn't take long! Good review!

 

[CurtisOliver]

I had some of it already written up.
I'll add more when I can, hopefully including an LPM reading.
Thanks Diachi. :beer:

 

[BobMc]

That's a cute little pocket laser Curtis. Nice review and pics. I gotta thing for those little lasers. Couple of questions if you wouldn't mind.

1) how long does it last on a charge and how long does it take to charge?
2) does the button seem to want to get pushed when you keep it in your pocket?

I realize you just got it and it will take a bit to know the answers. So looking forward to your LPM reading and updates.

Thanks for the review and posting your thoughts. :thinking:

 

[CurtisOliver]

Sure. I'll try and answer them when I can. I mean the time it took me to run it out may not be at all accurate as it may not of had a full charge to begin with.
As for charge time I can run a stop watch when I charge it.
Thanks Bob. :beer:

 

[GSS]

Nice review
Is there any type of charging light in the cord setup or laser itself?
Also iv'e never felt a lower output 532 get warm like you mentioned and have a stated 20 second duty cycle?
What is your feeling from where the heat is coming from, could it be the battery?

 

[BobMc]

Sure. I'll try and answer them when I can. I mean the time it took me to run it out may not be at all accurate as it may not of had a full charge to begin with.
As for charge time I can run a stop watch when I charge it.
Thanks Bob. :beer:

Thanks a bunch, you don't have to run a stopwatch ( unless you want to ) just in the ballpark a good guess-ta-mit.

 

[BowtieGuy]

Thanks for the review Curtis, I kind of like that stubby single cell look. :beer:
Hopefully it will suprise you with a higher than anticipated output when you get a chance to check it out.

 

[CurtisOliver]

Thanks guys.
GSS, it seems to be the battery, but you have to think that it has a high power 808 in there right next to a li-ion.
Also below the button there is a light indicator.

No problem Bob. I'll try to give an estimate later on.

Jeff, I purposely tried to understate the power rather than rely on my eyes LPM. It seems to be brighter than my 35mW so it could be possible that it is nearly 45-50mW, but I won't know until I LPM it.

 

[paul1598419]

Great review, Curtis. I am concerned about the Li-ion battery being part of the laser, and so, is unable to be removed and changed. I think I would have preferred a 532nm that the battery could be removed and changed. Once the battery is no longer functional, it may be more difficult to change out than it is worth. I am looking forward to your metered power output. Thanks for the review.

 

[CurtisOliver]

Thanks Paul. Yes, it is a potential problem if the battery can't be replaced, but it's so cheap that if it does die you can just get another one. Not even worth fixing. Probably worth more to us to get the crystals out of it.

 

[paul1598419]

Might be able to get the whole module, including the driver, out. Then you could convert it to take a single battery.

 

[CurtisOliver]

That's one way of doing it.

 

[ElectricPlasma]

Very nice! I've always been a fan of those built-in charger circuit handhelds, though I've only seen those in flashlights, never in a pointer. I bought one a while back ago just to see how they're doing it and it looks like from what I've seen on the net different manufacturers use different designs. The one I had got used a rectangular PCB, output of that in parallel with the battery, and the battery in series with the load.

Like Paul said I guess in time the battery would crap out and wouldn't be worth replacing, but I think it's a pretty handy idea to not need a chunky li-ion charger to get a quick charge. Wouldn't mind implementing something like that in a more high-end ("americanized" as Rich calls it! ) build, but with a removable battery. Sounds good in theory but it might be a PITA to wire and design around it.

 

[Vetttech]

Great review CurtisOliver! I agree with the others, i would prefer a removable battery. This one is not high on my list as a must have. Would like to see a LPM reading! Thanks for the review!

 

[Benm]

I'm curious to it's actual output power, if it's something like 40 mW it'd be a pretty good deal really, though not a safe presentation pointer.

As for the built-in battery: that doesn't have to be a bad thing really. If it has proper charge and over-discharge protection in place (which it seems to have) it's very safe. Downside is obviously that you must wait for it to recharge and cannot just swap batteries.

Then again these things are $12, so if they have good quality output beams and power stability just buy 2 of them if you need one ready to fire at all times.

Also, they may be able to run from usb power while charging - i can't really tell, but if this is the case you could just power it from a usb powerbank for longer runtime, provided it doesnt overheat.

The latter i'm not that sure off, it seems awfully tiny for a dpss, surface area available for cooling is limited and no effort seems to have been made to make good use of the area that is available. Reasonable for a 5 mW laser with a 100 mW or lower pump diode, but no good if it's actually 40 mW or so with a 250/500 mW pump.