Skylaser ad... not correct?

[Justin]

Something I noticed in the skylaser.cn ad running at the top of this page... It says on the ad and on their site that the pointers they sell are CE and FDA compliant, but the only safety features I see are a key switch and LED. For a Class IIIb laser to be FDA compliant it would also need a 3 second delay, aperture shutter and safety interlock, and then the product would have to be submitted to the FDA to get a proper accession number.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is this not incorrect and misleading advertising? c0ldshadow, do you have any knowledge of this?

 

[Ace82]

I believe 2 safety features are required, and a LED doesn't count. You might be right on this one
... :-?

 

[Razako]

To be fully legal to own in the USA a laser needs the following 5 features.
1-safety interlock
2-emission delay
3-key switch
4-emission indicator LED
5-aperture shutter

 

[Chad]

Keep in mind, though, that the FDA can accession lasers that don't have those safety features. However, the only case I've heard of where that's happened, is the RPL's.

 

[Lorgar]

Justin Is right and as far as I know none of the S-KY lasers meet FDA requirments not even the large GB ones. They have no delay and the key switch can be left on and the key removed. While they are nice cheap lasers they have a great deal of problems that this company still needs to sort out. The power switches are very buggy the safety plug on the bottom has bad conections. The fit and finish is bad on both units I have. While both my green and 808 are stable and output far more than was advertiesed I have had to spend a lot of time repairing them so they function well. A lot of people whould have to send them back for these repairs and that is just more time spent without a laser. These lasers were a great bargain before the price jump but in my opinion they are just not worth it anymore. Too many bugs and too much money. Beter spent on an RPL Herc or a Nova

 

[Razako]

I don't see the point of buying the larger units from sky anymore. You can now buy 150mw focusable or 200mw focusable from DX/kai for MUCH less and get free shipping and possibly better QC. People are still complaining about problems with the initial GB lasers. Bad safety interlocks/very poor thread quality/connection problems/batteries won't fit/no IR filter/mode hopping/lots of beam scatter......
If I want cheap crap I'll buy from DX/Kai.

 

[FrothyChimp]

RPL type systems have their place. My company has sold many, but do you know who purchases them? The U.S. Military. We've never sold a portable to an enthusiast that we were aware of, as we do not market to you guys in general. Frankly, I'd rather provide you guys with eye protection because I find that much more important in the hobby arena as eye protection is often an after thought. In any case, if you can acquire a 200mW or 250mW pointer cheap, why would you want a portable system. I know my company, LG, Opto all offer CNI or Viasho portables. The reason is they are very high quality, work they way they are supposed to work, all have FDA accession numbers and are backed by the manufacturer. Yes they are more expensive but they are not prohibitively expensive for a client who needs that kind of quality, performance and safety features. S-KY is trying but they have a long way to go. They are still considered knockoffs and the quality reflects that. I haven't heard of anyone who purchased a S-KY rushing out to buy any more from them. So where should your money go? If you can get a 200mW pointer cheaper than the 200mW portable I'd think the pointer would win. If you need to leave the pointer on for any significant amount of time then you probably should invest in a lab system. The only thing "cheap" means is cheap and is usually directly proportional to quality and performance.