some pet peeves about some ppl and lasers

[catman]

Lying about output power - how the f*** can you sell a 100mW laser as an eye safe <5mW.. that's just evil imo (the opposite still sucks, but imo isn't as bad.. just sell them as what it is, like 50mW +-10mW or something like that)

How can you deliberately shine powerful lasers in other peoples eyes?

How can you not use safety goggles with lasers powerful enough to damage your eyes? And then wanting something even stronger...

 

[styropyro]

Selling >50mW lasers as 5mW on eBay really gets me. Any kid can buy a $7 405nm laser pointer on eBay as 5mW and have it turn out to run 100mW, but the dim dot will give the user a false sense of security. I would bet that there has been a lot of laser eye injuries regarding those mislabeled laser pointers.

 

[Speedy78]

The same very reason there are warnings like "not for human consumption" on bleech... Or as a marketing scheme to get pwople to buy a product. There are a lot of stupid people and money rules the world.

 

[catman]

And if you put a label saying it's safe to drink a dangerous amount of bleach on the bottle you'd be in trouble (or sell a real gun as bb gun or whatever). And yet those lasers continue to be widely available. Now I don't mind people selling/buying strong lasers, but they should be labeled accurately. Label them accurately and for all I care you can sell a 2MW burner and if someone hurts somebody with it they are responsible. But if you sell a 100mW as a 5mW and someone gets hurt you are also responsible.

 

[Speedy78]

Problem is 99% of these lasers come from china. So I would first start by emailing them your concerns.

 

[catman]

And get sold on ebay by who knows whom... paypal managed to stop dx from selling 200mW units, at least they should require all lasers sold there if they don't meet their specs.

I mean they manage to take down a lot of stuff that they don't like even if it ain't technically illegal and less dangerous than this.

 

[Speedy78]

That would require them to purchase every laser for sale and LPM it prior to shipping it to the buyer.

 

[catman]

Or only deal with manufacturers that have some sort of quality control in place (and nobody is going to tell me some large factory is unable to get good enough tolerances that 5mW isn't 50mW). And besides some members here will sell you lasers with measured output for a very reasonable price, so it's not like it's impossible.

 

[Speedy78]

Each laser would have to be tested for putput and power individually. Which is against the idea of a quick buck. For example, I bought to green pens to harvest the diode, one was putting out 40mW the other 3mW. Both had the same diode and same driver set at 118mA. One diode and crystal set clearly more efficient. So now every single laser has to be teated and some thrown out. Also would be a pain on ebays end to test and confirm the output of these companies. There are way to many. Im not saying that its right, I'm just saying its not likely to happen.

 

[lasersbee]

You can attribute that to eBay's policy of not allowing
sellers to sell any Lasers over 5mW.

The Chinese are not stupid and will need to sell off their
inventory of stocked Lasers. What better way to circumvent
the eBay restriction than the Label 50-100mW Lasers as <5mW.

It is eBay's policy that does not allow Laser Seller to state
the real output of there Lasers....

And for those of you that want to make sure you didn't get
ripped off by a 200mW Laser outputting 23mW or your <5mW
Laser outputting 100mW and inadvertently burning your retinas
there is always the the Laser Power Meter to put your mind
and retinas at ease...


Jerry

 

[catman]

Speedy78:
No. I get what you're saying, it would drive costs up. I'm just not sure how much, especially if it's done at the factory level and you're allowed to sell the stronger ones just labeled as such (not like people don't want to buy lasers strong enough to burn). This way you can have both <5mW eye safe lasers, medium power lasers, strong lasers, .... Make everyone happy both the guy that wants something safe and the guy who wants to burn stuff.

lasersbee:
Stupid policy as far as I see. Strong ones still get sold, all of them are marked 5mW, so you really don't know what you're getting. Just ebay gets to wash it's hands clean.

 

[Speedy78]

Problem is its illegal to have lasers stronger than 5mW without a bunch of safety features.

 

[catman]

Yes, and people still have them.

I'm not arguing against any of you (after all this board does warn about the dangers), just saying the whole system is stupidly set up.

You can't buy a >5mW pointer, yet they are widely available. Ebay insists on people not selling them, yet doesn't insist on any testing. Looks to me like one of those laws designed to make certain people look good while not actually dealing with the problem and in fact making it worse (not only are strong lasers available, you can even get one believing it's safe).

 

[Speedy78]

There are to many adds to overlook every little one posted. I bet you could go online and post a pound of cocain and it would get posted lol. Most of the ones available are produced in a location not governed by our laws or produced by a forum member. They are designed to protect people but it just isnt a big thing yet, as some of us fear it might be soon, to put any money towards enforcing the standard.

 

[catman]

Valid point about starting to enforce it. Hope they do realize there is a use for lasers over 5mW and enforce the part that 5mW units have to actually be 5mW and not just ban anything above it. But knowing politicians....

 

[Speedy78]

It would be an outright ban or here in true american fasion we would have to buy stupid pointless permeits for every laser over 5mW.