Technology taken for grantid

[treetrimmerguy1977]

Hey, this question has been kind of nagging at me for a while, but I'm not sure how to word it.

I've owned laser pointers for quite a while now, but have only recently discovered their potential where it comes to how inexpensive it is for higher and higher powers.

Before becoming aware of this forum and other sources of info I found my first laser on Dinodirrect. After reading reviews here, and all over the place, I realized I had bought from a borderline shady company. I went ahead and went to Wickedlasers and placed an order for their Arctic. After getting these lasers, (of course using safety precautions) they blew my mind.

Oh, also, I saw a thread here about the super beast, and it's big brother, so I had to get one of those. (truly impressed!)

Here's where my question comes in. I have a younger brother who's an administrative supervisor in a company in Miami. He's working 50+ hrs a week, and is a full time student about to get his masters degree. I said all this to put your mind at ease about if he's a responsible person. I've been talking to him about lasers for the last few months, and he sounded impressed, so I just ordered him a super #100 green, and some laser shades from ebay. I went through all of the safety info, and told him where the law stands.

When I told him about it, I mentioned that just a matter of a few years ago, a laser this strength would have cost hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars, so don't take it for granted how amazing it is.

My question is, approximately how much would a 100mw green laser have cost in say.... 1990? 95? 2000? or 05? (I'm not talking about lab models)

 

[ped]

I cant wait to see the answers on this....

When i was working with disco lasers in the very early 90's , 5mW HeNe's were ultra powerful !

 

[Helios]

I remember buying a 5mW presentation pointer around 1998-2000 for $50 and it was one of the cheaper ones.

 

[ElektroFreak]

^And that was for a red laser no doubt..

Hey, this question has been kind of nagging at me for a while, but I'm not sure how to word it.

I've owned laser pointers for quite a while now, but have only recently discovered their potential where it comes to how inexpensive it is for higher and higher powers.

Before becoming aware of this forum and other sources of info I found my first laser on Dinodirrect. After reading reviews here, and all over the place, I realized I had bought from a borderline shady company. I went ahead and went to Wickedlasers and placed an order for their Arctic. After getting these lasers, (of course using safety precautions) they blew my mind.

Oh, also, I saw a thread here about the super beast, and it's big brother, so I had to get one of those. (truly impressed!)

Here's where my question comes in. I have a younger brother who's an administrative supervisor in a company in Miami. He's working 50+ hrs a week, and is a full time student about to get his masters degree. I said all this to put your mind at ease about if he's a responsible person. I've been talking to him about lasers for the last few months, and he sounded impressed, so I just ordered him a super #100 green, and some laser shades from ebay. I went through all of the safety info, and told him where the law stands.

When I told him about it, I mentioned that just a matter of a few years ago, a laser this strength would have cost hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars, so don't take it for granted how amazing it is.

My question is, approximately how much would a 100mw green laser have cost in say.... 1990? 95? 2000? or 05? (I'm not talking about lab models)

Well, in 1990-95 if you wanted a green laser, lab models were pretty much all you could get, to the tune of a HEALTHY 4-5 digits for any power level.

In the early 2000s smaller Asian lab modules became available, and found widespread use in science and laser shows, but even just 10-20mW of 532nm cost well over $1000 and that was for the very cheapest modules. Also, in the early 2000s green laser pointers began to be manufactured.

By 2005 a 100mW green Chinese module was around the $1000 price point, and green laser pointers were becoming quite common..

Nowadays, thanks almost exclusively to the widespread manufacture of green laser pointers, even the nicest, most powerful Asian lasers are quite reasonably priced as far as $$/mW.

 

[treetrimmerguy1977]

Thanks you guys! That's exactly what I was wondering. I even sent a link of this thread to my brother. :thanks:

 

[Pontiacg5]

I paid around $500 for a 125mW Fusion from Wicked back in 2005, before they went south...

 

[treetrimmerguy1977]

I paid around $500 for a 125mW Fusion from Wicked back in 2005, before they went south...

Do you think they went south, or just got bogged down with too many orders?
I just got my arctic in 29 days.

 

[Pontiacg5]

Do you think they went south, or just got bogged down with too many orders?
I just got my arctic in 29 days.

They have defiantly gone south. The arctic is a poorly built laser and the way Wicked promoted it and handled sales was horrible.

The laser I bought is a CNI pen, this was way back before Wicked started making their own hosts. It wasn't too long after they stopped selling pot modded leadlights IIRC...

 

[treetrimmerguy1977]

They have defiantly gone south. The arctic is a poorly built laser

I'll take your word for it. I don't know you, but it's obvious by your rep and post that you are far more experienced than me.

I was just impressed by the arctic because I started out with a dinodirect 1000mw 445nm. I didn't know what it meant at first, but later found out my problem was that it has a 30 second duty cycle. At first I thought it was defective, then got the arctic and it stayed on forever. Then I read up a little, and found out about heat sinking and other issues, and that it is very common for cheaper lasers to have these short duty cycles.

The arctic is probably inferior to you, but for a beginner like me, it is amazing. I don't have the know how yet to build a quality one, or want to spend the big bucks to buy one. I'm sure I will in the future, but not yet.

 

[ped]

I havent had an arctic so i dont know. However, i have read through all the reviews and comments some of the very experienced members have put on LPF, they know what thier talking about, and they shoot it down. The general consensus is, if you have an arctic, strip it down and build it properly.

 

[Helios]

I'll take your word for it. I don't know you, but it's obvious by your rep and post that you are far more experienced than me.

I was just impressed by the arctic because I started out with a dinodirect 1000mw 445nm. I didn't know what it meant at first, but later found out my problem was that it has a 30 second duty cycle. At first I thought it was defective, then got the arctic and it stayed on forever. Then I read up a little, and found out about heat sinking and other issues, and that it is very common for cheaper lasers to have these short duty cycles.

The arctic is probably inferior to you, but for a beginner like me, it is amazing. I don't have the know how yet to build a quality one, or want to spend the big bucks to buy one. I'm sure I will in the future, but not yet.

There are lots of great sellers on this forum that build and sell lasers that are of much higher quality, higher power, faster shipping, better customer service and cheaper price... Id keep that in mind for your next purchase.

 

[LORDJET]

Do you think they went south, or just got bogged down with too many orders?
I just got my arctic in 29 days.

You my friend were very, very lucky. I understand that there are people who originally ordered there's in June, and STILL haven't gotten there's! I realize as well how lucky I was, getting my G1 after 3 months of waiting. That company as a whole is crap. I have had mine going on 5 months now, and even though It still has not broke as of yet. I am just waiting for the day it dose, so I can gut it, and upgrade with premium components. I feel that the ONLY thing going for it is the host itself.:undecided:

 

[Benm]

My question is, approximately how much would a 100mw green laser have cost in say.... 1990? 95? 2000? or 05? (I'm not talking about lab models)

I think portable greens were not available before 2000 or so, certainly not at the 100 mW power level. The only thing would be to compare price points from that period onwards.

The comparison is very difficult though: In 2002 a 100 mW 532 would be a rather exclusive product, and made with top quality materials and engineering - including proper heatsinking. It would obviously be very expensive ($1000 perhaps?), but not in any way comparable to a $50 100 mW model you buy from DX nowadays.

The big drop in price came with the pre-assembled crystal sets - they have both the dpss laser and doubler plus all required coating in a single component. These made construction of green lasers so much easier that many chinese factories were able to dive in - with variable results.


Its a bit like comparing the price of 1 GB of ram over time: You can do a decent comparison from when 1 GB sticks hit the market, but if you compare to the period before that, it gets odd. Surely you could have built 1 GB of ram out of 1024 1 MB sticks somewhere in 1990... but the interconnects, routing, casing, power supply etc would have cost more that the actual memory, and the thing would be complete rack in size at best. Imagine doing the same with one million 1 KB chips back in the 60's and put a price tag on that

 

[treetrimmerguy1977]

Its a bit like comparing the price of 1 GB of ram over time: You can do a decent comparison from when 1 GB sticks hit the market, but if you compare to the period before that, it gets odd. Surely you could have built 1 GB of ram out of 1024 1 MB sticks somewhere in 1990... but the interconnects, routing, casing, power supply etc would have cost more that the actual memory, and the thing would be complete rack in size at best. Imagine doing the same with one million 1 KB chips back in the 60's and put a price tag on that

I love this comparison. Often when I reach over and grab my laptop, I think of the first computer I had. I can't remember who made it, but for a disc drive, I was using a radio shack cassette tape recorder. I was learning how to make simple programs like a stick figure walking across the screen. Seems like it was similar to basic, but I was so young, I've forgotten. lol

Now I have a laptop that was only $1400, and it came with 6 gigs of ram, and a processor that turbo boost to 2.93Ghz!

This is exactly why I started this thread. I wanted to kind of figure out how far we have come in laser tech.