The LEDShoppe Thread

[milantheone]

have anybody from UK bought it??? i am just curious about customs..
cheers guys

 

[FreshlyCutFries]

Awhh this sucks! I wanna order the 50mW greenie but when I submit the order and try to pay for it, it says that I need a credit card to back it up incase the payment doesn't go through. And of course I don't have a credit card! ANyone else have this problem?

 

[jnrpop]

Dont bother importing these pointers to Australia unless you willing for them to be taken and seized.
However the modules should be safe, and +1 for Ledshoppe for the refund
I had 3 laser pointers seized and Ledshoppe
was more than understanding.
Thanks LEDSHOPPE +1

 

[919jack]

Just got one 30mW and one 5mW, greenies from LED Shoppe.  It took about 2 weeks to get to me, not bad for free shipping. (EDIT: I am in the US)

The lasers seem solid, no warm up time that I can detect.  I am using the included alkaline AAAs.

One question:  I am sure there is a good chance the 30mW (and maybe the 5) is leaking some IR.  Is there a good way to test for this without equipment?  I tried viewing the 30mW laser (off-center of course) with my digital camera LCD, and all I saw was green no halos or anything.  Anyone have other ideas for "seeing" or testing for IR, without equipment?

Thanks

 

[Deadboys]

Ordered a 30mW around 3 days ago stil waiting for it to get here, will be my second green. Does anyone know how accurate there mW value is?

 

[john_lawson]

i bought a 20 mw from them it was about 17-18 so underspec for me but close

 

[Tensu]

I must say that the design on that site really sux

 

[Benm]

As to the lasers themselves, hey - they're really REALLY low-cost and bottom line is they work very well for the price point, although I have noticed that yes, the batteries you use DO make a big difference (as they get low, the lasers will come on strong and drop significantly as to output within a second or so) ...

Sounds like they could work well on regulated power though.. i've ordered a 50 mW to find out what it can do.

Probably similar to the ones from DX, but at this price nice to do some experimenting with.

 

[Brett]

One question:  I am sure there is a good chance the 30mW (and maybe the 5) is leaking some IR.  Is there a good way to test for this without equipment?  I tried viewing the 30mW laser (off-center of course) with my digital camera LCD, and all I saw was green no halos or anything.  Anyone have other ideas for "seeing" or testing for IR, without equipment?

Thanks

What I do is find a piece of red translucent plastic or glass.  If it is the correct type it will block 100% of the 532nm light, leaving only IR.  Then shine the IR spot on the wall or a piece of paper (or your LPM).  One thing valuable is to get your tape measure and determine the divergence of the IR beam after a certain distance.  In some of my modules it is much greater than the green divergence for the same distance.  One IR spot size was approx. 4 inches (~10cm) at 15 feet.  So that will give you an idea of where eyes could be at risk getting near the beam. What I do is just make sure my eyes never even get in the vicinity of a laser beam. A little dust or smoke/steam works wonders for seeing a great looking beam from a distance.

-Brett

 

[Crossfire]

I ordered a 50mW 532nm green laser and the 41 LED UV flashlight (UV ftw).  I will post my thoughts on these when they come in.

I do have to say they are much faster in shipping orders out than DX.  The day after I ordered the shipment was already in Hong Kong Post for processing.

For 33 bones, let's see what's under the hood at LED Shoppe.

 

[Benm]

For 33 bones, let's see what's under the hood at LED Shoppe.

My thought too.. i expect the lasers to be similar if not identical to the range DX carries - you can get lucky with them and have a nice product for little money, or a rather crappy laser and lose a few bucks.

 

[Jimmymcjimthejim]

I ordered the 5mW green laser from them, and it broke from a generic button failure. Very disappointing. However, LEDShoppe refused to ask any questions and shipped me a new one.

 

[jwc]

I ordered a 50mW laser from LEDshoppe. It arrived over 2 weeks later, but works well. I compared it against a laser that I know to be 55mW green + IR and it is slightly less bright. The divergence is horrible, though, and prevents it from burning things as my other greenie does.

 

[DayOfShadows]

got my 3 50mW greenies. 2 of them seem brighter than my first one and the other one seems just about right with it. They burn with plastic with a mag glass

 

[scopeguy20]

I just ordered another 2 and the discount code still works! these 50 mW units are great for night beam visibility. Looks brighter than the greenie in the middle of this pic I took in the fog.

 

[Crossfire]

Well, I got my 50mW greenie and the UV flashlight.  They arrived on Thursday Feb. 6th, just 13 days after I placed my order.

The laser looks like any other unit supplied by LEDShoppe.  It's attractive, well built and the button has nice action on it.

The laser isn't quite as bright as my 40mW Atlasnova leadlight.  I'd reckon it's about 30mW (+-5mW), since the difference in brightness isn't readily apparent until you compare the lasers side by side.  But still, 30mW or so of 532nm green for $22.50 isn't bad!

The beam diameter at aperture is much wider than the Atlasnova or Galileo, around 2mm.  However, this fat beam makes for excellent divergence - ~.4mRad as measured in my 8 meter testing facility.  The dot doesn't expand in diameter much at all!  I was pleasantly surprised by this finding.  Another pleasant surprise is that the laser's output is rather stable.  Variance in output is small, mostly on warmup.

The 41 LED UV flashlight (more like deep violet) is bright, sturdy with good throw.  It's a real steal for the $11 or so I paid for it.  I prefer to run it on the "high" setting since the individual LED's seem to run dimmer than running the 21 center LED's on "low".

Overall, I was quite pleased with my experience with LEDShoppe.  I'd order from them again in the future. [smiley=thumbup.gif]