:crackup: Why MUST there be grey area? :crackup:
Why, in the world, would you believe that your "intuition" is more capable of discerning truth than our empirical testing and academic history?
You have not "brained your damage."
You are simply a human who's mommy and grammy lied to you
You are NOT the smartest child in the world
You aren't the prettiest or most handsome child in the world
You are just a human
Humans like to *think* that they can think things through and come up with the right answer
Unfortunately, that is not valid
You have read through this thread and admitted that we know more than you about the subject
Then you ask, "Are you sure?"
Let me answer that as succinctly as I can
Yes. We are sure
If there were another way, we most assuredly would be crowing about it
LPM's are expensive
Professional LPM's are SIGNIFICANTLY more costly than any of the REALLY CHEAP "hobbyists" LPM's offered
If you think that a Laserbee 5W costs more than you want to spend, try pricing out a Scientech S310 or H410

NO ONE here *wants* to spend money on an LPM
Unfortunately for the hobby:
Retailers, especially the Chinese "mega retailers", are as willing to lie to you as your mommy and grammy are
If you read through this thread (instead of just jumping to the end to write your response to the title of the thread like most Noob's do), you will have seen my post showing me lighting a match, instantly, with a 32mW laser.
Should we then surmise that all (or most) 35mW lasers can light a match instantly?
Even knowing what the current being produced is and which diode is in the laser, will only give us a **WIDE** range of potential outputs
If knowing that your laser is somewhere between 1.2W and 2.2W is enough for you (there is your only real potential "grey area"), then it doesn't really matter, does it?
If, however, you wish to have a reasonably close idea of what your laser is putting out, we *ALL* are left with this . . . . .
There is ONLY ONE WAY TO KNOW what the output on a particular laser is
You MUST measure it with a Laser Power Meter
Peace,
dave