inexpensive AA/AAA powered pointer

Can anyone point me to the best place to get an inexpensive AA or AAA battery powered laser pointer? It's primary purpose would be for toying with our cat. He loves it. If he sees me pick it up he comes running up to me and will start looking around expectantly waiting for the dot to appear. We buy the cheap ones from time to time but they use those tiny coin cell batteries and they are always getting weak after just a short time. I would like to find a decent one that we can use to play with him without having to worry about batteries. I figured you guys would be the ones to ask about it. I looked at some of the sites like wicked lasers, etc and they want like $80-100 for one which is really a lot more than I'm willing to pay. It would take a hell of a lot of batteries to pay that off but I'm willing to spend up to maybe $25-30 for one if it's a decent one that will hold up to our kids playing with it too.

Oh yeah, and which would be better to get for it, red or green?

I doubt that pointers using AA batteries are available at a reasonable cost. In any case, cats respond as well or better to Reds as they do to greens.

Why not just go to eBay or Google and search for "red laser pointer AAA". If someone is trying to sell them, it is a good bet that the type of battery would be mentioned in the title.

Ahh, rules...I guess I'll step in and say it for him...

AtlasNova has a quality red pointer for $13 (650nm) that uses AAA cells

http://www.atlasnova.com/RedLaserPointer650nm.htm

For $24 you can get a 632nm version (same color as HeNe lasers, a bit more toward orange and notably brighter to the human eye)

And Arnold provides excellent service and response, to boot.

Sweet. Thanks. I'll be looking at one in the next couple of weeks hopefully.

Just bought one. It only gave an option for standard shipping, not sure what type that is. Arnold, what are the odds I will receive the pointer before Friday of next week?

i bought this one from dealextreme.com

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.7124

$2.72 (free shipping) - don't know how long it will last, but you can't beat the price.

-jim

justjim said:

i bought this one from dealextreme.com

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.7124

$2.72 (free shipping) - don't know how long it will last, but you can't beat the price.

-jim

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Thanks but I ended up going ahead and getting the 632 nm one from Atlasnova. Seems to be the consensus that they're about the best and the price wasn't bad. My cat should be happy. He was bugging me all evening until I finally picked up the little cheapy my wife got from Petco 3 or 4 days ago (and which is already run through half the batteries I think) and played with him for a few minutes.

the sad thing is that the laser there ALSO come form china.

get what i mean?

Avatar28 said:

Just bought one. It only gave an option for standard shipping, not sure what type that is. Arnold, what are the odds I will receive the pointer before Friday of next week?

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It is already on a plane and almost certainly will arrive sometime in the next week. We ship these by first class mail.

chesterqw said:

the sad thing is that the laser there ALSO come form china.

get what i mean?

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Perhaps. But Fenix lights come from china and so do the cheap ebay LED lights that you can buy for $10-15. Care to make any bets if they're the same quality?

chesterqw said:

the sad thing is that the laser there ALSO come form china.

get what i mean?

Click to expand...

I think I do "get what you mean", and you could not be more wrong. Nothing from Atlasnova is made in China.

My greenie from Atlasnova isn't made in China..

Pardon my ignorance, but I'm relatively new to the laser thing. What's this made in China or Taiwan thing about? Is there a problem with China lasers or are they just inferior to ones made in Taiwan or is it something else?

I'm not trying to derail this thread, but just curious about this and trying to learn.

Sounds to me like some people just don't trust items made in China..

ACMarina said:

Sounds to me like some people just don't trust items made in China..

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I agree. I don't think it should matter where the product comes from but the quality of the product. E.g. Fenix lights come from China but they're still excellent. On the other hand, I'm sure I could find any number of US made flashlights that are utter crap.

Avatar28 said:

I agree. I don't think it should matter where the product comes from but the quality of the product. E.g. Fenix lights come from China but they're still excellent. On the other hand, I'm sure I could find any number of US made flashlights that are utter crap.

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Wow that was actually a really inaccurate way to put it. So because fenix lights are made great and made in china, that renders china just as good as USA?

Just because you can toss out a couple decent products like fenix... doesn't mean anything at all!

I think the ratios of crap to quality in china are way different than in US. Of course there will be poor quality products no matter where you go. China is guilty of very cheap manufacturing overall on everything in comparison to countries like USA and its blatantly evident when you start comparing/averaging similar items between the two countries.

Wow. Arnold, I got the pointer in the mail today. Pretty awesome considering that it took me a full week to get a P3D up here from Atlanta via First class and this came out of Washington and only took the weekend.

If you would like some constructive feedback, though, do something about the plastic cases if you can. I liked to never have gotten it open, I really had to struggle with it. The plastic case also felt really cheap, although the pointer itself was fine.

Thanks again.

Avatar28 said:

Wow. Arnold, I got the pointer in the mail today. Pretty awesome considering that it took me a full week to get a P3D up here from Atlanta via First class and this came out of Washington and only took the weekend.

If you would like some constructive feedback, though, do something about the plastic cases if you can. I liked to never have gotten it open, I really had to struggle with it. The plastic case also felt really cheap, although the pointer itself was fine.

Thanks again.

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Yes, I always have trouble opening the case on the Reds myself. I seldom have to do this as Alvine is the one who checks the Reds before they are shipped. She has no trouble with them at all and is always amused when I start swearing at these things. The trick is to push on the place where the clasp is located. I think that men have an instinct to want to lift up on the lid, which gets you nowhere. The case for the greens is a very heavy metal item that everyone likes very much. It is necessary to protect the greens when they are not in actual use. The Reds consist mainly of a simple laser diode and are therefore nowhere near as fragile as the greens. The steel cases cost me over two dollars more than the plastic cases. But more importantly, they weigh so much more that I would have to charge eight dollars for shipping and handling, versus five dollars. Considering the fact that the majority of the Reds end up in a desk drawer rather than back in the case, I can't justify having to charge another five dollars for the better case. I'm trying to think of some way to inform people of this, but I have very limited artistic ability. Wait, I am over-thinking this. Alvine says that all we need to do is have some little round red stickers made at Staples that say press here to open. She can then attach these to the proper place on the case when she checks them out before shipping. Problem solved. I hope. Thank you for bringing this up.

Why not offer the option of an upgraded case at time of purchase? That way if someone WANTS a nicer case they can get one but if they don't really care they can stick with the basic one. Still one help with the opening bit though.

What I ended up doing was getting a fingernail into the gap between the lid and body of the case further along the side towards the edge and it opens right up too. But I see what you're saying now about pressing in on the clasp. I'm not sure how you would be able to get it on a sticker since you have to press directly inwards on the part that sticks out for it to open, or at least I do.

I have to say, I was also somewhat startled when I saw that this pointer was something like 2 1/2 years old; the sticker says manufactured in March 2005. Not that I suppose it matters as long as it worked, but it was still surprising.

Edit: Oh, and is it supposed to rattle a bit? Whenever I pick it up or move it I can hear something rattling around.

Avatar, that's probably the button - it's a commonality of most lasers..