200mw green for $215 this is too good to be true

[aaron_inc]

i was looking for high powered red lasers on the internet and i found this site http://www.tradekey.com/selloffer_view/id/317816.htm
they sell green lasers up to 200mw, red lasers up to 150mw and yellow lasers at 2mw
heres the list of prices

5mW - 18usd
10mW - 21usd
20mW - 28usd
30mW - 32usd
50mW - 53usd
75mW - 71usd
95mW - 98usd
125mW - 120usd
150mW - 172usd
200mW - 215usd

all lasers have IR filters installed! i also have Yellow laser pointers!
2mW - 245usd

red laser xxxxx

100mW - 95usd
150mW - 120usd

i think this company only sells to other companies but i smell a group buy:naughty: :naughty:

 

[zigziggityzoo]

I'd like to see one reviewed here first. I'm not going to drop 215 bones on something that could very well be garbage.

That said, if it's quality. I'd take a 200mW tomorrow. (something comes to mind: You get what you pay for...)

 

[aaron_inc]

yeah i might buy a 20mw one just to gut it and see if its a good quality one but ill need to make a user on that site

 

[liveforphysics]

I'm contacting them about getting a 200mW unit, but only if its small, compact, and free of all the silly doo-dads to turn it on. I will keep you guys posted with how my emails go with them.

 

[zigziggityzoo]

I'm contacting them about getting a 200mW unit, but only if its small, compact, and free of all the silly doo-dads to turn it on. I will keep you guys posted with how my emails go with them.

Those "doo-dads" keep the laser legal, and they aren't a bad idea either. Yes. you may be smart enough to use the thing, but others who are not aware of its power could really hurt themselves or someone else in a very permanent way. ESPECIALLY at 200mW.

 

[liveforphysics]

I understand your sentiment, and I have no problem with people chooseing to buy lasers with saftey interlock switches and delays etc. I just personally do not desire those features on the lasers I buy.

I talked to the seller, and he said he would email me some pictures as soon as he got the chance. He said the lasers would be drop-shipped from some company he wouldn't name in China straight to the address we specify. The prices do not include shipping from China. I asked him if he was interested in having a lot of them shipped to himself and then distrubuteing them from the US for shipping speed benifits and removing the customs risks, and he said he wasn't interested in doing that.


So, not exactly sure how to read all of that, however, I've had a lot more flakey deals than this that turned out great, so I supose time will tell.

I will host and post the pictures of the lasers the moment they arive in my email.

If shipping is as outragous as I am used to seeing when dealing with China, I am thinking about doing a GB sort of deal where we just get 1 big shippment in from China, and then mail them seprately to each person via UPS or DHL or something. I'm pretty excited to see these pics! Let me know if anybody would be interested in doing something like this.

-luke

 

[dr_lava]

More info would definitely be great. The fact that they have an IR filter is promising, but more information is needed to see their true value. luke, any info about the diode pump? 500mW again, I'm guessing.

 

[comozo]

I understand your sentiment, and I have no problem with people chooseing to buy lasers with saftey interlock switches and delays etc. I just personally do not desire those features on the lasers I buy.

I talked to the seller, and he said he would email me some pictures as soon as he got the chance. He said the lasers would be drop-shipped from some company he wouldn't name in China straight to the address we specify. The prices do not include shipping from China. I asked him if he was interested in having a lot of them shipped to himself and then distrubuteing them from the US for shipping speed benifits and removing the customs risks, and he said he wasn't interested in doing that.


So, not exactly sure how to read all of that, however, I've had a lot more flakey deals than this that turned out great, so I supose time will tell.

I will host and post the pictures of the lasers the moment they arive in my email.

If shipping is as outragous as I am used to seeing when dealing with China, I am thinking about doing a GB sort of deal where we just get 1 big shippment in from China, and then mail them seprately to each person via UPS or DHL or something. I'm pretty excited to see these pics! Let me know if anybody would be interested in doing something like this.

-luke

There's good reason he may not be interested in redistributuing the lasers himself. By law he would be the importer that puts him under legal obligation to make certain plug and play lasers have the required safety features, if not then the law allows substantial monetary penalties to be levied against him. Btw, the same could happen to you if do what you suggested he should do,but if the lasers have safety features then all is golden and the GB would be a good thing. It's all spelled out on the FDA website.

 

[FNinjaP90]

It's going to take at least a 1W diode to put out 200mw of green.

 

[dr_lava]

exactly.

 

[aaron_inc]

how did you email him when i went to do it you needed to give them all of your details and have your own buisness.
this page does seem pretty trustable, there are alot of cheap(but good)lasers on tradekey.com

 

[liveforphysics]

Ok, I just got off the phone with him again. He says the 200mW unit is small enough that he EDC's one. He also said shipping would be through DHL and would cost about $30-40.

Now for the fishy part... I naturally asked him about the LD pump, and he said it uses a 1w or 1.5w 808nm pump. Ok, so that isn't the fishy part, that was the great sounding part. Here is the fishy part. He said it's powered by 2AAA cell batteries!

He did say that it sucks the batteries down like fatkids with cake, but I'm not certian that 2AAA cells are even able to supply the 1500mA without dropping below 2v, and this would be the sort of power it would need to be able to handle to pump just a 1w 808nm diode. Perhaps someone with a more current understanding of modern AAA battery abilities could set me straight here.

He also told me that the package size makes the jump at 100mW. Appearently all the <100mW units use the same very slim case size, and the >100mW units use a thicker and more bulky solid aluminum case.

Another thing he told me was that the 200mW of green light was the AVERAGE power level, and that they could peak ~280mW when first clicked on, then settled down to about 200mW and held that level until the batteries ran out. I would assume that the batteries would definately be running out in a hurry, but I'm kinda doubtful that AAA's can even carry the required load at all.

So, he said he would have the pic's sent to me by tomarrow morning, but not sooner

I'm kinda doubting that 2AAA's can work with this powerlevel of laser, and the guy was totally clueless about the current it would be pulling from the batteries when I asked, so I'm kinda in the shakey/flakey stage still. He said he would include a 'spec sheet' with the pics, so hopefully that will either clear up my doubts, or scrap the idea.

As far as the legal concerns with distributing them. I was considdering going out of my way to try to help people save on China shipping prices, if I think somebody would be lame enough to try to screw that up, then everybody just buy your own on your own time with your own shipping fees and customs hassles. I'm just a laser enthusiast who likes having fun and helping people.

 

[zigziggityzoo]

aaa batteries is a real turnoff. I really can't see a 200 mW lasting longer than one evening of conservative use...

 

[liveforphysics]

Yeah, thats exactly what I was thinking. ASSumeing the LD driver can function from 2.2v to supply ~2v to the LD, even with the very best NiMh AAA cells you are going to be looking at pidley-squat for runtimes, and that is assumeing the Vdrop wouldn't be so great that it couldn't even function.

Also, from talking with the guy, I would give a rough estimate of maybe 15-18 years old. Seems kinda young to be having agreements with China factories allready, but I suppose its all still possible to be legit. Much flaker seeming deals that I've tried have worked out for me in the past, so I guess I will just keep my fingers crossed

Luke- day-dreaming of EDC'ing a 200mW green laser...Mmmmm.... Gooooood..... bright green light.....gooooooooood......

 

[SenKat]

Count me in as interested ! It DOES sound too good to be true - but at least it isn't in the 4-500 buck range to risk...Keep me in the loop - definitely in !

 

[aaron_inc]

if there is going to be a group buy will we be able to get any of the lasers they have on the site or will it be only one type?

 

[zigziggityzoo]

I think I've heard enough of this to know that this one isn't for me. 15-18 years old? even if that's how old he sounds/acts, and he's really older than that...no thanks.

The whole "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" phrase comes to mind.

To all of you willing to drop $200+ on a laser to some kid still in grade school: good luck.

 

[bootleg2go]

Now for the fishy part... I naturally asked him about the LD pump, and he said it uses a 1w or 1.5w 808nm pump. Ok, so that isn't the fishy part, that was the great sounding part. Here is the fishy part. He said it's powered by 2AAA cell batteries!

Two AAA cells couldn't power a 1 Watt IR pump diode for more than about a second, if even that. Plus a 1 Watt diode is fairly expensive.
No way do these have 1 watt diodes in them, 500mW is maybe, but 200mW is typical for AAA based pointers.

Even 2 C cell alkaline batteries have a hard time powering a 1Watt diode and can only do so for about 2-3 minutes before noticeable power loss due to the battery drain of the 1 amp of current needed to power the diode.

I have charts of an experiment I performed on alkaline vs NIMH showing this on my website.

 

[liveforphysics]

Hi guys! Still no pictures have been mailed to me (said he would have them to me this morning...), and today my phonecalls have not been answered...

Yesterday he seemed extremely eager to move product, today he wont respond... Not digging the MO here, but it is Sunday I supose, so I will try to give him the benifit of the doubt for now.

He said it sucks the batteries dry with-in about 2-3mins of beamtime. Now, assumeing the lasers are actually useing a 1-1.5w LD like he claims, I found some current draw specs for a 1w 808nM LD to be ~1.8v @ ~1200mA. Assumeing LD driver to give 80% of the power drawn from the batteries into the LD, it would appear that after compensating for the internal resistance voltage drop, a typical alkaline AAA cell would be seeing the batteries would be getting taxed at ~1.08A.

According to this chart I found on CPF from SilverFox, it would appear that this kids claims of battery life on 2 AAA cells actually DO match very well with a device useing a 1w LD. Keep in mind, they could be fitted with 1W LD's and then turned down to only output 200mW.

here is the SilverFox chart I found to get my battery data.

Seeing the chart agreeing with what the kid said about 1w diode and AAA battery beamtime has renewed my interest, as he didn't seem smart enough to be able to be takeing a wild guess and land nearly spot on.

The not returning my calls thing is not something I find amuseing, but with the potential rewards here so great (aka, source for 200mW green for $215), I will still persue this to an end to see how it goes. Wouldn't the world be a great place if everybody was as nice to deal with as Arnold at AtlasNova? After thinking about it's really a fairly trivial amount of money to be loseing assumeing I get stung on the deal, so I'm not too worried about how it ends up.

I will definately be keeping you guys in the loop here as things progress (assumeing he didn't just decide to drop off the face of the earth).

If I ever get some product, I will have a unit sent to Dr. Lava to do some testing and perhaps a product review.

 

[aaron_inc]

did he say anything about the reds? they would have a reasonable runtime.