200mw green laser

[Athoul]

You mean just an unknown bare diode? Or do you mean in a green DPSS setup?

I think you mean a bare diode, but incase it's the DPSS laser, then just look to see if there is a green/blue piece of glass behind the lens. If not then there is IR in the beam.

If it's an unknown diode, then the cheapest ay is to remove the IR filter from a cheap webcam and see if there is a dot showing up on a wall. Other then that it's not going to be very easy to tell if it's emitting IR or not.

 

[livetofall]

In my opinion, no AAA laser is worth more than $150, no matter how high they "claim" the output to be. Yes, they were worth hundreds a few years ago, but now, they're commonplace items that are highly mass produced. They're nothing more than a small diode, driver board, and a brass tube, all of which are mass produced overseas.

Yes, you might get lucky with a module that doesn't burn up past 100mw, but it's still taxing the laser very hard and will probably fail within a few hours of use. The components, design, and heat dissipation of a AAA laser physically limit its output. I can guarantee that it will NOT put out 200mw. Anybody trying to sell you a AAA laser for $500 is downright ripping you off, especially the ones on eBay.

these are actually AA batteries but same difference, decide how much you are willing to put out for a laser and stay with reputable sources...the guys with the good lasers need not go to ebay sales

 

[amph1bius]

yeah

 

[soapy]

Athoul, no, I meant in the whole unit. I'm not about to rip my shiny DPSS Sony laser apart to check for a bit of IR filter that might be a spot of lacquer on a compound lens.

I might try using a prism and a webcam/night vision camera.

 

[abeland1]

With all the discussions about the effect on power ratings of the presence or absence of an IR filter, I decided to sacrifice one of my 35 mW CPF specials for the group. I removed the IR filter from the MCA and then measured the output with my Coherent Lasercheck. The result, a whopping 261 mW. With devices such as this being delivered to users of all ages and degrees of competence, it is only a matter of time until a documented case of permanent eye injury from a handheld laser device will be published. That is all the federal authorities need, and they are waiting for it. We can then say goodbye to our hobby.