This sucks

[BT132435]

Walked around my neighborhood for a few hours... can't fight those $1 red lasers. And there's a lot of those 99 cents / random junk stores

 

[Hemlock Mike]

How do you fight a $1.00 red laser ?? With a 5mW greenie ??
If there's a bunch of kids shining them at you - close your eyes.

Mike

 

[Corona]

Methinx he meant "find" though the post is very...stream-of-consciousness

 

[Kiessling]

Either way ... a somewhat improved / attenuated language would be appreciated. About attitude I dare not even talk

The standard answer in our modern times should be e-bay I guess ... to continue injecting a little negativity ... :sick2:

bernhard

 

[BT132435]

Haha woops, yea i meant find. I did finally find one a few hours later. I bought it and tried it out at the store but it didn't even work so i just returned it. Then i saw a pretty good build quality Red laser at Radio Shack. It was mostly metal, heavy, and the body had that bumpy rough feeling to it. On top of that it came with a really nice metal case. But then i saw the price tag was $30 =\

 

[Hemlock Mike]

BT --

Now I got it !! I looked around North Iowa for those "$1 reds". The dollar stores don't sell them because the schools and other asked them not to !! Seems parents of irresponsible kids were allowing purchase of these "products of terrorism" so they are hard to find here. Probably there too. Deal Extream has some "small reds".

Mike

 

[BT132435]

Yea i know about dealextreme's lasers. The thing is... i want a decent quality laser that uses 2x aaa for under $20 bucks shipped, but i dunno whether to get a Green or Red one. The Green ones are a lot brighter and have a cool factor to them but I plan to not only mess around with it but to use it to play with my cats as well. I think even the 5mW Green pointer would take an eye out with less than 1 second worth of exposure wouldn't it? And not to mention that IR danger stuff. Safety would be the reason to pull me towards buying a Red one.

 

[Timelord]

I hope I don't get hawled over the coals that quickly Bernard I've read the rules and I'm moderator myself (on the LPF), I do on the other hand understand a love for Heavy metal and I also do not respect people shining lasers at or near peoples eyes too. With this in mind maybe lasers for these kind of people are not the answer but some other more decisive method should be employed instead....

 

[Hemlock Mike]

We used to get those $1 to $5 laser "kits" here with all the "cool" tips but no more. GONE :-( The good thing is that those lasers were a POS. They can not be modded and aren't worth your time. I tried pushing several and they died at about 2.5 mW output.

Get a good laser as discussed on these forums. It's better to have one good one than 10 pieces of trash. My red from DX outputs 2.5 mW but uses "R" cells -- It died too when pushed. :-(

BT -- You need to build a REAL red torch - - The info is on these forums and you will be proud of what you make with your own hands -- forget those kids toys.
Mike

 

[FloggedSynapse]

Best I've found lately are at Target, assuming you live close to one. I'm looking at it right now. It can be found in the pet section of the store, marketed as the "laser chase". < $5.00. For the price it's a good pointer . It appears to have a plated brass body, but it's all metal including the end bits. If you unscrew the front cap you can adjust the focus on the diode using a screwdriver. Includes a carabiner for keychain attachment. It runs off those little watch batteries - LR44/357's. I consider this a drawback but I'm able to get energizer 357's for 50 cents a pop. Not bad for a pointer, I haven't changed the original batteries in mine after at least an hour of use.

The package allows you test the output of the laser before opening it. So I pawed through their entire stock and took the brightest and most orange looking one I could find. Probably at least 5mW, ~650 nm.

Here's a link for it:
http://www.petguys.com/-713080900000.html

 

[BT132435]

Cool, looks good Flogged thanks. As for building my own, i was never good at handling small electronic objects. I'd always end up breaking something

Oh, and so would the Green 5mW laser from Dealextreme take an eye out with an accidental shine into the eyes? How long would it take to cause permanent damage anyway?

 

[Fallingwater]

Cheap red pointers are easy to find, but cheap red pointers that run from AAs aren't, at least here.
I've only ever found button-cell powered ones in shops.

In the end I hacked one up myself from a button-cell powered one and a surplus LiIon cell (see relevant thread), but it'd be nice if you could get good ones in shops...

 

[BT132435]

yea those cheap $1 red lasers are for just messing around with. The build quality is so crappy, when i got mine yesterday i returned it immediately lol. Now i'm just gonna buy a 2xAAA Greenie and a 2xAAA Red at DX. Green for power, Red for messin around with cats and such

 

[Corona]

$20? AA powered? No problem! Get an Atlasnova - check out Arnold's site, start here:

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

For a few more bucks you can get a 635nm, and Arnold has been known for offering deals to CPF members, so you owe it to yourself to ask him! You might be able to get a 2nd (scuffed or scratched barrel) for your price point.

 

[chuck]

What about some of the "fancy" DX red LASER units? They have one that works on a CR23 battery, and another that operates on a single AAA (out of stock) that both look darned good.

In person, are these as nice as they seem like they should be? One even mentions the build quality (salesman propaganda?) in the description.

-- Chuck Knight