Help me; is this a good buy???

Hey all
Its great to be a part of such a good forum, filled with some good information. Well Ive been looking around ebay for a green laser to purchase, and I stumbled upon this one.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ASTRONOMY-GREEN-LASER-Pointer-5mW-532nM-5-mW-532-nM_W0QQitemZ5855191309QQcategoryZ94882QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

It looks pretty good to me, Im no laser pointer expert, but the craftmenship looks well done. Oh, I was also a little baffled as to what someone told me. Someone said that these 5mW 532nM green laser pointers can be seen in low hovering clouds when pointed at, is this true?????

Thanks in advance for your replies, they are well appreciated

I've heard both good and bad things about it. I've heard that is is solid, but also I've heard it seems unbalanced. This is not really that big of an issue however, the main thing is how well it performs. Their add is somewhat different then I've seen for this kind of laser, not that the product is no good just that the add is a bit misleading. That laser is set as close to 5mW as possible, but generally all lasers have a <sign unless they are class 4. That laser will still be <5mW.

My only question to you is, was there a reason you were interested in that particular unit?

Well what interested me the most about it was the fact that its size is relatively smaller than most units out in the market.

It says its a class 3 laser

One **NEW** 532nM 5mW Class III Green Laser Device

Jorge said:

Well what interested me the most about it was the fact that its size is relatively smaller than most units out in the market.

It says its a class 3 laser

One **NEW** 532nM 5mW Class III Green Laser Device

Click to expand...

Could this laser possibly pop a ballon, if not can it be modded to do so; what mod could be done to accomplish the task. I was reading through the forums, and I saw people mention this kind of stuff.

What are good websites to purchase lasers like this one, or better, like the high power ones???

Thanks

haha, in order to be able to pop a balloon, you'd need it to be at least 55mW...

sometimes even 75mW because only a select "55mW" ones will pop balloons.

ok, can that laser be modded to pop some balloons?

Yes, you can file a sharp place on one end. Then it will pop balloons.

hahaha, didnt expect that one. I thought you could mod the laser by putting some attachment to the front end with some lenses.

Most people modify lasers by boosting the power internally by altering the circuitry. You're probably not going to be able to gain that much doing so, though, and if your expressed purpose of having a laser is to pop a balloon there's other options to explore. I'd rather pop them with something either sharp or a projectile of some sort, but that's just me..

The specifications simply state "Class III", with no distinction between IIIA or IIIB.
This is *very* important.

Class IIIA lasers output beam powers of 1mW to 4.99mW; and Class IIIB lasers output beam powers of 5mW to 499.99mW.

According to CDRH regulations, lasers sold as "pointers" must be rated Class IIIA or lower - that is, their power output cannot exceed 4.99mW.

1/ The laser in the above link is about 4.99mW (just under 5mW and very close to the full output mark) so it is a true Class IIIA <5mW 'pointer'.

2/ It cannot be modified without destroying the case and possibly the diode in the process.... Such a person doing so will need to possess both specialised micro-circuit soldering tools and a very good understanding of electronics. (To buy a user-modifiable laser, you'd be better off to try to find some old 'Leadlight 105' laser pointers... - the most you will likely be able to get out of the Leadlight laser will be about 7-25mW. If the crystals happens to be super efficient and very well aligned, you may get closer to 40mW from such a laser but the odds extremely are low).

3/ The price seems quite reasonable for the one on the link. I'd buy one.

4/ The photograph being used to market this laser is unrealistic and overaccentuates the brightness of the beam by a factor of several hundred times. It appears to consist of a picture taken with a digital camera (*which are sensitive to laser light) of a guy exhaling cigarette smoke into the laser beam which in turn seems to make a very bright beam.

5/ You can indeed use a <5mW laser (532nm/Green) as an astronomy pointer. Ideally though, anything either side of 20mW is closer to ideal though. My preference is 20-35mW for astronomy. The beam should appear as a ghosly lime coloured line to your eyes if you look down the shaft of the beam when it's pointed away from you. The beam will only be visible indoors in lowlight when there's a small amount of smoke/dust in the air.

6/ Since this appears to be your first green laser, you will be amazed at how much brighter the green dot will appear to your eyes compared to the old red laser pointers.

Here's a <5mW Leadlight at it's typical 5mW strength... but the shot is about 4 seconds in duration. Still, that's a pretty bright effect when you fill the room with the smoke from an incense candle:


The last picture shows a <5mW with a <10mW and a <30mW
laser for comparison... You can see that the beam is visible to the eye with just a tiny bit of smoke in the room from an extinguished candle.


You can expect the same results from the laser seen in the weblink you posted. But note that the picture they have used is rather misleading (though a cool pic nontheless). It almost appears as if the user has a >1000mW laser pointed into his mouth in that pic. I'm sure he'll sell plenty as a result.