This laser is virtually the same model that was sold for [...]a while back, with a price hike. I've owned it for about two weeks, and have already gone through 3 sets of batteries, and gotten hours of use out of it.
Although it claims to be 50 mw, it's not. It is, however, fairly bright. I would say that after doing a few mods to the laser, you could get it to top out at 20 mw, but from the factory, it's between 10 and 15. It will not light matches, and after holding it up against a dark colored baloon for a minute or so, there was a visible mark, but it didn't quite pop. However, if you walk into a dark room at night and shine it at the ceiling, you will be able to navigate the room with ease with the light produced. I can shine the laser the whole way across my college campus at night (maybe 1/2 mile), and see the dot on the buildings. The beam is visible at night, and easier to see if there's less light pollution. In a dimly lit room, it's also sometimes visible. When shining it on any given spot in broad daylight, you can still see the spot from a distance. If you accidentally bounce the beam off of something reflective and it catches you in the eye, you'll see spots for a few minutes. My friend shined it on a white piece of paper, then complained it made his eyes hurt. It will nicely point out stars in the sky; watching the beam stretch endlessly up is the coolest thing. If you're looking for a laser for presentations/messing with people/other casual uses, this is the best laser out there for the lowest price. If you want something that can burn, you're looking at at least [...]more.
There is one thing I don't like about this laser. After a few hours of use, the beam was less "clean"- Instead of it being one bright spot, there was a little bit of radiation around it. For example, at 10 feet, the dot was maybe 1/4 inch around, but there was a dim 3" circle of laser light around it. After cleaning the lens, it was better, but it still irritated me to see artifacts projected on my target. Also, the beam spreads out a little bit after a distance (At the source, the beam diameter is less than 1/8 of an inch. At a mile away, the diameter would be about 8 feet). You can effectively see it at 1/2 mile on an object, but that's the max. The lens should be adjustable (It's in a threaded assembly), but I think it's glued in place.
Others have complained about issues with it not lighting properly/the button slipping out of place. 1) Use good batteries! I used Rayovacs, and they worked fine. If you're hardcore, use lithiums. My batteries gave me maybe 2 hours of strong light, which is pretty decent. If your button is funky, something probably got inserted slightly off during assembly. It's easy to fix, read the next section.
For the advanced user: (This is all by memory, but it'llbe close enough):
So, you want to increase the power? It's easy, but you're probably going to leave tool marks, and you have to be decent with small parts. The diode assembly was stamped with [...]on mine, so I guess we now know where it came from.
1. Unscrew the laser in the middle, and take out the batteries
2. Wrap something rubber around the silver tip, grab it with pliers, and twist it back and forth gently while pulling until it comes out.
3. There are four sections: The tip, a tube, the lens section, and the circuit board/diode assembly. Everything else past pulling out the tip unscrews from the other pieces. I tried everything I could to adjust the lens, but it wouldn't budge.
4. (This step I'm a little shady on- I can't remember if the laser diode was screwed into the tip somehow, or if it just sat in there. Just be gentle when removing the cap, and you'll be fine. The rest is easy to figure out). From the middle of the laser, take out the foam around the spring. Take a flat, blunt object, and slowly nudge/push the circuit board out the top. Make sure you don't lose the button!
5. Once you have the circuit board out, you'll notice a tiny variable resistor on the board. It has an indentation for a tiny screwdriver. If you can't find it, you probably shouldn't be trying to do this.
6. The brightest setting on mine was 1/4 turn clockwise, but you might have to play with yours a little more than that. Once again, if you can't find a way to make it light up outside of the housing, you probably shouldn't be doing this.
7. Once you have found your sweet spot, replace everything. When sliding the circuit board back in place (The trickiest part), make sure the button is aligned with it properly!
That's it! Although there are mods to capacitors/resistors you can do, it'll probably overheat the laser and damage the diode. This is the most I'd try to push it. Good luck, and enjoy!
Alright, I knew going into this that it wasn't going to be a 50mW laser. I WAS however, hoping to be able to pot-mod it up a bit, as a previous reviewer claims to've done. At the very least, I've always wanted a green laser, so I figured for the price of a cheap steak dinner, I couldn't go wrong. Well, I ended up with the worst-case scenario.
It's true, it is CERTAINLY NOT a 50mW laser, as advertised. Tuned? Maybe, and in my case that's a bad thing. Because when I cracked it open and went to tune it myself, I was out of luck. The potentiometer was already set almost precisely to the highest setting. I first experimented using the objective appearance of brightness, both in my overcast-daylit home and in a dark closet. Being disappointed that I couldn't crank it up any, I got out the digital multimeter to see if I could tune it up a little bit. Now, I'm no electrical engineer, so my testing methodology may be suspect, but I measured ~125mA draw from the batteries in use -- it's certainly pulling enough juice to *theoretically* put out 50mW. 125mA * ~2.4V (1.2 x 2 NiMH batteries - actually measured directly around 2.53V) = ~300mW. The rest of the equation is up to the efficiency of the circuit. Having seen that, I then tested the resistance of the potentiometer. It has three leads, one on the left, and two on the right. Measuring between the one on the left and the two on the right, I measured that the original setting was just a couple degrees away from minimum resistance. I suppose I could try bridging the pot, but I'm afraid I'd blow the laser diode or my batteries or both. Bottom line, without drastic modifications, this puppy's not getting anywhere NEAR 50mW.
So what is it? Objectively, I'd guess it's somewhere between 5 and 10mW. I'm basing that solely on my experience with 5mW red lasers, and the "rule" that green lasers appear 5x brighter to the human eye than red. It's MUCH brighter than any red laser I've ever had. In a dim room at night (with suburban light pollution filtering in the windows) I can see the beam if I really look for it. If I get nearly on the same axis, I can see it clearly, though not brightly. If I stare at its spot on the wall during the day, I get an afterimage burnt into my retina for a few minutes. I've heard claims that a 50mW green laser will light candles and matches and pop balloons. This will not. It will make a bright green spot on those objects and nothing more. Letting it run for 30sec or so does not generate any noticable heat from the head, and if I put the spot on my finger for that time, I feel nothing at all. This is definitely just a laser pointer, nothing "special." - Laser Pointer - 50mw - Green Laser Pointer - Laser'
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