Ebay bare pointer module 130 to 200 mw. Inital review.

[chad]

*** UPDATE ***

Thanks to Kevin I received a IR absorption filter and re checked the output. I get a total of 70mw of green with the filter. The filter reflects about 13mw and absorbs about 10 percent at 532 leaving a net of 70mw from 260 measured. I wonder if the cni minis have ir filters in them?

Personally I don't care 70mw is fine for what I want to do with it, and it, so far, is rock solid. When I have time I will hook it up to a flex mod and see how well it modulates.

* no affiliation, no discount, didn't know I was going to review, blah, blah..

First the claimed specs.

Laser Grade Industrial Grade Laser
Condition Brand New
Operating Voltage 2.9V to 3V
Operating Current 650-800mA
Size ￠12×（35.5＋19＋5）mm
Output Power 200mW (130-180mW typical resting output)
Wavelength 532nm
Radian <25×25mm at 15m
Working Temperature ＋20 ℃~＋35 ℃ ( 0 ℃~10 ℃, need 30 seconds warm up in the cold )
Package 1 x A 200mW module 532nm

Price Paid shipped: $80.
Arrived in three days well packed and protected.

The unit itself is well built. No tooling marks, burrs ect. It has a spring for battery contact and the case is positive. It also has two wires for power that bypass the switch.
It has a pot on the bottom. I have not played with this as it is functioning fine and I don't want to break it. I am using the stock driver.

It has a nice clean small beam at output ~.8mm. Divergence is pretty bad as it is adjusted. I am sure I can tune it in a little with a spanner and just adjust the focus a little to tighten the beam up far field. I have not tried this yet As I need to make myself a hollow spanner for it. The beam is about 20mm ( a little under an inch) at 20 feet.

That is the only down side for this module.

Earlier today I fired it up in one of my heat-sinks sitting on my desk. Room temperature ambient conditions and the module didn't get over ninety degrees. It reached some thermal / power equilibrium and stayed at 90. I didn't measure it but it looked just fine.

Tonight I got my power meter back from a friend and Tested it out.
I am using a new, calibrated, Thor Labs power meter.

I did a 10 minute sample from cold (room temp ). 100ms sample rate 7000 samples.
I had the module in my heat sink clamped into a desktop vise (convection cooling was a little better).

My specs. Over 10 min at 3 volt.
Max power: (*220.9mw*) Actual with IR filter 70mw green
Mean power: (*219mw*) Actual with IR filter 70mw green
Min power: (*196mw*) (dip just after turn on) Actual with IR filter 70mw green
Temperature at finish: 82 degrees (ambient 71)
Current: .51A
DC Wattage: 1.52

Summary: Great little module and worth every penny. Smooth transaction. Time will tell longevity. I am planning on driving it with a Drlava FlexMod driver. I will then see how well it modulates. A lucky draw netted me a nice hot one.

Score 92%, only caveat is the focus but that should be an easy fix.

You can look at it here. He is nexbox360 on lpf, PayPal e-mail: eggman54321@yahoo.com , personal e-mail: eggman1345@yahoo.com .

Chad

[chad]

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chad

[badger1666]

i also have that green module , well it looks the same
got mine from laserlands on ebay £37 for the 100mw version and its very good on analog modulation using die4drive
had it running two days solid at the recent uk meet and gave no problems at all

[Junktronix]

do the modules have IR blocking filters?

[chad]

Junk,

I knew I forgot to add something. I don't know. I don't have a spectrometer nor a suitable dicro. Let me give it some thought.

Chad

[allthatwhichis]

I bet is no looking at the picture shot down the barrel...

[Junktronix]

PM me your mailing address and I'll send you some Schott BG38 low pass filter glass. It's not AR coated so it's only about 90% throughput for green, but it will absorb >99% of the IR. So if you put it in the beam and the power drops by 10% or so, there's no IR in there. If the power drops by more than that, then there is IR in the beam.

http://www.optical-filters.com/bg38.html

Kevin

[chad]

Kevin is going to hook me up with a little glass and then I should be able to approximate the ratio of green to ir.

Allthat: I agree from outward appearances it doesn't look like it but there could be something glued prior to the output lens or coated on to the crystal on top of the green hr.

We will see.

Badger: cool, glad to hear that. I am hoping that this one mods ok too.

chad

[chad]

Just a little update.

I ran the module for about 2 hours today. It was in my heat sink clamped in the vice just like the original review. At the end I took another 10 min sample. I changed nothing in between the first test.

It ended at 260mw
This module likes to run a little warm. The room temp today is 76 and the module stabilized at 95 degrees.

The sharp dip at around 3000 is me gently blowing on the heat sink for a couple of seconds.

If this thing modulates half way decently this combined with a flexdrive might make a cheap green 200mw analog laser.

chad

[Things]

Having a nice stable laser CW is one thing, but when you start modulating them, they can end up looking like crap very quickly!

I hope it works well, though