Just ordered a 20mW 405nm laser unit from Aixiz

[fixorater]

Pretty excited as it'll be my first non red or green laser. Anybody bought one of these before? Any tips?

I have the 15mW 532nm kit from aixiz too, it seems pretty overpowered for its supposed rating, I'm hoping to find the same from this new blue/violet module. My 15mW can burn electrical tape nearly instantaneously and can light kitchen matches with black marker on them. I'm wondering if I'd blow out the diode if I tried the 5Volt power supply from my 15mW on this laser instead of the 3.2V its supposed to use.

[swamidog]

you will almost instantly destroy your diode if you give it too much voltage.

Pretty excited as it'll be my first non red or green laser. Anybody bought one of these before? Any tips?

I have the 15mW 532nm kit from aixiz too, it seems pretty overpowered for its supposed rating, I'm hoping to find the same from this new blue/violet module. My 15mW can burn electrical tape nearly instantaneously and can light kitchen matches with black marker on them. I'm wondering if I'd blow out the diode if I tried the 5Volt power supply from my 15mW on this laser instead of the 3.2V its supposed to use.

[fixorater]

Thx, someone on LPF said he'd tried running his at 5V and that it seemed stable, then he ramped up to 12V and fried the diode. I'm going to trust your advice over his. Any opinions on POT modding it if I'm running it off 3.2V? I'd assume that it'd significantly lessen the life of the diode.

[swamidog]

without knowing what diode is in your unit, it's impossible to say what the safe current/voltage range is. my advice is to keep it as is.

Thx, someone on LPF said he'd tried running his at 5V and that it seemed stable, then he ramped up to 12V and fried the diode. I'm going to trust your advice over his. Any opinions on POT modding it if I'm running it off 3.2V? I'd assume that it'd significantly lessen the life of the diode.

[taggalucci]

My 15mW can burn electrical tape nearly instantaneously and can light kitchen matches with black marker on them.

That's awesome news! It seems you've found something useful to do with lasers! God knows we've all been trying to figure out something to do with 'em other than just turn them on and off. You should post your findings over at LPF, they love this stuff. Why not post some black balloon popping videos too.

[fixorater]

Do I sense a certain degree of facetiousness? I only mention that my green Aixiz unit can burn things due to the fact I don't currently have a laser power meter or the spare cash to buy one. Given that fact I don't have much to indicate the actual power of my Aixiz 532nm module. However I have been told that its hard to make electrical tape burn, or a match light without at least 30-50mW of power.

My first impression of this community is that it is significantly more intelligent and knowledgeable that LPF or Wicked's old lasercommunity site and more like the folk I used to chat with on the all but dead Lasers section of Candle Power Forums. I respect that you all aren't just a bunch of kids spending $300 dollars of daddy's money to burn out their retinas. I'm hoping its not just a place for people to harp on newcomers. If you're concerned with 'young uninformed whippersnappers' doing stupid things with powerful lasers, farming them off to the mouth breathers at LPF is only going to fan the flames. Why not try to educate people.

I'm interested in doing more signifiant projects- building custom units and laser show devices etc... but given my financial resources its going to be slow going. So yep- for the moment I might just be occasionally burning things, I might even make a black balloon popping video, but I'll make certain not to post it here.

[GoolGaul]

I'm a member of both forums...

Here, I am learning. watching and reading. Steadily building knowledge, slowly buying parts and making some cool friends. But this isn't the place to talk of the goofier side of lasers. Here they aren't so much toys as they are tools.

There, well... Lasers are toys. plain and simple.

I get it that you were just trying to express the strength of your laser.

[taggalucci]

Hey Fix,

Yes, very much a tongue in cheek post from me. You're very much welcome here

I hope that through the informative posts already hosted on this fantastic forum that you and others find it educational and possibly even entertaining

How about an intro thread from yourself with a bit more about your experience so far with lasers and what you're interested in learning more about? You could also fill in your profile to give the rest of us a better sense of who and where you are so that provided information can be more valid for your location.

I hope you understand why burning things is generally not considered good form here and that was what I was making light of. As this is actually very serious with the powers we're playing with, a good read of the wiki and safety threads would stand you in good stead for having a future with lasers, safe for you and importantly those who may be around you when they're on.

Lots of friendly helpful smart people here, so you're in good company. Again, welcome

[taggalucci]

Double post removed

[gottaluvlasers]

I think we need to be a *little less* "attacking" toward new comers here about the whole pointer issues. TRUST ME, i am annoyed as hell with the whole pointer situation right now also. But i think it be best if we try to educate rather than immediately jump on someone for making a reference toward a pointer.

Our community here (for the most part) is much more educational than many of the other forums out there. If we turn new members off due to our sarcasm and/or "attack" on them regarding laser pointers, it is a potential person we could have corrected when they ask a question.

All of us here know that burning tape with lasers is boring and WAAAAAY beyond what 99% of us do with our coherent light. But try to remember back to that very first time we got a "hot" beam in our hands. we *ALL* burned the shit out of EVERYTHING!!!

Education and direction is the #1 deterent (sp?) to start changing the way people use pointers.

--ok, after school special pep talk over!--

-Marc