Hi Mazfg,
Welcome back to lasers. It is still cost prohibitive as a hobby, it just involves more lasers at higher powers now. Too much is never enough!
Much like 'the old days', you generally get what you pay for. The cheap eBay stuff may be accurate in their power statements or they may not. What is guaranteed is that cheap lasers have the cheapest of multimode diodes and are thrown together with terrible galvos, poor performing laser drivers, crappy PSUs, lack safety mechanisms, aren't legal for public use in some countries, etc.
There are several threads on vendors that you should read, but decent quality products come from Chinese companies Goldenstar Lasers, Optlasers and Lightspace. Domestic US has X-Laser USA who specialize in beamshow lasers and lasers that integrate seamlessly with lighting boards. Kvant out of Slovakia has laser projectors that incorporate the best galvos available and specialize in both beam and graphics projectors. Specialty vendors like Laser Animation Sollinger provide specialty products like compact lasers in carbon casings. I've listed these vendors in generally the least expensive per watt to most expensive per watt based on my current understanding of the market.
Best of luck to you in finding what will serve you well for years to come!
-David
Originally Posted by
mazfg
It's been a while since I've been on here and my laser hobby has certainly dwindled
Just wondered what anyones thoughts were on this item from ebay.
3W RGB laser projector for under £400
https://www.ebay.com/itm/3W-3000mw-R...53.m1438.l2649
Just 20k scanners but price seems a little too good? Has anyone purchased these at all?
Having spent many years decades ago (when lasers were more of a black art and prohibitive in price) building and putting together systems (for a hobby), I quite fancy just buying something like this, getting a straight forward DAC interface and running some (freeish) software like the stuff from
https://bitlasers.com/
With the price of the above projectors, it could all be done relatively cheaply for what looks like high power laser output.
Many thanks in advance.
PS: They also do this, which is more standalone but power putput is big for price
1.2 W for £150....
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-2W-1200mw...53.m1438.l2649
"Help, help, I'm being repressed!"