This is a review of the laser I bought from Bridge and Sandy about a month back. It is a 100 mw dpss blue that is doing 143 mw. I metered it at Laser-Wave when I bought it. Im on tour with 42nd street right now, and we're going all over Asia, we started in longgang, china, and have gone all through it in the past four months. the China leg of our tour terminated in Tianjin, with a week off in beijing (if you ever find yourself here, be sure to stop by the tree in sanlitun).
Anyway, the laser. Let me just say that I'm impressed with the build quality, it looks to be a sturdy piece, and has already held up after a few not-too-gentle truck rides, not to mention a small ocean voyage. when looking at the laser, it's easy to notice the nice package the head comes in. it Looks sleek and professional, and it feels solid. there are fans on everything, and indeed, this laser doesn't even get warm while running. the driver board stays fairly cool as well. I don't have an infrared thermometer, but at some point I'll pick one up and then I can give you guys actual data.
Looking past the obvious points, it is clear that some earnest, dedicated work has gone into the production of this laser. the power lead from the driver to the supply has crimped ring terminals that have been insulated with heat shrink tubing. this is a process that takes considerable extra time than just using insulated crimp terminals, but it gives a much cleaner looking and more durable product. this is a good indicator of the attention to quality a company pays to it's manufacturing process.
as for the driver board, it's a nice, solid little unit with better cooling than a ford escort. the only time it got warm was when I left it running overnight on top of the power supply, and then it was only warm to the touch, nothing major.
as for the head, it's pretty much the same story, it is solidly built and pretty to look at. My only gripe is the cable entry into the laser head itself. On mine it just goes through a hole in the back of the laser, I don't know what kind of strain relief is in there, but the cable has quite a bit of movement. Since this laser was designed to be mounted in one location and not moved after that, I don't consider this to be a big issue,but I consider it worth mentioning.
anyway, as far as actual beam data, the only thing I can give you is spot sizes. at 6 inches from the aperture, the spot was approximately 2.6 mm in diameter (not really that easy to measure, so this is not a precise number by any means).
at 10 feet, the spot is 3.64mm in diameter, and at 74 feet (the farthest I can shoot the laser in this particular theatre), the spot size is 17.06mm. also at this distance it does not appear to be a consistent dot, it has a few lobes that seem to be focused to one point. this is only noticable if you walk right up to the dot and look at it, something I was wary of doing, even with safety glasses (bridge threw those in for free). I was going to take a picture of the dot, but the camera I borrowed died on me. at some point I'll try to get a picture of it so you can see what I'm talking about.
anyway, I feel I got one hell of a deal on this laser, and had a great time picking it up. how often do you get to meet a manufacturer, tour their facility, and sit around talking and drinking tea befor you take a laser home with you? I had a great time, and cannot wait until I can buy a dac and get my projector build underway.
here are a few (bad) pictures of the laser and beam, including a shot of the smaller supply that Laser-Wave makes, this one is 85-265v autosensing. it kicks out 5v/8a.