# 200mw NEW red laser from deal extreme



## cdesigns (Mar 3, 2008)

Just wondering if have anyone received this laser yet? I ordered one and I hope is a good buy.

*https://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11315*


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## abadcaffeinetrip (Mar 3, 2008)

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## jufam44 (Mar 3, 2008)

I'll stick with greens-A 200mw Red is gonna look as bright as a 50mw green. So think how bright a 200mw green will be? Still, for 50 bucks it's not a bad laser. Please tell us if you like it once you've got it. 

-Max


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## cdesigns (Mar 3, 2008)

jufam44 said:


> I'll stick with greens-A 200mw Red is gonna look as bright as a 50mw green. So think how bright a 200mw green will be? Still, for 50 bucks it's not a bad laser. Please tell us if you like it once you've got it.
> 
> 
> -Max


 
Looks promissing with those (2) 3v batteries as a power source. I just want to burn stuff, and able to see the red beam at daylight would be possible?


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## abadcaffeinetrip (Mar 4, 2008)

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## 2xTrinity (Mar 4, 2008)

cdesigns said:


> Looks promissing with those (2) 3v batteries as a power source. I just want to burn stuff, and able to see the red beam at daylight would be possible?


There is an adjustable lens on the pointer, so you can focus it to a point to burn things.

As far as a burner goes, I'd rather have a red than a green. For one thing, there is absolutely no possibility of there being any IR content in the light. Second, I woulnd't be comfortable with a laser that powerful without protecitve goggles, at which point how bright a laser looks is completely irrelevant.

In the case of a 200mW laser though, a simple refection off a specular surface like glass or a glossy surface is going to be equivalent to hitting yourself in the eye with a 10-20mW laser. I think I'll pass...


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## Crenshaw (Mar 4, 2008)

abadcaffeinetrip said:


> With that said, my 100mW green isn't that visible indoors w/o smoke or something like that.



what kind of 100mw green are YOU using? :thinking:
my 30mw is like a friggin lightsaber indoors at night, even visible in day time, slightly...

Crenshaw


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## abadcaffeinetrip (Mar 4, 2008)

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## cdesigns (Mar 4, 2008)

abadcaffeinetrip said:


> Right now, the air is just about 0% humidity and I have an air filter at home - there isn't any particulate matter for the light to reflect off of! That is the price of clean air (and living in the tundra-like state of MN)


 
Hmmmm I think your laser is over-rated my 5mw and 30mw green laser , I can see the beam on dark enviroment easily. I have an airfilter at home also and that doesn't mean the air is extra clean for particulates to reflect off.


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## AndrewAZ (Mar 4, 2008)

jufam44 said:


> I'll stick with greens-A 200mw Red is gonna look as bright as a 50mw green. So think how bright a 200mw green will be? Still, for 50 bucks it's not a bad laser. Please tell us if you like it once you've got it.
> 
> -Max



Once you get over 100mw in green you really cant tell much of a difference in brightness since its soo freaking bright.

I have several reds ranging from 125mw to 270mw and you cant tell a brightens difference between them but burning difference is amazing. In regards to seeing the beam at night sure the 270mw beam is more visible than the 125mw red but the actual dot does not look brighter,


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## cdesigns (Mar 6, 2008)

I hate when this happends, the laser have 12 Votes - 3 starts out of five, but no reviews.


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## The_LED_Museum (Mar 6, 2008)

I just ordered one - for CPF sakes of course.


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## Apex007 (Mar 6, 2008)

The_LED_Museum said:


> I just ordered one - for CPF sakes of course.



Thanks! I look forward to the review.

I've had a 100mw WL Pulsar for years now. It's been fun, burns stuff, pops balloons, still works like new. It sure cost a lot more than $53 though!

I may have to get this. For some reason I still love red lasers much more than green.

EDIT: Although it probably can only take primary batteries, my experience with red lasers is that they draw very little current compared to greenies. So a pair of 3.0v Li batts should last months if not years. Another reason to love reds.


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## IgorT (Mar 7, 2008)

I'm a little worried about what kind of regulation this uses.. I prefer lasers to maintain a constant power over the entire battery voltage range, which requires current or PD regulation and enough voltage on top (2x3.6V Li-Pos, not 2x3V with a 317 of course).

The green DX lasers have a photo diode in the IR LD, but it would seem, they don't use it at all, even tho the "driver" circuit is complex enough to do it.

As a result, the current is directly proportional to the battery voltage. When they are full, the laser is probably getting too much current, and when they are empty, it gets too little.


I really hope this laser doesn't behave this way. If it is properly regulated, it is definatelly worth the money. If not, the driver shouldn't be too hard to replace.


But I guess we'll know soon enough.


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## IgorT (Mar 7, 2008)

Crenshaw said:


> my 30mw is like a friggin lightsaber indoors at night, even visible in day time, slightly...


 
Which laser is this? Did you ever measure it's output?


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## MMXER (Mar 7, 2008)

Damn nice..... Ill wait for you guys to review it before ordering one. Still pretty cheap for the power...


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## The_LED_Museum (Mar 7, 2008)

Figure that it will be two to three weeks before it arrives here, so you'll need to excersize some patience & restraint until then.


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## RDZombie (Mar 7, 2008)

The_LED_Museum said:


> I just ordered one - for CPF sakes of course.



thanks for making the sacrifice 
cant wait to see your review. DX is like crack; Im having to leave the computer to stop myself from jumping the gun and just buying one.


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## Apex007 (Mar 7, 2008)

IgorT said:


> I'm a little worried about what kind of regulation this uses.. I prefer lasers to maintain a constant power over the entire battery voltage range, which requires current or PD regulation and enough voltage on top (2x3.6V Li-Pos, not 2x3V with a 317 of course).
> 
> The green DX lasers have a photo diode in the IR LD, but it would seem, they don't use it at all, even tho the "driver" circuit is complex enough to do it.
> 
> ...



It's $53, that's "free" in 200mw laser terms. I wouldn't set your expectation bar too high.


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## Illum (Mar 7, 2008)

15270? 15270?!

I didn't know rcr2s existed


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## cdesigns (Mar 8, 2008)

Apex007 said:


> It's $53, that's "free" in 200mw laser terms. I wouldn't set your expectation bar too high.


 
Greenies and blue rays are taking over, wich makes red laser cheaper.

I ordered one and still haven't been ship, last week was waiting for supplier, today says packing on the status. Hopefully it ships soon.


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## cdesigns (Mar 8, 2008)

Apex007 said:


> It's $53, that's "free" in 200mw laser terms. I wouldn't set your expectation bar too high.


 
Greenies and blue rays are taking over, wich makes red laser cheaper.

I ordered one and still haven't been ship, last week was waiting for supplier, today says packing on the status. Hopefully it ships soon.


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## IgorT (Mar 8, 2008)

Apex007 said:


> It's $53, that's "free" in 200mw laser terms. I wouldn't set your expectation bar too high.


 
Well, i don't have any expectations about it.. But these manufacturers could easily include proper driver circuits in their lasers, so that the power would be constant over the entire battery range, for the same manufacturing costs they have now.

Especially with this one, as it actually has place for two cells..
With Li-Pos and a simple constant current source, it could be much better.

On the other hand, i just noticed, that even quality $500 lasers don't have such a driver in them, and their power depends completelly on the batteries.


One of my DIY ~200mW reds is powered by an LM3410 driver, which can regulate the current from only one lipo or even two AAA cells, alkaline or Ni-MHs.. The batteries can discharge down to 2.2V and my laser is still getting 350mA and around 2.86V. And if this driver was produced in large quantities, it would probably cost less than $5..

I got all the main components as samples, so it was basically free.

But if you look at all the components on the "driver" board in DX lasers, they could easily do almost the same thing, but they are not even used in some cases (as discovered by Chimo and Benm on LPF, after reverse engineering one).


I'm just saying it could be done.. But the manufacturers probably don't care about it or don't even consider the possibility.


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## abadcaffeinetrip (Mar 10, 2008)

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## cdesigns (Mar 10, 2008)

Mine in on the way I have tracking number since friday, hopefully gets here this week. I will post some videos as soon I get it.


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## cdesigns (Mar 12, 2008)

4 stars and 21 votes, but were are the reviews, and were is my laserrrr darn it


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## The_LED_Museum (Mar 12, 2008)

Mine shows status as "shipped", so I should have it *WELL WITHIN* the next two weeks. :thumbsup:


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## PhantomPhoton (Mar 13, 2008)

Mine was ordered March 4th and shows shipped on March 8th, so I'm hoping to get it in soon as well. Sure am glad I happened to pick up some green "shade 5" welding/ safety glasses a month or so back. If this bad boy is outputting 200mW I'm sure not going to take any chances. :tinfoilhat:


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## cdesigns (Mar 13, 2008)

Someone already received this laser and posted videos on youtube.

I can't watch the videos from work but here are the links

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3xshPhMVck 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZS1FAzC80E


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## Tech^Cellfish (Mar 14, 2008)

There is now one (long) review up on DX. Performance sounds good, build quality not so good. Looking forward to receiving mine, which was shipped one day ago.


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## Jay T (Mar 17, 2008)

Mine arrived today. It is able to melt through a black plastic bag and to burn a little hole through some dark newsprint. I don't know how long it will hold up, it does seem rather cheap, but, it does burn as promised.


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## The_LED_Museum (Mar 19, 2008)

Mine arrived a short time ago this afternoon; after initially installing the CR2 cells incorrectly (button-end (+) positive out as is typical with most other handheld lasers - this is *WRONG*); I got it to fire up.
Although my laser power meter does not have a high enough maximum power rating to measure, this laser will cause instant incandescence on the black sides of the vanes of a radiometer, and I can feel it on my finger when irradiating them with this laser.

More l8r. :thumbsup:


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## fnmag (Mar 19, 2008)

Interesting. Waiting for more info.


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## The_LED_Museum (Mar 19, 2008)

I measured its wavelength peak at 662.0nm with a spectral line halfwidth of ~1.5nm, and made movie clips of it causing smoke to issue from a mousepad and causing the rather quick destruction of a balloon.


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## Tubor (Mar 19, 2008)




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## The_LED_Museum (Mar 19, 2008)

Here's a sneak peek of the evaluation I'll be publishing tomorrow at midmorning (5:00am to 7:00am PDT 03-20-08). :thumbsup:


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## liveforphysics (Mar 20, 2008)

I picked up 4 of them, and they finally arived. They are the first group of lasers I've bought from DX that all appear to be roughly the same output.  

I'm pleased with the output, and the stability is solid. The only downside is that it isn't a "pocket laser" with the factory adjustable lens setup. Everytime you pull it out of your pocket to point, you have to re-adjust the focus. However, greens are much better for pointer purposes, and for burning/amusement, the adjustable focus is quite handy. 

This is further inspiration for me to make my "photon" keychain sized squeeze light sized 350mw red laser project.

In reguards to visibility for pointing, I would say it seems like about a 10-20mw greenie. The beam is kinda visible in the sky at night, and very visible on objects at night. In daylight, you have to hunt pretty hard to spot the faint beam in compairison with other 200+mw greenies I have which have very visible spots in daylight.

Oddly enough, it seems to burn much better than other very high powered greenies I have. I don't know if this is a function of the longer wavelegnth or perhaps a side effect of the easy focus ability, but they seem to burn things very quickly.


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## Isak Hawk (Mar 20, 2008)

Will it work with RCR2's? I'm guessing no?


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## The_LED_Museum (Mar 20, 2008)

liveforphysics said:


> ...Everytime you pull it out of your pocket to point, you have to re-adjust the focus...


I noticed that too, and wrote that in the laser's evaluation.
Why the collimating assembly is so loose I don't yet know. :/


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## senecaripple (Mar 20, 2008)

The_LED_Museum said:


> Here's a sneak peek of the evaluation I'll be publishing tomorrow at midmorning (5:00am to 7:00am PDT 03-20-08). :thumbsup:



great review, thanks.


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## pyrokid3 (Mar 20, 2008)

Would it be ok to use rechargeable CR2? I know they put out more voltage than 3V and can burn things out. But do you think it would be ok on this laser? If not what batteries do you recommend that wouldn't bust the bank?


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## Cydonia (Mar 20, 2008)

Thanks The_LED_Museum for the information on this laser. The video clips were great too. 




pyrokid3 said:


> Would it be ok to use rechargeable CR2? I know they put out more voltage than 3V and can burn things out. But do you think it would be ok on this laser? If not what batteries do you recommend that wouldn't bust the bank?



:shrug: it's a real head scratcher why they chose to use CR2 and not CR123A. A total deal breaker for me at least... :sick2:


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## IgorT (Mar 20, 2008)

Isak Hawk said:


> Will it work with RCR2's? I'm guessing no?


 
It depends on the driver. If it is current regulated or PD regulated, it would work even better from RCR2s. If it's not, they could kill him.

So far i have yet to see a regulated green from DX or KD. In all the current only depends on the battery voltage, which is a shame. They have enough components on the "driver" board to achieve PD regulation, but they don't use them at all. It's basically the same as direct drive with a resistor and a capacitor, but with more components.

I would hope this one has a proper driver.. It can be verified easily. Just measure the current going in with different battery voltages. If it stays more or less the same, it is regulated. If it drops with the battery voltage it is not.


What i would like to know is something else.. Where can i get RCR2s? 3.6 or 3.7V ones.. On DX they only have 3V CR2s..


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## IgorT (Mar 20, 2008)

pyrokid3 said:


> If not what batteries do you recommend that wouldn't bust the bank?


 
If it should turn out not to be regulated, use the green DX 3V rechargables: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.932
The DX200 red is even depicted with them, even tho it comes without, as far as i know.


I use these in my KD50, and they work very well. Better than primaries.
They can be charged up to 3.6V and discharged down to 2V.

They seem to be Li-Fe-Pos, but the capacity sounds way too high.



So where do you get RCR2s? The 3.6V ones, that can be charged up to 4.2V.. I need them for upgrading some drivers in my unregulated greens, and for future red laser projects.


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## Isak Hawk (Mar 20, 2008)

Both lighthound and fenix-store have AW RCR2's, you can also buy them directly from AW here http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showthread.php?t=173892

Edit: though AW seems to be out of stock


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## IgorT (Mar 20, 2008)

Thanks!

Hope he gets them again...


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## PhotonWrangler (Mar 20, 2008)

I saw Duracell CR2s on clearance at my local Best Buy for $2.99 for a pack of 2.


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## Isak Hawk (Mar 20, 2008)

IgorT said:


> Thanks!
> 
> Hope he gets them again...



Yeah, but it looks like at least lighthound has them in stock.


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## liveforphysics (Mar 20, 2008)

I'm glad they use CR2 cells. For me, keeping the laser package as small as possible is the most important factor in a laser getting used. In other words, if it were bulky enough to fit a pair of 123's, I likely wouldn't want the inconvience of lugging it around, and it wouldn't get used. 

All my large form lasers just sit on a shelf and collect dust. I don't get much value or enjoyment from dust collecting devices.

I am running one with LiFePO4 RCR2 cells, and it's just as bright as energizer lithium primary CR2 cells. 

Also, remember, these 200mw red lasers will have about 3-4 times the battery life of a 200mw green laser, so battery replacement is not really a big issues like it is with greenies.

Best Wishes,
-Luke


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## Timelord (Apr 19, 2008)

WOW!!!!  What can I say this has been one busy thread. I have two of these beasties and will say they are cheap as chips and exceeded my expectations too. I use re-chargeable 3v CR2 batteries in both of mine and I'm pleased to say the they both kick out over 240mw one in particular does 265mw . Now with that in mind goggles are essential (which I'm sure we all know) It fits in the pocket nicely and the focusable head works like a charm. Here's a little youtube video using one of these lasers and my new mobile phone to film this. The phone has a feature on it that can record 120 fps (which means a 3sec video will finish up a 5sec video clip). Thus giving a slow motion video of a match getting destroyed!!! :candle:

*Click here>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX47WELZGuI*


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