# Evaluation of the 200mW red laser module from DX



## The_LED_Museum (Mar 20, 2008)

As I've done with several other lasers (because some people cannot access my website), this is my evaluation of the 200mW red laser from DealExtreme.

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*200mW Red Laser Module, retail $53.80 (www.dealextreme.com/details.dx...)
Manufactured by (Unknown)
Last updated 05-06-08
*










(In reference to the small package I received from DealExtreme around 2:02pm PDT on 03-19-08):
{_sung like the Foreigner song "Feels Like the First Time"_}





This is a high-powered laser module that operates from two CR2 lithium cells. It generates a red beam (measured spectrographically at 662nm) with enough power to burn, destroy, and leave wrinkles everywh...o wait!!! wrong infomercial!!!



, and it has a low enough current consumption that you won't be running to the store for batteries every day or two.

The optical power output is advertised at 200mW; though I do not have an instrument that can measure power levels this high, it produces effects consistent with a high-powered laser: it destroys balloons rather quickly, ignites tobacco, causes smoke to issue from a mousepad, burns the black sides of the vanes in a Crooke's radiometer, causes a tactile heat sensation on exposed flesh, etc.





SIZE






Feed the laser two new CR2 lithium cells first (see directly below), and _THEN_ you can go hose something down with it.

Press the button on the tailcap until it clicks to turn the laser on; repeat the same action to turn it back off.
This is continuous or hands-free mode.

Press the same button more lightly (before it clicks) and hold it that way for as long as you need the intense red spot, and release it to turn the laser off.
This is momentary or signalling mode.


The beam divergence (focus) is adjustable simply by turning the bezel (the domed end of the laser) one way or the other.
Counterclockwise brings the focal point closer; clockwise moves the focal point farther away.






To change the batteries in your 200mW red laser module, unscrew and remove the tailcap, gently place it on the ground, and kick it into the garden so the hungry, hungry praying mantids will think it's something yummy to eat and subsequently strike at it...O WAIT!!! YOU'LL NEED THAT!!! So just set it aside instead. 

Tip the two used CR2 lithium cells out of the barrel and into your hand, and dispose of or recycle them as you see fit.

Insert two new CR2 lithium cells into the barrel, button-end (+) positive first. This is the opposite of how batteries are installed in most other laser pointers/laser modules, so please pay attention to polarity here.

Screw the tailcap back on, and be done with it.
Aren't you glad you didn't kick that tailcap into the garden with all those hungry, hungry praying mantids now?









Here is what a praying mantis looks like.
I found this guy on the morning of 09-08-06 clinging to the basket of my scooter.


Current usage measures 280mA on my DMM's 4A scale.






This is a laser module, not a flashlight. So I won't throw it against the wall, stomp on it, try to drown it in the toylet bowl or the cistern, run over it, swing it against the concrete floor of a patio, bash it open to check it for candiosity, fire it from the cannonada (I guess I've been watching the TV program "Viva Piñata" too much again



- candiosity is usually checked with a scanner-type device on a platform with a large readout, with a handheld wand that Langston Lickatoad uses, or with a pack-of-cards-sized device that Fergy Fudgehog uses; and the cannonada is only used to shoot piñatas to piñata parties away from picturesque Piñata Island), send it to the Daystrom Institute for additional analysis, or inflict other punishments upon it that I might administer to a flashlight. Therefore, this section of the laser's web page will seem a bit more bare than this section of the web page on a page about a flashlight.

This is a directly-injected laser though, who's active components are the laser diode and the collimating lens. So it should withstand accidents better than a DPSS (diode pumped solid state) laser - the type of laser assembly found in yellow (593.5nm), green (532nm) and blue (473nm) laser pointers & laser modules (handheld or laboratory). These lasers have several additional components (crystals, filters, etc.) in the optical train, and you can knock them out of alignment by doing little more than looking at them the wrong way. And if any of these components are knocked out of whack, you'll no longer get your yellow, green, or blue laser beam.





****EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!!!****
This laser is a CDRH Class IIIb instrument because of its high output power; so you definitely do not want to shine it into your eyes, other people's eyes, pets' eyes, for that matter, the eyes of any person or animal you encounter.



Eye damage can occur faster than the blink reflex can protect them, regardless of what species' eyes you irradiate with this laser. So just don't do it.




And fer chrissakes (and for heaven sakes and for Pete sakes and your sakes too) do not shine this laser at any vehicle, whether ground-based like a motorcycle, car, or truck, or air-based like a helicopter, airplane, or jet. And if you shoot it at a person in the dark and he turns out to be a police officer, he may think he's being targeted, unholster (pull out) his gun, and hose you down with it.
:shakehead :shakehead :shakehead :shakehead :shakehead :shakehead :shakehead 

The collimating assembly feels loose, despite the presence of a spring between the laser diode assembly and the collimator assembly.
The collimating assembly goes out of your preferred setting through just casual handling; to hold it in your preferred position, you may use a small piece of tape.

There is a spring between the collimating assembly and the laser's barrel; please be careful not to lose it if you unscrew the collimator so much that you remove it. If the collimating assembly is intentionally removed, please be certain to place the spring where it will not become lost or go up the "vaccuummnne" (vacum, vaccum, vacume, vaccumn, vaccume, vacuum, etc.) cleaner so you'll have it handy when you reassemble the laser later on.

I tried to cut through this laser's barrel with the blade of a Gerber folding knife, and I was rather easily able to.
This tells me that the laser probably has a baked enamel finish to it.
Would I really try to chop up a brand spanken new laser I paid perfectly good money for?
You bet your sweet patootie I would, if it's in the name of science.












Beam photograph (collimated) on the test target at 12".
The spiking you see is a camera artifact; the beam has a very clean appearance to it in reality.
Beam image also bloomed *SIGNIFICANTLY*.
The white & yellow color you see was also caused by the camera.
Power output is significantly too high to measure with the instruments at my disposal.






Beam photograph (collimating ***'y removed) on the test target at 12".






Beam photograph on a wall at ~10 feet.
The spiking you see is a camera artifact; the beam has a very clean appearance to it in reality.
Beam image also bloomed *SIGNIFICANTLY*.
The white color you see was also caused by the camera.

Those rectangular graphic things in the upper left quadrant of this photograph are marquees from:

Atari ''Tempest''
Nintendo ''R-Type''
Super Tiger...er...uh...Konami ''*Super Cobra*''




Midway ''Omega Race''
Sega ''Star Trek''
Williams ''Joust''
Venture Line ''Looping''
Universal ''Mr. Do!'s Castle''
Jaleco ''Exerion''
Gremlin/Sega ''Astro Blaster''
Gottlieb ''Q*bert''

upright coin-op arcade video games from the 1980s.


That graphic toward the right is:
A "*BIG SCARY LASER*" poster sent by www.megagreen.co.uk

Below the "Big Scary Laser" poster is a calendar my sister gave me.

That clock to the right of the "Big Scary Laser" poster is an Infinity Optics Clock.

And those faint green spots you MIGHT see are from a Laser Stars unit.






Photograph of the CDRH label.
This appears to be a rather generic label; there were pen marks checked in the most appropriate boxes,
but the markings wore off before I could photograph them.






Photograph of one side of the driver circuit board.






Photograph of the other side of the driver circuit board.






Spectrographic analysis of this laser.






Spectrographic analysis of this laser; spectrometer's response narrowed to a range of 650nm to 670nm.
Peak wavelength appears to be 661.5nm, with a spectral line halfwidth of ~1.5nm.
USB2000 spectrometer graciously donated by P.L.






Beam cross-sectional analysis; collimating assembly removed.
_Image made using the ProMetric System by Radiant Imaging._



WMP movie (.avi extension) showing the product burning a mousepad.
This clip is approximately 1.88 megabytes (1,980,916 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than seven minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

An episode of "The Fairly OddParents" was playing on the boob tube when this recording was made.
This product is not sound-sensitive; the sound may be ignored or muted if desired.


WMP movie (.avi extension) showing the product causing a balloon to "destruct".
This clip is approximately 0.60 megabytes (617,234 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than two and a half minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

An episode of "The Fairly OddParents" was playing on the boob tube when this recording was made.
You should also hear the sound of the explosive decompression of the balloon.
This product is not sound-sensitive; the sound may be ignored or muted if desired.

I cannot provide either clip in other formats, so please do not ask.





*TEST NOTES*:
Test unit was purchased on the DealExtreme website on 03-07-08, and was received on the afternoon of 03-19-08.




*UPDATE:* 04-11-08
With just one CR2 cell installed, current usage measures 45mA and the unit appears to be rather dim - right at lasing threshold or perhaps just below.
Open-circuit voltage of the CR2 cell was 3.022 volts.
This tells me that the product probably isn't regulated, but that it *DOES* have a driver circuit in it.



*PROS*:
Exceptionally brilliant red laser beam
Beam focus is easily adjustable
Reasonably durable metal body


*CONS*:
Beam focus is perhaps...*TOO EASILY* adjustable
Uses batteries that may be expensive and/or difficult to find









*
MANUFACTURER: Unknown/not stated 
PRODUCT TYPE: Red-emitting laser module 
LAMP TYPE: Directly-injected red diode laser 
No. OF LAMPS: 1 
BEAM TYPE: Adjustable collimator; varies between pinpoint spot to medium spot w/sharp perimeter 
SWITCH TYPE: Pushbutton on/momentary/off on tailcap 
CASE MATERIAL: Metal 
BEZEL: Metal; laser diode protected by a lens 
BATTERY: 2xCR2 cells 
CURRENT CONSUMPTION: 280mA 
WATER RESISTANT: Very light splatter-resistant at maximum 
SUBMERSIBLE: NO WAY, HOZAY!




ACCESSORIES: None 
SIZE: 5.05" (128.0mm) L, 0.65" (17.0mm) D 
WEIGHT: 2.7oz (76.545g) 
WARRANTY: Unknown/not stated 


PRODUCT RATING:*


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## IgorT (Mar 21, 2008)

Did you perhaps check the current consumption with different battery voltages?

Does it drop with the battery voltage, or does it stay the same down to a certain voltage?


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## The_LED_Museum (Mar 21, 2008)

I'll have to burn a set of CR2 cells through it before I can even think of making a determination of whether or not it is regulated.


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## IgorT (Mar 21, 2008)

Yeah, i forgot.. This uses up batteries way more slowly, than greens.
There it would be apparent immediatelly.

But it would be good to know, if they finally managed to make a regulated laser..


I guess we'll find out soon enough.


BTW, the burning video is amazing. I've never seen something smoke so fast. But i never tried on a mousepad before..


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## fnmag (Mar 22, 2008)

Excellent review, thanks. Looks like it's worth the relatively small investment. :thumbsup:


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## Kenom (Mar 23, 2008)

it's important to note that there have been reviews of this particular laser on other forums and they have been metered at 200 and above. peaking at something like 227mw. so even though the cost is low, it's still capable of outputting what it's advertised as. 

Sadly it's been dubbed the dilda-lazor. I think photon phalus is much better.


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## Miracle (Mar 24, 2008)

I am interested in the red 'beam'?

does it produce a very visual distinct red beam of laser?

or is the beam only very slightly visible if at all?


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## The_LED_Museum (Mar 24, 2008)

The beam itself is only slightly visible - not ***NEARLY*** as visible as the beam from a green laser of similar power output.
I took a couple of photographs this morning that do show the beam, but since they're outdoor photographs and as such are a rather severe CPF no-no, you'll have to see the evaluation on my website in order to view them.


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## cdesigns (Mar 28, 2008)

The_LED_Museum said:


> I'll have to burn a set of CR2 cells through it before I can even think of making a determination of whether or not it is regulated.


 

I can do that test for you using different voltages with my adjustable powersupply, if I'm not mistaken mine was pulling 320mAh @ 6.5v STOCK, after the pod adjustment it was pulling 340-350mAh @ constant 6.5v.

With 6v is around 280-300mAh. I will chek my number when I get home. I will try lower voltage to see how it changes.


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## Tachikoma (Apr 9, 2008)

Finally received it (after more than a month waiting), I had to spend $15 to buy 2 Cr2 batteries in a local store:shakehead


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## The_LED_Museum (Apr 10, 2008)

IgorT said:


> ...But it would be good to know, if they finally managed to make a regulated laser...


With just one CR2 cell installed, current usage measures 45mA and the unit appears to be rather dim - right at lasing threshold.
Open-circuit voltage of the CR2 cell was 3.022 volts.

Going by this (the laser right at threshold at ~3 volts), it's probably not regulated. :shakehead


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## siggis (Apr 14, 2008)

Hello,

got mine today, with 2xCR2 it's about 260mA. I removed the 6R2 smd resistor at the input and bridged the pins with a piece of wire, running it now with a Ultrafire 14500 LiIon rechargeable. Without the resistor, regulation suffered a bit. With a fresh 4.2V it's at 280mA dropping to about 200mA with a rather empty one at about 3.5V. Fine with me. And I strechted the spring a bit, to keep in touch with the shorter battery. So if you don't wan't to burn through CR2 primaries, I guess that is the way to go.

-sm

PS. Never put 2xCR2 in after doing this, it will likely fry the regulator and led.


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## Tachikoma (Apr 14, 2008)

I've ordered these http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.932 , I only hope I don't fry the laser...


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## siggis (Apr 14, 2008)

Tachikoma said:


> I've ordered these http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.932 , I only hope I don't fry the laser...



Likely not, fresh charge voltage is a bit higher the primary CR2 but as long as the resistor is in there it will just convert another 500mV or so into heat. Thought about using those but I prefer the 14500, has more juice.

:thinking: Title says 800mAh, picture says 600mAh, likely 300-400mAh. 

-sm


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## Tachikoma (Apr 14, 2008)

I know, maybe there are better ones, but here RCR2 cost a whopping $18 each!


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## The_LED_Museum (May 6, 2008)

*BTTT* (*B*ash *T*arragon *T*arragon *T*arragon {_O NOOO!!!!! Now I'm beating up poor defenseless spices!!! _})
Added two photographs of its driver board assembly.


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## ks_physicist (May 6, 2008)

CR2 cells seem to be made from hen's teeth around here.

I'm looking to see if I can disassemble one of those two-CR2 battery packs to get the bare cells out, since that will save me about $6 per pair.


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## southpaw (May 9, 2008)

Did anyone ever test to see if 2 3.7V rechargables would be ok to use in this? Did I miss it?


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## pyrokid3 (May 10, 2008)

l got mine, out the batteries in and....NOTHING. Broken, I guess I will have to send it back... bummer. :mecry:


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## The_LED_Museum (May 10, 2008)

Did you check to be certain that the batteries were installed nipple-end (+) positive toward the head?
This is the opposite of how the batteries are installed in most other lasers; so it's very easy to screw this part up.


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## pyrokid3 (May 11, 2008)

It came with a diagram for the batteries, and I even tried it both ways after it didnt start. I will just have to send it back.


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## The_LED_Museum (May 11, 2008)

Mine had no such diagram; I initially installed the batteries incorrectly, got no beam, and the first thing I did was remove the batteries and reinstall them the other way.


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