Laser Light Purchasing Questions

Dan Mosley

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1,169
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Palm Springs, Ca
Ok so I started looking around for a place to get a couple of new lasers from - Amazon has a few listed and I was wondering what the difference is in them or if anyone uses something better ?

Below are the names of the one that I have bought in the past:
RED Laser Module 8mm X 25mm - 650nm 3 Volt <1mW

Then I see these other 2 listed as well -
RED Laser Module 8mm X 25mm - 650nm 3 volt
RED Laser Module 8mm X 25mm- 635nm 5 Volt <5mW

Any thoughts on which would be better to buy ?....................or other vendors and what are others using in their Monster Hollowing rigs ????
Also wondering which measurements would matter most? is 8mm the round and 25mm the length?........I can adjust the volts on the little transformer box to 5 volt I guess ........the 650 or 635 is that the brightness ? .........wondering if there are better or cheaper lasers out there......I know Ebay has them in bulk but not sure about the brightness etc............ anybody shed some light on the specs or suggestions ??

Thanks Dan
 
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Fred.............thanks for the link - just not sure if the size and watt stuff would match - I know the 8x25-650m 3 volt - <1mw will work as I have used them - the ones I currently have I bought online awhile back. Im sure Monster would send me another one if it was a faulty part but these were from another vendor.

Bernie......just looking for a source for replacements but trying to ensure I match up the size - specs - and trying to understand the specs - I know the lasers are probably bought in bulk when making the rigs but I thought I may find additional sources
 
I'm guessing the 3v would be easier to service from a battery standpoint...two AAA's and your set. I really don't know what combination makes up 5v...but a good guess is that it's expensive!
 
The nanometer number is the wavelength - i,e, the color. Blue Lasers run from 360 to 480 nm (I had to look it up), while visible red lasers run from about 630 to 680 nm (or up to 900 nm, but then they are outside the visible color spectrum - fine for an industrial bar code scanner that can see infrared, but not for a laser pointer.

A 1 milliwatt laser will be far less bright than a 5 milliwatt laser. I suspect that they are rater "less than" 1 mw or less than 5 mw because of the shielding you may need, to keep from hurting someone's eyes who accidentally look directly into the laser. Since a laser light goes straight, it does not get significantly dimmer when you are farther away, so some jurisdictions restrict casual users to less than 1 mw power in something like a laser pointer.

Trivia... some bar code readers have a fairly powerful laser outside the visible spectrum, that actually does the reading, and a fairly low power red laser pointed close to the same area, that is to help people know where the reading is occurring. Why do I know this xxxx? Because a customer had a bar code reader where the red laser was a half inch away from the "reading" laser, and their operators were having trouble. The solution - point the scanner just under the bar code.
 
Charlie...........thanks............I know the ones with the Monster are <1mW ones mentioned above...........it may be a better to try the 5mw.............

Still puzzled by the price differences between the exact match and some of the others - going to see if Lyle or someone will post a response to - ill let you know
 
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