If the seller has a distributor state-side, you don't have to worry about customs. Worth looking into. If not, ask if they will replace it free, if it's confiscated in customs. Paying with PayPal can help assure you that you won't be out the bucks if you end up with nothing. As far as home testing, my 20mW and 100mW came with a print-out in the form of a graph that showed output during a short test period. Most lasers put out peak power initially, then drop-off a mW or two after a few seconds. Not all sellers include a laboratory output test graph. I have a lux meter with digital display, so what I did was measure my two lasers with known outputs, then extrapolated for other units that fell in-between those two extremes. The 100mW is just about at the peak brightness that the lux meter can handle, on the highest range scale. It's not precise, but I think it's good to about +/- 5%. On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 4:32 PM, Richard Tenney <retenney@yahoo.com> wrote:
Those prices are amazing ($27.99 for a 200 mw model), but they do warn you that customs may open them and take them if you're one of the small percentage of unlucky ones. Some of you have indicated you tested them; how did you do that? (for those of us electronically challenged)...?