I picked up one of the ten-dollar laser pointers at last night's SLAS meeting. Hey, for ten bucks, how can you go wrong? It's been a few years since I owned a 5mW laser and I wanted to see if my memory of the beam visibility was good. The dot is pretty bright but the beam wasn't visible outdoors from my suburban home location last night except dimly when directly on-axis. To be expected from a 5mW unit, my memory is still good on that score. The included alkaline batteries lasted for about 3 minutes of intermittant use. I replaced them with a new set of alkaline cells and they only lasted about 3 minutes. Obviously this unit is defective. There is some kind of internal drain even when the unit is off. I'll be contacting the gentleman who sold it to me, he included his business card in the box. Anybody else who bought one of these units experience rapid, premature battery drain? As of right now, I cannot recommend this unit, even at ten bucks. But we'll see what happens. I'm open to a straight exchange for another unit but if that one has the same problem, I'll ask for a refund and chalk it up to lessons learned about buying cheap. I'm not getting rid of my 20mW and 100mW units anytime soon.
I just heard back from Andrew is he is very apologetic. He intends to replace it. Good follow-up service. Stay tuned. On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 8:23 AM, Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> wrote:
I picked up one of the ten-dollar laser pointers at last night's SLAS meeting. Hey, for ten bucks, how can you go wrong? It's been a few years since I owned a 5mW laser and I wanted to see if my memory of the beam visibility was good.
The dot is pretty bright but the beam wasn't visible outdoors from my suburban home location last night except dimly when directly on-axis. To be expected from a 5mW unit, my memory is still good on that score.
The included alkaline batteries lasted for about 3 minutes of intermittant use. I replaced them with a new set of alkaline cells and they only lasted about 3 minutes.
Obviously this unit is defective. There is some kind of internal drain even when the unit is off. I'll be contacting the gentleman who sold it to me, he included his business card in the box.
Anybody else who bought one of these units experience rapid, premature battery drain?
As of right now, I cannot recommend this unit, even at ten bucks. But we'll see what happens. I'm open to a straight exchange for another unit but if that one has the same problem, I'll ask for a refund and chalk it up to lessons learned about buying cheap. I'm not getting rid of my 20mW and 100mW units anytime soon.
Chuck, Are these really 100mw lasers? http://www.lazerpoint.com/search/100mw?sortby=topsellers&page=1&pagesize=100... Sig On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 12:20 PM, Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> wrote:
I just heard back from Andrew is he is very apologetic. He intends to replace it. Good follow-up service.
Stay tuned.
On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 8:23 AM, Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> wrote:
I picked up one of the ten-dollar laser pointers at last night's SLAS meeting. Hey, for ten bucks, how can you go wrong? It's been a few years since I owned a 5mW laser and I wanted to see if my memory of the beam visibility was good.
The dot is pretty bright but the beam wasn't visible outdoors from my suburban home location last night except dimly when directly on-axis. To be expected from a 5mW unit, my memory is still good on that score.
The included alkaline batteries lasted for about 3 minutes of intermittant use. I replaced them with a new set of alkaline cells and they only lasted about 3 minutes.
Obviously this unit is defective. There is some kind of internal drain even when the unit is off. I'll be contacting the gentleman who sold it to me, he included his business card in the box.
Anybody else who bought one of these units experience rapid, premature battery drain?
As of right now, I cannot recommend this unit, even at ten bucks. But we'll see what happens. I'm open to a straight exchange for another unit but if that one has the same problem, I'll ask for a refund and chalk it up to lessons learned about buying cheap. I'm not getting rid of my 20mW and 100mW units anytime soon.
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-- Siegfried
Those prices seem absurdly low! I'm not familiar with that company. My 100mW isn't a "pen" type, it's more the length and girth of a frankfurter. I see similar ones on that webpage. If the company and prices are legitimate, those are a steal. Like any electronics, the laser you buy today will be half that price in 8 months. On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 1:55 PM, Siegfried Jachmann <siegfried@jachmann.org>wrote:
Chuck,
Are these really 100mw lasers?
http://www.lazerpoint.com/search/100mw?sortby=topsellers&page=1&pagesize=100...
He's going to mail a replacement out to me at no charge. The plan is for me to return the defective one to him at the next club meeting. Great service. Watching my mailbox. On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 12:20 PM, Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> wrote:
I just heard back from Andrew is he is very apologetic. He intends to replace it. Good follow-up service.
Stay tuned.
Just to be sure that I didn't put in two pair of dead (but new) batteries, today at lunch I bought another pack of brand-new AAA cells and installed two of them. The laser worked fine for the thirty seconds I tested it. At home at 4:30, it still produced a bright green dot for the ten seconds I tested it. Tonight at 8:00 PM, the batteries are dead. Andrew sent a follow-up email that he was dropping a replacement in the mail in the morning. If anyone else bought one of these and only tried it out the night you bought it, I'd appreciate it if you'd stick some fresh batteries in it and leave them in overnight. Then check it the next day and let me know if you have the same off-condition battery drain. Thanks! On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 4:34 PM, Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> wrote:
He's going to mail a replacement out to me at no charge. The plan is for me to return the defective one to him at the next club meeting.
Great service. Watching my mailbox.
On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 12:20 PM, Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com>wrote:
I just heard back from Andrew is he is very apologetic. He intends to replace it. Good follow-up service.
Stay tuned.
I bought one a few months ago, and it doesn't have any of the bad symptoms you are describing... Dan On Feb 21, 2013, at 8:15 PM, Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> wrote:
Just to be sure that I didn't put in two pair of dead (but new) batteries, today at lunch I bought another pack of brand-new AAA cells and installed two of them. The laser worked fine for the thirty seconds I tested it. At home at 4:30, it still produced a bright green dot for the ten seconds I tested it. Tonight at 8:00 PM, the batteries are dead.
Andrew sent a follow-up email that he was dropping a replacement in the mail in the morning.
If anyone else bought one of these and only tried it out the night you bought it, I'd appreciate it if you'd stick some fresh batteries in it and leave them in overnight. Then check it the next day and let me know if you have the same off-condition battery drain.
Thanks!
On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 4:34 PM, Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> wrote:
He's going to mail a replacement out to me at no charge. The plan is for me to return the defective one to him at the next club meeting.
Great service. Watching my mailbox.
On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 12:20 PM, Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com>wrote:
I just heard back from Andrew is he is very apologetic. He intends to replace it. Good follow-up service.
Stay tuned.
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-- Daniel Holmes, danielh@holmesonics.com "Laugh while you can, monkey boy!" -- Lord John Whorfin
Interesting that all of this talk of green lasers on the list today since as I was about to land at SL International this evening the tower issued an alert about someone near the airport shining a green laser at airplanes. Hopefully no one on this list... :( patrick
I was at home. I have an eye witness. On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 10:47 PM, Patrick Wiggins <paw@wirelessbeehive.com>wrote:
Interesting that all of this talk of green lasers on the list today since as I was about to land at SL International this evening the tower issued an alert about someone near the airport shining a green laser at airplanes.
Hopefully no one on this list... :(
patrick _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy
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-- Siegfried
Patrick, I would be very surprised and personally offended if it was anyone in the astronomical community. Those guys are the ones who are going to ruin it for everyone. They need to be caught and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. A reminder to all that in the state of Utah, it is illegal to point an operating laser (of any beam color or power rating) at a person, vehicle, or animal. Aircraft are most definitely vehicles. On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 10:47 PM, Patrick Wiggins <paw@wirelessbeehive.com>wrote:
Interesting that all of this talk of green lasers on the list today since as I was about to land at SL International this evening the tower issued an alert about someone near the airport shining a green laser at airplanes.
Hopefully no one on this list... :(
It is also a federal offense to point any laser at an aircraft. ________________________________ From: Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> To: Utah Astronomy <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Friday, February 22, 2013 7:31 AM Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Green laser alert Patrick, I would be very surprised and personally offended if it was anyone in the astronomical community. Those guys are the ones who are going to ruin it for everyone. They need to be caught and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. A reminder to all that in the state of Utah, it is illegal to point an operating laser (of any beam color or power rating) at a person, vehicle, or animal. Aircraft are most definitely vehicles. On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 10:47 PM, Patrick Wiggins <paw@wirelessbeehive.com>wrote:
Interesting that all of this talk of green lasers on the list today since as I was about to land at SL International this evening the tower issued an alert about someone near the airport shining a green laser at airplanes.
Hopefully no one on this list... :(
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Turns out Bruno already has 100 and 150mw lasers. he'll bring them down on the 9th so I can see them work. Sig On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 8:27 PM, Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> wrote:
Thanks Dan. I think I just got a lemon. Hopefully the replacement is 100%.
On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 8:24 PM, Daniel Holmes <danielh@holmesonics.com
wrote:
I bought one a few months ago, and it doesn't have any of the bad symptoms you are describing...
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-- Siegfried
Bruno's the man! Yes, please bring them to L&O. I'd love to check them out. We can set napkins on fire with the 150mW. Or aim it at Joe's L&O and put a good char on it. Just kidding... there's "no smoking" indoors in public places. ;-) On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 11:24 PM, Siegfried Jachmann <siegfried@jachmann.org
wrote:
Turns out Bruno already has 100 and 150mw lasers. he'll bring them down on the 9th so I can see them work.
A new twist: I took the batteries out of the 5mW (the ones fresh at noon that now produce only a feeble green glow) and installed them in my 20mW laser. It produces a bright beam! So now I'm thinking that it's an intermittant problem with the diode itself. Hmmm. On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 8:15 PM, Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> wrote:
Just to be sure that I didn't put in two pair of dead (but new) batteries, today at lunch I bought another pack of brand-new AAA cells and installed two of them. Tonight at 8:00 PM, the batteries are dead.
I received the replacement laser on Saturday in the mail. It works well and does not have the problem that the first one has. I'll be giving the defective laser back to him at the March SLAS meeting. He'll be there if anyone else wants to buy one. I can't praise the company and individuals enough for their excellent customer service. And the laser itself is a great laser pointer. Kind of on the chunky side for a "pen"-style pointer, but it does the job of a pointer admirably, for all indoor lecture situations. On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 4:34 PM, Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> wrote:
He's going to mail a replacement out to me at no charge. The plan is for me to return the defective one to him at the next club meeting.
Great service. Watching my mailbox.
What do you think of this one? http://www.lazerpoint.com/p-100mw-532nm-green-laser-pointer-pen-black_611911... sig On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 8:23 AM, Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> wrote:
I picked up one of the ten-dollar laser pointers at last night's SLAS meeting. Hey, for ten bucks, how can you go wrong? It's been a few years since I owned a 5mW laser and I wanted to see if my memory of the beam visibility was good.
The dot is pretty bright but the beam wasn't visible outdoors from my suburban home location last night except dimly when directly on-axis. To be expected from a 5mW unit, my memory is still good on that score.
The included alkaline batteries lasted for about 3 minutes of intermittant use. I replaced them with a new set of alkaline cells and they only lasted about 3 minutes.
Obviously this unit is defective. There is some kind of internal drain even when the unit is off. I'll be contacting the gentleman who sold it to me, he included his business card in the box.
Anybody else who bought one of these units experience rapid, premature battery drain?
As of right now, I cannot recommend this unit, even at ten bucks. But we'll see what happens. I'm open to a straight exchange for another unit but if that one has the same problem, I'll ask for a refund and chalk it up to lessons learned about buying cheap. I'm not getting rid of my 20mW and 100mW units anytime soon. _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy
Send messages to the list to Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com
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-- Siegfried
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)...? ________________________________ From: Siegfried Jachmann <siegfried@jachmann.org> To: Utah Astronomy <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2013 2:03 PM Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Green laser What do you think of this one? http://www.lazerpoint.com/p-100mw-532nm-green-laser-pointer-pen-black_611911... sig On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 8:23 AM, Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> wrote:
I picked up one of the ten-dollar laser pointers at last night's SLAS meeting. Hey, for ten bucks, how can you go wrong? It's been a few years since I owned a 5mW laser and I wanted to see if my memory of the beam visibility was good.
The dot is pretty bright but the beam wasn't visible outdoors from my suburban home location last night except dimly when directly on-axis. To be expected from a 5mW unit, my memory is still good on that score.
The included alkaline batteries lasted for about 3 minutes of intermittant use. I replaced them with a new set of alkaline cells and they only lasted about 3 minutes.
Obviously this unit is defective. There is some kind of internal drain even when the unit is off. I'll be contacting the gentleman who sold it to me, he included his business card in the box.
Anybody else who bought one of these units experience rapid, premature battery drain?
As of right now, I cannot recommend this unit, even at ten bucks. But we'll see what happens. I'm open to a straight exchange for another unit but if that one has the same problem, I'll ask for a refund and chalk it up to lessons learned about buying cheap. I'm not getting rid of my 20mW and 100mW units anytime soon. _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy
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-- Siegfried _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Send messages to the list to Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com The Utah-Astronomy mailing list is not affiliated with any astronomy club. To unsubscribe go to: http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Then enter your email address in the space provided and click on "Unsubscribe or edit options".
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)...?
If it's real, you can't beat that price. Even if it's actually 20mW, it's a great deal. You going to order one? On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 2:03 PM, Siegfried Jachmann <siegfried@jachmann.org>wrote:
What do you think of this one?
http://www.lazerpoint.com/p-100mw-532nm-green-laser-pointer-pen-black_611911...
I'm thinking of two, one for me, one for my brother. Would you go for one of the pen types like the one I sent of the physically bigger ones? Sig On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 4:32 PM, Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> wrote:
If it's real, you can't beat that price. Even if it's actually 20mW, it's a great deal. You going to order one?
On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 2:03 PM, Siegfried Jachmann <siegfried@jachmann.org>wrote:
What do you think of this one?
http://www.lazerpoint.com/p-100mw-532nm-green-laser-pointer-pen-black_611911...
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-- Siegfried
I'd get the pen-type, for two reasons. They use inexpensive, easy-to-find AA batteries. My 100mW uses a 123 cell; pricier and not as common. The pen types (the narrow ones, at least) fit those two-ring "finder" brackets, so you can use it as a telescope finder if desired. I wish they had the pen types when I bought my 100mW. Maybe when and if it dies, I'll spring for the slim one. Mine's about 3/4" in diameter. On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 5:49 PM, Siegfried Jachmann <siegfried@jachmann.org>wrote:
I'm thinking of two, one for me, one for my brother. Would you go for one of the pen types like the one I sent of the physically bigger ones?
participants (6)
-
Brent Watson -
Chuck Hards -
Daniel Holmes -
Patrick Wiggins -
Richard Tenney -
Siegfried Jachmann