Gadgettown: 100mW 532nm Half Steel Mid-Open Green Laser Pointer Pen

[gatekeeper]

Me and my friend are both awaiting for our E3's to arrive so we both decided to just spend $29.99 at gadget town 100mW 532nm Half Steel Mid-Open Green Laser Pointer Pen for what we thought would be a decent laser to get us by. Well. As soon as I open mine and put the batteries in it and shine it, it's an absolute disgrace. I was very disappointed, I even compared it to my <20mW random Ebay laser I bought a few years ago and the 20mW blows it out of the water.

My friend came over and shined his, and his was like a totally different laser that was almost like comparing a 5mW to a 200mW because there was such a large difference. You can barely see the beam in a dark room on mine while his is clearly visible in even a lit room. Has anyone ever dealt with gadget town before and would happen to know why there would be such a difference in the same exact laser?

 

[enigmahack]

Never dealt with gadget town, but in my own personal experience with pot-modding cheap lasers, I've found that if you turn the pot too hot, the laser will not lase correctly and give a dim output. To fix that, I had to turn down the pot a little and just see what happens.

It's also possible that the crystals aren't ligned up properly which means you get some green but not nearly what you should be.

 

[gatekeeper]

Blah. Well I don't know how to do all of that so I'll try their own exchange/refund policy first. But off-topic (sort of) ... are most of WL's lasers up-to-spec or are they under-spec and require luck to get a good one as well?

 

[gatekeeper]

<20mW Ebay laser on the left compared to <100mW Gadget town on the right... Sorry for the poor quality.. iPhones aren't too great at night shots. You can clearly see how much brighter the beam on the 20mW is, but of course it also has a lot worse divergence.