Survival Laser I - Lens Distortion?

[xoul]

I just got my Survival Laser I today and I'm mostly happy except with there is a slight distortion that appears on the sides of the beam dot. Look above and below the dot in this pic:

I've tried carefully cleaning the lens with a q-tip but it doesn't seem to have any effect. Anyone else seen this or have any suggestions?

 

[SerpantSlayer]

you might have the lens on backwards

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

Check that the lens is on correctly (looks like it is actually), clean it on both sides, and clean the diode window (preferably just some compressed air).

There is usually a lot or splash and artifacts with more powerful lasers though, so and what you're showing in the picture doesn't look all that abnormal.

 

[xoul]

I sent an email to Gary at Surivial Laser and this was his response:

These "wings" are normal and unavoidable optical artifacts of the diode and lens.

So unless someone else that has this laser can tell me that they don't have this issue, I guess I'll have to accept that. It's not on backwards - I checked that too.

Thanks all for your help

 

[SerpantSlayer]

actually now that i look at it my laser has similar looking artifacts so i guess it is normal
pic:

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

I've seen some cleaner dots, but yeah... in general it does look perfectly normal.

You can also try a different lens, but I highly doubt you will see any difference.

 

[rcmike]

I just looked at the survival laser I got today and it does the same thing.

 

[rocket689]

I've seen clean 445 outputs with vey little side splash and others that have a TON of splash.
I suppose it all depends on the diode, just like some diodes have that "window" next to the dot.