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MICROFIBER PRODUCTS BD30 GREEN DPSS PORTABLE LASER

Microfiber Products BD30 Green DPSS Portable Laser, retail $UNKNOWN
Manufactured by (Unknown) for Microfiber Products Online (www.microfiber-products-online.com
Last updated 05-21-12

This is a green-emitting portable laser; styled like the usual "pen".

It has a measured power output of 73mW at 532nm in the green part of the spectrum. I checked (spectrographically) for the presence of NIR radiation from the pump diode that might have queered the test, and found quite a bit of it actually.

This laser comes in an aluminum body (protected by what I believe is a baked enamel finish) and it feeds from a pair of AAA cells.

Size of product w/hand to show scale

SIZE

Feed the portable laser the pair of included AAA cells first (see below), and then you'll be ready to rock.

To use this laser, just aim it at something you wish to point out, and press & hold down the button on barrel for as long as you need the laser spot; then release it to deenergise (extinguish) it. Yes, it really is as easy as that.

To change the batteries in your brand spanken new (or rusty corroded old) green portable laser, unscrew & remove the tailcap, take it to midspan of a relately long bridge (the Golden Gate bridge would be ideal here, but the Juneau-Douglas Bridge will do in a pinch), and huck it over the side so that it goes blub blub blub to the bottom of Gastineau Channel and comes to rest amongst dozens of bowling balls that were lobbed over that bridge in the 1960s...O WAIT!!! YOU'LL NEED THAT!!!

So just set it aside instead.

Tip the two used AAA cells out of the barrel and into your hand, and dispose of, recycle, or recharge them as you see fit.

Insert two new AAA cells into the barrel, button-end (+) positive first. This is the opposite of how batteries are installed in most flashlights, so please pay attention to polarity here.

Screw the front half of the laser back on, and be done with it.

Aren't you glad you didn't throw that tailcap over the Juneau-Douglas bridge now?

This is what the Jueau-Douglas Bridge looks like...or what it lookED like anyway before it was replaced in 1981.

And this is what the bridge looks like now.

Unable to measure current due to how the product was constructed.

This is a portable laser, not a flashlight. So I won't throw it against the wall, stomp on it, try to drown it in the toilet bowl, run over it, swing it against the corner of a concrete stair, or inflict upon it punishments that flashlights may have inflicted upon them. So this section of the laser's web page will seem a bit more bare than this section of the web page on a page about a flashlight. This is also a loaner unit, and I'm certain that its owner would like it returned with no dings on the bezel or old toliet water or dessiccated fudge bunnies in the barrel.

Besides, lasers are meant to be loved, not punished.

Green diode lasers are a lot different than those common red lasers you see all the time.

In a 640nm red portable laser, there's a red-emitting diode and a lens to collimate (focus) the beam.

In a 532nm green laser (module or larger size), there's a BIG infrared laser diode that generates laser light at 808nm, this is fired into a crystal containing the rare-earth element "neodymium". This crystal takes the 808nm infrared light and lases at 1064nm (yes, deeper in the infrared!). This 1064nm laser light comes out of the NdYV04 (neodymium yttrium vanadium oxide) crystal and is then shot into a second crystal (containing potassium, titanium, & phosphorus, usually called KTP) that doubles the frequency to 532nm - the bright green color you see. This light is then collimated (focused) by a lens and emerges out the laser's "business end". Just before the lens, there's (supposed to be) a filter that removes any stray IR (infrared) rays from the pump diode and the neodymium crystal. You don't want that stuff in your green beam, trust me. :-)

This is why green diode lasers are so much more expensive than red ones. Lots of itty bitty parts, and they all need to be aligned by hand. If the polarisation is "off", one or both crystals need to be turned. With red diode lasers, you just slap in the diode and slap a lens in front of it.

Does this evaluation look an awful lot like the one I made for this laser?
Thought you'd say so.
That's because they're physically rather similar to one another and come from the same retailer; only this one is labelled to be 10mW more powerful -- which (for both lasers!) is actually a load of horse puckey -- both lasers produce most of their measured power from the near-invisible 808nm laser line from the pump diode.

Power output measures 73mW; though it's plain to see I forgot my hat...er...uh...as you can see it's a bit unstable {there I go thinking about the metal band Anthrax again!!!}

With the NIR filter from the CNI GLP-473nm Blue Laser Pointer placed over the output aperture, power output measures 13mW.

Power output analyses performed on a LaserBee 2.5W USB Laser Power Meter w/Thermopile.

Beam terminus photograph on the test target at 12".

Beam image bloomed ***SIGNIFICANTLY***; it is also
not at all white like it appears in this photograph.

Beam terminus photograph on a wall at ~8 feet.

Spectrographic analysis of this laser.

Spectrographic analysis of this laser; spectrometer's response narrowed to a band between 528nm and 536nm to pinpoint wavelength, which is 531.659nm.

Spectrographic analysis of this laser; spectrometer's response narrowed to a band between 800nm and 830nm in an attempt to show NIR laser line from the pump diode -- as you can see this laser's IR filter does a rather poor job.

USB2000 Spectrometer graciously donated by P.L.

ProMetric analysis

Beam cross-sectional analysis.

Image made using the ProMetric System by Radiant Imaging.

TEST NOTES:
This laser (along with another laser and a flashlight) was sent by S.F. of California, and was received late on the afternoon of 05-18-12 (or "18 May 2012" or even "May 18, Twenty Stick-Very-Twirly-Stick" if you prefer). Since it is a loaner, the dreadful "

" icon will immediately appear appended to its listings on this website, denoting the fact that I no longer have the sample for additional analyses or comparisions.

UPDATE: 00-00-00

PROS:
Uses batteries that are common and relatively inexpen$ive
Nice looking body
Feels good in the hand

CONS:
Poor NIR filtering leads to a grossly inflated power output value; there goes at least one star
Power output is somewhat unstable (but not as unstable as this laser) -- and *POOF!!!* There goes at least 1˝ stars

Unknown

Pen-style green DPSS portable laser

DPSS laser

Extremely narrow spot

Momentary pushbutton on/off on barel

Aluminum

Metal; laser & optics recessed into a hosel for them

2x AAA cells

Unknown/unable to measure

Light splatter-resistance at maximum

ĄĄĄEN EFECTO, CRISTO CONSÁGRALOS NO!!!

2x AAA cells, storage case

155mm L x 14mm D

Not equipped to weigh

Unknown/not stated

Unknown

Microfiber Products BD30 Green DPSS Portable Laser *

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