Ebay Laser Pointers: How Sketchy are They? 

If I've learned anything from Styropyro, the answer is, "extremely." Bad IR filtering, way over spec, the works

Powerful lasers are one of the very few things I am too scared to mess with. The fun never seems worth the possibility of going blind.

Came for the random torque tests, stayed for the most honest product reviews.

That last laser is the same module I run on my cnc engraver

I used to do laser shows for 2,000 to 5,000 people with a Merls Griot 5 watt laser , and also had an 8 watt spectra physics tube in reserve ,,, it was hooked up to a beam table , a 63 amp 3phase power supply and a fire hose to keep it cool , and was usually put into place with a forklift ,,, this new generation of stuff has gone crazy.

Guy i know brought a laser pointer to work to play around with outside. I told him of the danger and when he ignored me i quickly left the area. About 45 minutes laser he comes into the office one eye watering and blinking alot. He had pointed the laser at some shiny metal to get it to bounce and bounce it did. Right into his eye. You just cant fix stupid.

I actually got one off of eBay , it was between the second to last and last one in terms of power it was spitting out 2 watts as someone on RU-vid tested the same model. Needless to say I could light up a wood stud from across the room, light cardboard in a matter of a second and light a candle, etc. It sketched me out owning it so I got rid of it lol, these things are definitely not toys.

That last laser is basically a small CNC laser cutter module on a stick, it looks similar to the 15W module I have and has the same beam patter. As a cutter that is pretty underwhelming while still being too scary to use.

Thanks buddy. I will order the 150 dollar model today.

Bought one of these from Amazon a few years ago. Had in mind to take it with me camping because the nights are absolutely gorgeous dark with stars everywhere. Using a powerful green laser at night in those conditions is mesmerizing.

You should've tested how much UV light they let through. IIRC A lot of these terrible quality ones don't filter out all the UV so not only do you have the visible laser to get blinded from but also the stuff you can't see.

Back in 2010ish I purchased a blue laser from Wicked Lasers. That was a sweet laser. Came with a case, glasses, all sorts of filters you could put on the lens, battery charging cradle and etc. Yes, it could easily burn stuff. I want to say it was 5 watts….it was before the law went into effect. It was definitely a quality product and I liked that you had to hit the power button in a sequence to keep it from being accidentally turned on and so that kids couldn’t burn the house down(or melt an eye)

04:15: not extra UV light but IR leaking from the dpss (1064nm IR gets converted/ wave length path changed to half of that: 532nm) ;)

I love it! This was an extremely interesting video, and very informative as well. It was also pretty damn scary when you consider all the idiots running around with these things. Keep up the great work guys. It always brightens my day when I see you have uploaded a new video.

Had me in stitches at one point. Good stuff

This is the Friday video I was looking for.

Exactly the video i was hoping for. Thanks

Hey just an FYI as a laser enthusiast for the past good 5 years, The laser bee LPM you showed can be barely classified as a laser presence detector. The coating on the sensor head is rubbish and the meter does not have wavelength correction(this is needed because for different laser wavelengths{colors you might simply say} the sensor coating cannot be linear so it will have a different absorption value, not to mention that those so called laser power meter are not even calibrated under a single NIST certified calibration procedure. Their so called 'calibration' is the maker just checking them in comparison to an actual LPM. As you can understand that brings the error formula to: Actual LPM error + Measurement error + electronics related error( they are using just an op amp and an Arduino to read nano volts ffs)+ coating related error for all wavelengths besides the one used for the original measurement + un-shielded wire noise (reminder that we are measuring nano volts here when we're down to the dozens of mW's) = totally unreliable measurements. Hell, even china does it better at the moment with some LPMs that have recently popped up on ebay, Same construction + better electronics + actual per WL correction factors.

Imagine playing with your cat with one of these, and when it tries to catch the beam, it just lights on fire

That search tag isn't just for lasers like that, it can be used with different wavelengths and wattage for your desired laser

On the next laser video that palm tree is going to burst into flames.

Can you test the glasses that are included? I was always interested are they have at least some protection, or just tinted plastic.

It is astonishing that these can (still) be sold as toys with wildly incorrect ratings and neither Amazon/Ebay nor the Chinese manufacturers/sellers get sued or fined into oblivion. Just last weekend I was on the receiving end of a small laser "toy". So far I didn't notice any dark spots in my vision, but I'll surely mention that at my next scheduled eye checkup in three months. I was at a birthday dinner at a restaurant and one of the other guests said, she had just found a laser+flashlight toy inside a plastic ball from a vending machine, which someone had left in the machine, so she was happy she didn't even have to pay for it. When her 2yo got bored, she let him play with it, and he pointed the laser at his face and other guests. When we could finally convince her to take it away from the boy, she started to point it around the table herself. That's when I caught it reflecting off or shining through a glass of water. I just hope that spread or attenuated the beam instead of making it worse. The label on the laser said "class IIIa" and "

I was wanting to see the palm tree burst into flames a little bit

I serviced the original xerox big commercial laser printers in the 80'sThey had a large HeNe tube laser. The first thing to go is your color vision from laser damage. Some of the guys didn't follow laser safety protocols and would fail the ishihara color vision test but still had near 20/20 vision. Even low power lasers are no joke. It just takes a couple seconds to damage your vision.

Great video!

Do check the eye protection before you need it. Use the power meter to find out if they work.

great reviews! my eyes hurt now

I hope these could be safe to use. Do check for eye protection before having it.. You did a great review.💛

4:16 you said it puts out UV ultra violet I think you meant to say IR infra red light. These 532nm DPSS use an IR pump diode that on cheap lasers does not get the proper IR filter lens.

I caught a stray beam from a 48w blue diode laser cutter. Even in the split second it got me, I had 10mins of blobs to look at. Luckily no eye damage. I can tell you that it was intense and very scary! It happened while trouble shooting the laser. I took my safety glasses off to rub my eyes and at that very moment, the laser decided it was time to come alive.

That last one is straight up a weapon....

I bought a 5 watt burning blue laser. It burns wood from across the room. It’s well into class 4, they call it class 3a and name it “blue flashlight” at least it came with a metal case, lit got show splitters and red glasses. I can imagine it would be so fucked if someone didn’t know and just wanted a “blue flashlight” then tried using it accordingly.

Ok, but what about the shark mounted variety?

Good video

I was going to flip apps and get one then wondered what my use case is going to be. Im better off missing out on this one given my intelligence level. Nice video though, definately earned a sub from me.

My Friday morning is now complete.

Dude you should find something other than that palm tree to point at. They turn into a torch really fast once they go off.

I’d love to see some UV flashlight comparisons.

used to work with lasers on targeting systems in the sir force. ours were not visible wavelength but could easily zap off grease or oil off a tool when put in the beams path. that near 5w blue one is a bit crazy, especially around $150.

Holy moly, part of me wants to order this and the othe part of me wants my kids to keep their sight.

I bought the last laser. It just arrived. Been testing it out and, oh my god. Instant burn marks. Not just after a second. LITTUARLY INSTANTLY BURNS. its a nice one :)

That 532 nm green laser is most likely a DPSS laser. These do not emit UV, but rather IR light. They work by using a laser diode that is actually half of their desired output frequency (i.e. double the desired wavelength; a 1064 nm diode) and striking a crystal of special material which doubles the frequency (halving the wavelength). This process is not 100% efficient, and without a proper IR filter, some IR light will also exit the aperture. It would be interesting to test that green laser again with a proper IR filter in front of it and see what the measured power difference is (i.e. how much of its output is green and how much is 1064 nm infrared). Additionally, the most likely reason that these pointers have constant laser power output for any battery voltage is that they are most likely using a boost regulator to boost the voltage to whatever the optimal forward voltage it to achieve the power output the manufacturer wanted. This keeps the output power constant until the battery gets too low to maintain this boosted voltage, at which point it cuts off.

We recently wanted to buy some low power UV laser pointer for precisely curing UV glue at work, but in the end decided that it was simply to dangerous to buy an invisible laser that we didn't have the capability to measure the output power of; knowing that they're usually higher than advertised.

That last one is so crazy

Styropyro has done some good videos on ebay products

You say "sketchy", I say FUN! 😂

I sure wish my old HeNe 1mW laser tubes from the 80's burned holes in wood like that lol

Jeebus - that's cool and crazy at the same time...

Nuts. Can't seem to think of a actual real world use for these.

fun fact, the first item ever actually sold on ebay was a broken laser pointer.

The fact that they market them as being visible halfway across the US is just hilarious at best.

I'm loving the laser videos lately. I bought a couple lasers a year or two ago but didn't try them out much more than a few minutes because I didn't have any protective eyewear. Fast forward to today and I just started looking on Amazon but see a lot of inexpensive options with very different claims from one to the next. Ever consider testing the safety glasses for these?

if not too far from norm would love too see a indoor and outdoor camera review there are plenty online from 50-150aud range maybe 200-600aud would be nice allot of the planet will own one of these soon-it’s a pretty hot topic. Also maybe different adhesives and rtv etc is also a maybe for you guys

Regarding the TopLaser, how effective is it at burning Iranian objects at altitude? Asking for a Ukrainian friend…

I bought a high powered laser online as a kid, glad I didn’t lose my vision!

This is making me wonder how powerful the Lazer leveler we use at work

what happens, if i hold this top laser to a guy breaking in my house? will he be instantly blind and unable to do anything??

Hello. It was a very good video. Can you tell me the name of the last laser?

Fascinating !!!!!

I'm actually in the market for a laser pointer (I'm the warehouse fork lift safety instructor, these are great to point things out three shelves up). 👍

You mentioned melting solder - could the largest laser be used to *actually* melt solder? That might be a handy (but dangerous) trick, since the laser spot could focus heat down onto a PCB to remove/resolder components. You'd just have to be careful not to burn through the board. Great video, channel, and content. Cheers!

Instructions unclear, cat is now on fire? Feels like a lot of these sellers haven't just crossed the line between 'fun toy' and 'industrial hazard', but have yeeted it straight into 'experimental lab equipment' territory. And it's yours for the low, low price of just $150, apparently.

HELLO, in which VIDEO do you show the build of your INTEGRATING SPHERE & Light METER setup ??

Off topic but test the new “high” torque impact from Bauer!

The danger of lasers is severe to the eyes especially animals. It is a narrow beam of light, at a very narrow range of frequencies. Normal light is spread out over the spectrum while the laser is a narrow band of energy. You can compare this mechanically as follows, the same pressure applied over a square meter for normal light while a laser being a needle point. The damage to the eyes is severe. You will not lose your sight parse but the pixels or cones and rods where it impacts will be damaged. Leading to focus issues and blind spots. Your eyes compensate a lot and this will not be apparent int he beginning. Eye protection is a must with all lasers. Dont let kids play with them. Dont point them to close objects since the reflection is still dangerous. But especially, dont use them with animals please! Their eyes are even more sensitive and they cant tell you when their eyes hurt!

I'd really like to know the power reality, of 'construction laser' devices. I've recently bought an "Empire eLGC" unit which it lists as "

Can you test air ratchets

I have literally 0 use for one, but I want a later pointer now.

Can you test dispersion? How big are the dots at 100m?

Could you torque test diffrent brands of torx bit sockets? Gearwrench, icon, snapon.

Because the torque test channel, why not measure the torque on a Crookes Radiometer and present the findings in newton microns or so? You could even tighten a few bolts with an output shaft and enough gear reduction and time

Dang it, Now i gotta buy another laser......

@4:14 , you said it puts out a ton of UV light as well, that's incorrect, it's infra red light that's the by product of 532nm diode pumped lasers.

Green lasers (assuming diode-pumped YAG lasers, which are most common) do not leak UV light radiation, instead, they let out near-IR light radiation, which is the actual light wavelength given off by the pump diode. On top of that, there is a frequency divider crystal inside of them, which is a main part of the IR-to-green converter in the laser. So along with powerful near-IR radiation, there is also far-IR. Yikes!

have you tested the ir temp gun laser? fluke is pretty darm bright.

You should link the laser tester doohickey

what about having a multiple topic vote through YT? maybe put three options and see which booms votes (not sure what YT calls it when it’s on here)

I guess the real question is which one pops popcorn the best.

Yipes!!!

Aliexpress lasers next?

What happens if you aim one laser right at another laser? Do they burn each other out? Or does one win? What happens if you aim one laser at a mirror? Does the mirror absorb any heat or reflect 100%? Will a laser ruin a camera lens? Great video, greetings from Australia

now imma get that 5w blue $130 and 1w green $170 from taobao, oem by the same factory

Seems like the perfect way to kill summer time flies if there were some way to not torch my house doing it

Wouldnt you have $hit if that palm tree burst into flame....lol.Great job TTC

I used to have a 15 or 45 mW green laser from Wicked Lasers. Sadly they don’t sell well made, good tolerance, hand-held pointers any more. Can you recommend a good brand, with accurate power rating claims, that sells a c. 15-50 mW green laser, please?

10:10 "The world's best/worst soldering iron."

TEST TEMU LASERS PLS THEY ARE SO GOOD I GOT ONE 🙏🙏

Great Video! Any chance you could share the battery make/model used for the "beast" laser? Thanks!

I've been itching to get a cool laser for like, 5 years now. Now I've got some money and have started investigating since a week ago. I won't be buying what I initially thought I would, this scares me now. I'd like a 200mw at best one.. I was thinking that it's awesome that the eBay ones are actually much more powerful than advertised, but I then realized I love my eyesight.

Real quick… is the tody actually worth the money?

Meiner liegt bei 5200 mw das ist schon heftig was die in so kleine Geräte reinpacken können an Leistung 🤔👍

The strongest one I’ve ever gotten was advertised as a “beam light” on Amazon. It pulled over 100watts from the batteries, and burned whatever I pointed it at

In short; Lasers are scary

What batteries do you need for the final laser. Just bought one and don't know what batteries to buy... He mentioned. A 18-650 but is that the battery required?

So I should get one for camping instead of using a lighter

I'm confused as the video shows the focusable underwater laser as having 5 watts output but when you check them out online they all say less than 5mW? Which is correct? Thanks.

Try the WickedLasers 3W (?) white/blue laser and see if it keeps its claims.

I love those powerful "Cleaning" Lasers. It's so satisfying to basically power wash rusted metal clean with a laser. You just better protect your eyes. Always with lasers. You never want to risk your eyesight

Can it cut boilers out of basements?