On Sat, Jun 14, 2008 at 11:41 AM, Kim <kimharch@cut.net> wrote:
Seth, Chuck: How do these fire starters perform in cold temps?
Kim, I'll let you know- in about 5 or 6 months! There is a photo on the Destructive Gear Website that shows someone standing in the middle of a snow-covered street in a Chinese city at night, demonstrating the visible green beam. The laser seems to be working fine in that photo. My 100mW "Pyro" arrived this morning and the first thing I did was go in search of a battery. On Seth's suggestion, I went to Albertson's. I found a 2-pack of Energizer #123 for $14.99, with a $2-off coupon attached. This made it 12.99 for 2, or about $6.50 each + sales tax. The coupons expire at the end of this month. The second thing I did was ignite a match head. I didn't time it, but it did take several seconds. My daughter took a cell-phone video of it, and I'll post it to my Photobucket account soon and give out the URL. Too cool. They send a little print-out of the test results for each laser; mine showed a minimum output of 110mW, A mean of 112mW, and a max of 114mW, for the 20-second test duration. The charted output showed a remarkably flat line as one would expect from these numbers. The duty cycle is 120 seconds, with a 30-second cool-down time before using it again. Two full minutes "on" is plenty for star-party use. In practice I don't think I've ever had a laser pointer in continuous use for more than 20 or 30 seconds at the very most. I've put it away until nightfall. I'm willing to shine it in someone's direction at a pre-determined time tonight to test for long-range visibility if anyone's interested, although we'll have some stiff lunar competition. Maybe in SPOC's general direction at eleven PM? I'll let you know how it stacks-up against my 20mw Beta pointer after dark.