Laser Pointer Hacking

Most of you probably have seen my hacked laser pointer in action. For those who haven't, I have one that I got at some point in high school. Usual small handheld type, ran on some little batteries. So of course I figured those batteries are expensive and don't last all that long anyways under any load, so may as well build a better power source. Thus the cord out the back leading to a homebuilt battery pack. That thing was very bright.

So I'm reading a page on hacking laser pointers and ones that are hackable. Then I recognize the box of my source pointer. A footnote says Don K pushed these things to the 7-9mW range, and with an external power source up to the 10mW range. I should probably be more careful with that thing... Like never taking it out of the house again...