Much smoother tuning is expected from a laser which has a lower reflectivity output facet. In the case of laser diodes supplied with uncoated facets, a very low reflectivity can be obtained from a single-layer coating applied using a simple technique. We have coated several Hitachi HL7806G 780 nm 5 mW diodes using this method, and found that these diodes do indeed have very much smaller holes in their tuning curves. As a demonstration of this improved tuning we have assembled several laser systems with these lasers, and tuned all of them to the rubidium D2 line within a few minutes by looking for fluorescence from a vapour cell without any specific adjustment of the laser current or temperature. These systems do have lower output power than those using the SDL-5401 lasers, but their smooth tunability can be readily transferred to much higher power devices by injection locking.