Review of the PGL RG Portable Laser

The PGL RG Portable Laser is quite unusual as far as portable lasers go.

Not only can it produce a green beam, it can produce a red beam and even a yellow beam (by having both the red & green lasers on simultaneously)!

Before you fire up this studly laser, lock the kids upstairs and put out the dog...hmmm...locking the children in ***ANY*** room isn't a very good idea, and putting out the dog would also be a poor idea because it isn't on fire...but you know what I mean!

It comes in a rather beefy aluminum body with what I believe is a baked enamel finish (colored black), and feeds its two laser diodes with a single 18650 Li:ION rechargeable cell.

I cannot verify the finish, as the testing method I use could (well, probably ***WILL***) damage the finish, and this laser does not belong to me.



* This is a .PDF file; you'll need Adobe Acrobat or other .PDF reader in order to view this.

SIZE



To use your PGL RG Portable Laser, please be certain that the 18650 Li:ION cell is installed (see directly below), and THEN you can go do whatwever it is you would normally do with a multicolor laser.

Before your first use, remove that blue plastic disc from the laser aperture (beam opening); that is there to protect the optics from dirt, dust rabbits, or whatever other unwanted material might find its way in there during shipment.

Press the tailcap button firmly until it clicks, and then release it.

To energise the green beam, gently press & release that blue button on the barrel.
To energise the red beam, do the same thing again.
To turn both lasers on at once (which will result in a yellowish-green beam terminus spot), do the same thing a third time.
To turn the beams off, do the same thing a fourth time.

Just like it reads on the backs of many shampoo bottles, "lather, rinse, repeat." In other words, pressing the blue button a fifth time starts the sequence all over again, beginning with the green laser.

To neutralise the laser (disabling the blue pushbutton), simply press the tailcap button firmly until it clicks, and then release it.




To change the battery in your shiny new PGL RG Portable Laser, unscrew and remove the tailcap, and set it aside.

Tip the used 18650 cell out of the barrel and into your hand, and recharge it.

Insert a newly-charged 18650 Li:ION rechargeable cell into the barrel, flat-end (-) negative first. This is the opposite of how batteries are installed in most flashlights, so please pay attention to polarity here.

Screw the tailcap back on, and be done with it.

Current usage measures:
Green: 868mA


One thing that really pisses me off about this laser is that it has a totally asinine duty cycle recommendation -- the "ON" time is just 45 seconds to 1 minute max!!!
This is just preposterous for a portable laser in such a heavy aluminum body.



TEST NOTES:
Test unit was loaned to me (shipped to me directly from CNI) by M.H. on 08-13-12.
Since it failed early during testing (and my subsequent repair attempts made with his permission were marginal at best and only restored partial operation), he has indicated to me that he no longer needs it returned.

It emitted a fairly large quantity of very acrid smoke when the tailcap was removed shortly after having spectrographic analyses of it; the repairs I later attempted revealed a rather large cinder from what I believe was an SMD power resistor on the PCB (printed circuit board); the heat from this suspected resistor becoming a "krispy kritter" even melted the insulation on one of the thick laser diode power leads.

* See directly above; CNI has expressed no desire to repair this laser, and M.H. doesn't want to bother with all the time & money of shipping it back and forth, so if I am not able to repair it to at least moderate functionality (insomuch as the red & green lasers are functional and individually addressable), I need not return it.


UPDATE: 00-00-00


PROS:
Very unique as far as portable lasers go

CONS:
Some chromatic abberation is present
Some safety features mandated for a CDRH Class IIIb laser are missing (this is what lopped off ½ star)
Totally bogus duty cycle -- that's what nocked off the rest of the stars!




MANUFACTURER: Changchun New Industries
PRODUCT TYPE: Multicolor portable laser
LAMP TYPE: Green DPSS and red directly-injected diode lasers
No. OF LAMPS: 2
BEAM TYPE: Extremely narrow spot
SWITCH TYPE: Pushbutton momentary on/mode change/off
CASE MATERIAL: Metal
BEZEL: Metal; laser aperture is recessed into a hosel for it
BATTERY: 1x 18650 Li:ION rechargeable cell
CURRENT CONSUMPTION: 868mA
WATER-RESISTANT: Very light splatter-resistance max.
SUBMERSIBLE: No
ACCESSORIES: Charger
SIZE: 40mm D x 204mm L
WEIGHT: 383.50g (13.52 oz.) empty; 425.70g (15.01 oz.) with battery
COUNTRY OF MANUFACTURE: China
WARRANTY: 6 months

PRODUCT RATING:

You spelled urinate wrong

jakeGT said:

You spelled urinate wrong

Click to expand...

haha. so you were looking for spelling errors? good catch jake..

anyways. was hoping you had a shot of the YEhlah beam!

Wasn't looking for them, it was just realy obvious since it was a picture of a urinal that said "0 stars uranate on it"

I was actually looking for a yellow beam pic too

Haha, I doubt he will get a shot of the "Yehlah" beam since the red one isn't firing.

Kartracer00 said:

anyways. was hoping you had a shot of the YEhlah beam!

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, you aren't going to see that because the red laser does not fire up -- it doesn't even try. :cryyy:

+1 Rep The_LED_Museum (too bad that unit had failures...)

Gratuitous shot of a PGL RG Portable Laser & a PGL III-C-473nm Portable Laser (I took some pics, before sending phoenix66 his PGL RG)

If you look close, you can see the yellow appearing input and exit main beam...

In this shot, (from the other side of the diffraction grating, the green is overpowering the red, unfortunately



Pics were taken w/ fog, and output mW iirc, were Blue 473nm 90mW+ Red 265mW & Green ~80mW

awesome pics man. thanks for that.

and i was just messin witchya jake