- Joined
- Sep 8, 2007
- Messages
- 759
- Points
- 0
Ok before I start this review I would like to thank pseudonomen137(Carter) for allowing me to meet up with him so I could test my laser on his meter witch was a Coherent FieldMax II TO with a PM3Q sensor….. Was a very nice meter with data logging so I do have the logs for all the test. The testing place was not an idea place but it worked. I will post pictures of the test set up when I get them from carter but it was on the floor in the skywalk way of the lab area at UTD it was about 80’F so a bit hotter then room temperature.
Now on to the review
Pros
The laser seems to be very well built and it is actually really heave for its size
Uses 18650 Lithium batteries witch is a plus as I have a lot of those and their powerful
Small size but very good power
Very good diode as it is suppose to last 80,000
Comes with quality battery better then the ones I have
Divergence of 0.931
Peak power of 512.9mw and an Average under idea conditions of 469.3mw
Can use protected or unprotected cells it really doesn’t cause any noticeable difference in the power of the laser what does make a difference is the quality of the cells as my Dx cells that we used in some scraped test did not perform as good as the protected cells carter let me use or the original cell that came from Jack
Cons
The ribbed part on the RPL basically does nothing as its connection to the base is insulated with paint where it screws on to the base and the base part right above the button is where most of the heat comes from because of that 2.5W diode. The crystal assembly is attached to the diode on the base and has a good 7mm air gap all the way around it in the top ribbed part of the RPL. So this thing could be better at heat transfer as right now it just uses the shear mass of all the aluminum to cool it off hints the 2min cool down period.
The DPSS process is very un stable and my units is one of the more stable units carter has seen at least when it heats up to operating temperature but I never knew how un stable these things were and how 425 is really just and average and not a defined number as I thought ( the graphs will show what I am talking about)
Other then that their really is no cons about these lasers their excellent lasers and built well, could be better but they are still very high quality.
Dealing with jack was one of the best experiences I have had in buying things as he was very helpful and answered all my questions quickly and fully and I would definitely buy from him again
Dealing with carter was also a great experience as he seems to know a lot about these lasers and lasers in generals and was a great help in this review by allowing me access to his power meter.
Here is a picture of all the stuff I got from jack the only thing missing is the 120$ refund for being an LPF member : ) because that’s in my bank
but it also included the 2 free 55mw pointers (one averages 70 and the other 60 over a 30sec test)
Now for the first test this was done on a table inside the building where it was a nice 70-75’f but the laser was in my pocket and we had walked around out side in the 90’F heat for a few min so this brought the laser up to temperature but it was allowed to cool for a few min as we set up the gear
Unedited version
The spikes you see are caused by something we do not know but they only appear on the RPL series lasers ( we tested other lasers in-between cool down ) and most of the time after one of these spikes the power of the RPL will rise. This is not caused by the meter or the protected lithium cells as it does it with non-protected cells also
Zoomed in version of the graph
Carter also had a cool program on his computer that would go through the data and pick out the highest 30second and 60 second averages of the test.
The 30 second average of the test1
The 60 second average of test1
Now for test 2 we had to re locate out into the skywalk where the temperate was a bit warmer about 80’F but the laser had sat in the cooler building for about 10 min while we packed up the gear and move to the skywalk and unpacked. So the temperature of the laser was close to 72’F
This produced the highest out puts of the laser for the day as this was the idea condition for temperature
Test 2 unedited
Test 2 zoomed
Test 2 30 second average
Test 2 60 second average
Oh and by the way each test was done with a fresh batteries luckily carter had planed in advance and brought a few fresh batteries : )
Test 3 was done about 5 min after test 2 in the same spot so the laser really didn’t cool down as much as it did before test 2 and you can see how much the heat affects it in the test after test 2 as they all basically only had a 5-8 min cool down between test in the sky walk
Test 3 unedited
Test 3 zoomed
Test 3 30 second average
Test 3 60 second average
Ok now for test 4 we tried out the adjustable cap at level 9 …. .this is where my RPL is a bit different from most other RPL’s as I will let jack explain in this quote from him
“I picked one that had previously tested at 440mW avg. output, but
today it only averaged 434mW on current level 9. When they are 1st
tested it is usually with the non-adjust tailcap, then if the person
orders the adjustable model, I pick out an adjustable tailcap and then
test it that way before shipping. After testing it at 434mW this
morning, I tried testing it again with the non-adjust tailcap that it
came with. It then had avg. output of even greater than 440mW, usually
this isn't the case, but the crystals in this RPL are taking all the
IR that can be thrown at it without over-saturating.
“
Here is the graph to prove that
Test 4 Level 9 on cap
Test 4 30 second
Test 4 60 second
Now for test 5 I decided that I wanted to know what power my RPL was out putting at each level and here it is (peace of paper was used to block out the beam to create separations)
Test 5 Variable
For test 6 it shows just how bad the DX batteries really does suck in an RPL but it gives it a nice steady out put : ) on the bright side
Test 6 Dx battery
And for the final test of the day was test 7 on this one I actually stood up in a chair to place the RPL next to the vent to cool it down to about 78’F witch was pretty close to room temperature and this just shows that the closer it is to ideal temp like in test 2 the better it does
Test 7 unedited
Test 7 zoomed
Test 7 30 second
Test 7 60 second
I am very please at how my laser performed and yet completely blown away at how relatively unstable these green lasers are….. I would like to do a better test run with my RPL in a few moths under idea conditions but these test here show basically how my RPL is going to act out side in this Texas heat but I would like to see how it would perform in a lab style set up with a fan on it and longer cool down times : )
Well that concludes my review, over all I am very very happy with this laser : ) and sorry I don’t have any beam shots as my camera really sucks ….. And I did make a lens holder that fits over the RPL snugly and you can attach optics to it more pictures on that when carter gets them to me : )
Thanks for reading and thanks to Jack for selling me such an awesome laser and Carter for allowing me to use his meter set up
Oh and one more pic with my crappy camera : )
Now on to the review
Pros
The laser seems to be very well built and it is actually really heave for its size
Uses 18650 Lithium batteries witch is a plus as I have a lot of those and their powerful
Small size but very good power
Very good diode as it is suppose to last 80,000
Comes with quality battery better then the ones I have
Divergence of 0.931
Peak power of 512.9mw and an Average under idea conditions of 469.3mw
Can use protected or unprotected cells it really doesn’t cause any noticeable difference in the power of the laser what does make a difference is the quality of the cells as my Dx cells that we used in some scraped test did not perform as good as the protected cells carter let me use or the original cell that came from Jack
Cons
The ribbed part on the RPL basically does nothing as its connection to the base is insulated with paint where it screws on to the base and the base part right above the button is where most of the heat comes from because of that 2.5W diode. The crystal assembly is attached to the diode on the base and has a good 7mm air gap all the way around it in the top ribbed part of the RPL. So this thing could be better at heat transfer as right now it just uses the shear mass of all the aluminum to cool it off hints the 2min cool down period.
The DPSS process is very un stable and my units is one of the more stable units carter has seen at least when it heats up to operating temperature but I never knew how un stable these things were and how 425 is really just and average and not a defined number as I thought ( the graphs will show what I am talking about)
Other then that their really is no cons about these lasers their excellent lasers and built well, could be better but they are still very high quality.
Dealing with jack was one of the best experiences I have had in buying things as he was very helpful and answered all my questions quickly and fully and I would definitely buy from him again
Dealing with carter was also a great experience as he seems to know a lot about these lasers and lasers in generals and was a great help in this review by allowing me access to his power meter.
Here is a picture of all the stuff I got from jack the only thing missing is the 120$ refund for being an LPF member : ) because that’s in my bank
but it also included the 2 free 55mw pointers (one averages 70 and the other 60 over a 30sec test)
Now for the first test this was done on a table inside the building where it was a nice 70-75’f but the laser was in my pocket and we had walked around out side in the 90’F heat for a few min so this brought the laser up to temperature but it was allowed to cool for a few min as we set up the gear
Unedited version
The spikes you see are caused by something we do not know but they only appear on the RPL series lasers ( we tested other lasers in-between cool down ) and most of the time after one of these spikes the power of the RPL will rise. This is not caused by the meter or the protected lithium cells as it does it with non-protected cells also
Zoomed in version of the graph
Carter also had a cool program on his computer that would go through the data and pick out the highest 30second and 60 second averages of the test.
The 30 second average of the test1
The 60 second average of test1
Now for test 2 we had to re locate out into the skywalk where the temperate was a bit warmer about 80’F but the laser had sat in the cooler building for about 10 min while we packed up the gear and move to the skywalk and unpacked. So the temperature of the laser was close to 72’F
This produced the highest out puts of the laser for the day as this was the idea condition for temperature
Test 2 unedited
Test 2 zoomed
Test 2 30 second average
Test 2 60 second average
Oh and by the way each test was done with a fresh batteries luckily carter had planed in advance and brought a few fresh batteries : )
Test 3 was done about 5 min after test 2 in the same spot so the laser really didn’t cool down as much as it did before test 2 and you can see how much the heat affects it in the test after test 2 as they all basically only had a 5-8 min cool down between test in the sky walk
Test 3 unedited
Test 3 zoomed
Test 3 30 second average
Test 3 60 second average
Ok now for test 4 we tried out the adjustable cap at level 9 …. .this is where my RPL is a bit different from most other RPL’s as I will let jack explain in this quote from him
“I picked one that had previously tested at 440mW avg. output, but
today it only averaged 434mW on current level 9. When they are 1st
tested it is usually with the non-adjust tailcap, then if the person
orders the adjustable model, I pick out an adjustable tailcap and then
test it that way before shipping. After testing it at 434mW this
morning, I tried testing it again with the non-adjust tailcap that it
came with. It then had avg. output of even greater than 440mW, usually
this isn't the case, but the crystals in this RPL are taking all the
IR that can be thrown at it without over-saturating.
“
Here is the graph to prove that
Test 4 Level 9 on cap
Test 4 30 second
Test 4 60 second
Now for test 5 I decided that I wanted to know what power my RPL was out putting at each level and here it is (peace of paper was used to block out the beam to create separations)
Test 5 Variable
For test 6 it shows just how bad the DX batteries really does suck in an RPL but it gives it a nice steady out put : ) on the bright side
Test 6 Dx battery
And for the final test of the day was test 7 on this one I actually stood up in a chair to place the RPL next to the vent to cool it down to about 78’F witch was pretty close to room temperature and this just shows that the closer it is to ideal temp like in test 2 the better it does
Test 7 unedited
Test 7 zoomed
Test 7 30 second
Test 7 60 second
I am very please at how my laser performed and yet completely blown away at how relatively unstable these green lasers are….. I would like to do a better test run with my RPL in a few moths under idea conditions but these test here show basically how my RPL is going to act out side in this Texas heat but I would like to see how it would perform in a lab style set up with a fan on it and longer cool down times : )
Well that concludes my review, over all I am very very happy with this laser : ) and sorry I don’t have any beam shots as my camera really sucks ….. And I did make a lens holder that fits over the RPL snugly and you can attach optics to it
more pictures on that when carter gets them to me : )Thanks for reading and thanks to Jack for selling me such an awesome laser and Carter for allowing me to use his meter set up
Oh and one more pic with my crappy camera : )
