Survival Laser RH 635nm Review

Hiya there folks.
Hammy here again.
Just got my Survival Laser from the mail.
Time to give back to the community again.
Same format as the O-like laser I reviewed.

I'll rate this laser on 3 points.
1: Delivery (Full mark 10%:5% on the Shipping date -1% for each day of delay; 5% on the packing, -5% if not packed with shock absorbers)
2: Appearance and peripheral functions(Full mark 20%)
3: Output /Burning Ability (Full mark 70%, -20% for each 10% underspec)


So here we go!

Lets see the delivery time.

Ordered:1st July
Shipped:6th July.
Delivered:12th July
I have no idea why people diss USPS ,but they deliver EXCELLENT service at an EXTREMELY economical price.
$24 shipping across the pacific.

Full 5% for the shipping



Lets check out the packages.

Now , obviously for such a low shipping price , some sacrifices will have to be made, for example, it was shipped in a Large DVD box case.
However, it was VERY well packed with lots of foam.

And kudos to Mr Rosenfield on this one.
He packed the diode and driver within the Eaglepair case of the goggles supplied. Hence saving MASSIVE space and providing additional buffer!
KUDOS to you mate.


But I don't think you are here to look at paper boxes , lets get on with the LASER!




And here is the BEAST!
Traditional aluminium anodized black C6 host .

Depressible switch activated.
Same with the O-like lasers ,there are no indication of whether its depressed or not. So we always have to treat the laser as if its an cocked pistol.
BUT!
What sets survival laser apart is.
The lens cap.
Just an economical little green rubber cap. But gets the job done .
What more can you ask eh?



I'll be nit picking now... but a complain I have with the lens is that ... there isn't really any way of securing the lens assembly . You might accidentally screw it off during focussing and lens and hard places don't mix too well.

So you DO have to be careful.


This laser is running on a 3.7V 18650 Li-Ion cell or you can go with the supplied RCR123A Ultrafire , but personally I prefer to go with the single 18650. Less troublesome you see.
Just batteries, nothing fancy , so I'll reuse some pics :shhh:




For criteria 2 , I give this a 17%. [/CENTER]





NOW!
To the FINALE!

The POWER!
On paper, this should churn out at least 450mW after collimation,but does it?
ITS SURVIVAL LASER!!!
OF COURSE IT DOES!
It peaked at 489mW after collimation.
Thats a 8.667 overspecs.
FULL mark for the power
Its also VERY stable.
Inching beyond the duty cycle,you can see the copper heatsink truly shine.
Stable output all the way to 70sec.
More than enough for almost any occasion.


635nm at such power isn't really that much of a good burner.
With a divergence of 4.5mrad ... its mostly for show.
But thats to be expected , no points deducted.

Lastly, we have some beamshots.
The divergence does mean at distance the power does spread out a bit.
But its a 638nm.
To be expected I guess.


But I have to say it isn't really as bright as my 445 as I previously hoped.
The dot is VERY bright tho.


So thats a 70%



All in all EXCELLENT laser.


However, no one is perfect and the lens part do leave me slightly disappointed...

Yet all in all, the pros do outweight the cons.





Remember to clicky klackity the Rep button if this review helped ya out eh?

Nice +1
edit: when it lets me
edit again: It finally let me!

Good review. I like the host a lot...
Using a single 18650 wields same output power than 2x RCR123As?

:beer:

Leodahsan said:

Good review. I like the host a lot...
Using a single 18650 wields same output power than 2x RCR123As?

:beer:

Click to expand...

To be honest .
They shouldn't .
2x RCR123As in series should be outputting 7.4V.
While one 18650 should only be doing 3.7V.
However , it still ran at 480mW....

Rather awkward I'll say

Excellent review Hammy!

The diode pulls the voltage it needs from the driver (which is about 2.6V at the operating current level), which is why either battery will work.

The beam looks good. It has the "bar" shaped output pattern? :thinking:

Leodahsan said:

The beam looks good. It has the "bar" shaped output pattern? :thinking:

Click to expand...

Bar shaped is an understatement :crackup:
638nm Mitsubishi modules are known to have awful divergence at 4.5mRad.
Think of it as more of a fan shaped beam with a highly diffraction limited collimation output at the center.

I await the time when they can make 638nm 450mW 1.5mRad doodles

If you want a good circular beam , 660nm diodes are a better choice .
However, it does rank slightly lower on the human optical sensitivity spectrum.
All a matter of compromise I'll say.

Do you want a bright , but shorter ranged sun-red laser.
OR
Do you want a less bright , but longer ranged blood-red laser

Added some beamshots





BONUS!!!

A cat licking its balls


And the moon... from REALLY far away

Nice beam shots. I especially like blue and the red beams together.

Nice review and pics.:beer:

EpicHam said:

Hiya there folks.

I have no idea why people diss USPS ,but they deliver EXCELLENT service at an EXTREMELY economical price.
$24 shipping across the pacific.

Full 5% for the shipping

Click to expand...

Well I will say you are a little spoiled in that. USPS in my experience to Hong Kong is extremely efficient with both Hong Kong post and USPS being two great postal systems. Most of the time things are slow it is not because of USPS. USPS pretty much always has the package in the destination country's system in 5-7 days with first class and priority flat rate(same as first class service). The delays are pretty much always due to the receiving countries postal/customs services.

Very nice laser!
Great review. And the beam shots are awsome.

lowell389 said:

Very nice laser!
Great review. And the beam shots are awsome.

Click to expand...

It's compact, its bright, its 638nm.
Everything a laser enthusiast can ask for.

As for the beamshots.
Thanks for the compliments :thanks:
However, an interesting note about them is that the shutter speed of the camera at the time was almost 1 second with ISO set on 1200.
So it might have slightly exaggerated the beam.
just something to keep in mind eh?