Dragon Lasers 589nm 50mw Handheld

ultimatekaiser said:

hehe speaking of pulsed lasers...I wish I could take photos at the lab....what do you get when you have flashlamp pumped yag and said 588.6nm crystals and substrates laying around....

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Umm....what is multiwatt 589nm pulses?

IsaacT said:

Umm....what is multiwatt 589nm pulses?

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ding ding! we have a winner! It's quite spectacular. though it has a tendancy to be not so kind to the beam dump.

ultimatekaiser said:

ding ding! we have a winner! It's quite spectacular. though it has a tendancy to be not so kind to the beam dump.

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Lol do you have little holes in your metal friend?

IsaacT said:

Lol do you have little holes in your metal friend?

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haha. its made of water cooled graphite and something. I forget. and it doesn't really mar it much. but it does make it quite hot if I don't space out the pulses far enough. same to the crystals. they have to be water and copper cooled or they get mighty toasty fast. so you lose your conversion rapidly. i can only do a couple brief shots before stopping. I don't feed the whole beam either. I split it so that only some of it goes into the SFG. I don't want to damage them. I probably only get maybe a watt or so out of them.

Quick update, I inquired about the 1 year warranty through a group buy like this since I will be the purchasing agent and reshipping. Adam says all I need to do is submit the name, address, and email of each end buyer and he will honor any warranty work as per their stated policy on their website. Although I plan on being around here for the next year I was not really looking forward to being an intermediary between the end purchaser and DL for warranty work. Should that have been necessary I would have agreed to it but thankfully it will not be.

So, for everyone on the list currently, if you would be so kind to send VIA EMAIL your full name, address, and email (by sending via email I will have the email) I will start a spreadsheet. Once I receive the lasers I will attach the serial number of the laser to the buyers name and send this to Adam the day I receive the lasers.

To keep things fair I will not be doing any binning or metering of any kind, just a random selection out of the box. I will drop a fully charged IMR 18650 into each before I send them just to test function. If there is any that have a visually poor output, bad beam profile, non TEM00 operation, or dead laser, I will make that one of the two I am buying and deal with it myself. Since I already have one good one I will take the hit. it's doubtful there would be more than one problematic laser in a set of ten but even if two, I still have a working one so again, I would take the hit. If three, well we will cross that bridge when we have to.

I think that's pretty sweet terms for a GB.

If someone does want me to meter theirs I would be glad to do it after I have randomly assigned and publicly posted each persons serial number. That way there can be no complaining that the lasers were binned and so and so got one with a little better output than so and so.

If everyone really were curious about consistency of output on these I might consider testing all of them on my Ophir, but again only after a public posting of each serial number assigned to a name. I will let the group decide on that. I would want 100% consensus on this however, I really don't want to get into a situation where I could be accused of any sort of favoritism. Honestly I am not that curious but I bet there are a few who are. I bet they are all going to be pretty dang close. Anyways, give some thought to this.

Looks like I've got one other person pretty close to saying yes. So, 2-3 more people and we will be ordering soon.

I haven't asked, but if there just happened to be one or two more over the 10 needed I bet that wouldn't be a problem.

Once the 10 mark is met I will give everyone a few days to get their deposits in. Also, participants are welcome to send the full amount if they want. If you pay 100% up front I should be able to have yours out in less than 24 hours provided they don't arrive on a Saturday. Others will be shipped on full payment.

One last thing I will do to get this thing closed out, just as I did for the Goldenstar GB. If you don't have the cash now but will within a month from the time I receive the laser, I will let you make the payment of the balance within a month from the day I receive the lasers. That should give people about 6 or so weeks from now to come up with the cash. I'm assuming everyone on the list now won't be needing this but if you do, please PM me and make this arrangement with me now, not after I receive the lasers.

So, full one year warranty, no binning, GB organizer will take the hit on up to two bad lasers delivered and will deal with DL so the rest of the GB participants don't have to wait or worry, and up to a months grace period for payment. The only way it gets any better than this is to give the things away for free.....

Hey guys, it doesn't get any better than this!
I know a few of you are probably just about ready to get off the fence; this ought to make it easier.
Not too many other G.B. organizers are willing to bankroll a buy with their own money! Way to go Jeff.

Isaac is right about the Rigel too. I owned one and LOVED it, but it was incredibly unstable. Wild fast fluctuations of around 90% its output that only stopped for about three seconds. It looked visually like the effect a bad electrical connection makes, but was normal for the model.

Yes, 593.5/594.1 is more pleasing IMO, but 589 is damn close and way more stable than 593.5.

IsaacT said:

I won't try much more to convince you. I get nothing from trying to convince you. But I want people to be able to enjoy the wavelengths they want to enjoy without spending an arm and a leg because they do not think of the market shifts that are occurring.
-Isaac

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I know IsaacT, it's very hard to convince me to buy a 5mW+ laser Im not trying to be difficult it's just I enjoy 5mW pointers and currently don't see a need to buy anything higher. Once I fill up on 5mW I will most likely move on to more powerful lasers but I first have to get proper safety gear, and this money I am making this summer will finally let me buy laser accessories I have always wanted(including safety goggles).

Note: Is there still time to save me a spot if I change my mind? I can't send any money until August 15th(when I get back to the US) so I don't think I can even take part in this GB, but just thought I would ask

-Alex

Ok guys, looks like we need two more buyers. I changed the terms of deposit a little to encourage people to use PayPal and hopefully not have to wait to place the order while scragglers are getting a MO to me. I've dropped it to $50 net ($50 if by gift and $52 regular).

I'm going to probably give this thing a couple more days and if we get one more person, I will place the order. As sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, one or two people will come along wishing they had gotten in on this deal. Don't really want to own four of these things but I'm willing to take the risk I suppose.

Also, I have enquired about the beam expander for this model. I am waiting to see what price Adam will give on these. As soon as I hear I will post the price and you can PM me if you want to add one to your order. I have no idea what they retail for, maybe Isaac can chime in here. I am getting one for myself and I'm sure we could add a few more to the order. Isaac, if you're watching now, do you think the expander and the laser will easily fit inside a small flat rate box? I would think so.

Also, for those of you concerned about the reshipping, I use a very cool medium density acoustic foam to completely encase the laser within the box. I've already tried this with the small USPS box and it fits perfectly and will be completely secure. This stuff is what I usually ship all my lasers with and it should easily handle a terminal velocity drop and protect the laser optics alignment. As long as the box remains intact your laser should arrive as perfect as I received it.

As you can see in the pic below, the top piece of foam is cut short for demonstration. It will extend the entire length of the laser and box. I also add two foam strips about an inch thick across each end for added protection against axial loading and impact on the unit.

Once compressed into the box it seals around the laser like a glove. Far superior to the way they sent it from China. In fact, the only thing I did not like about the whole DL experience was the packing. Too much loose space around the bubble wrapped laser. I don't like my stuff rolling around inside the box.

I love my beam expander. DL sells them for 89.99 and then the adapters are 5 bucks each. So about 100 dollars.

As for fitting in a small flat rate, that is more iffy. I'll run by the PO tomorrow and check when I mail some things. The problem is that the Spartan would need to be put in diagonal and that would probably cause some limits.

IsaacT said:

I love my beam expander. DL sells them for 89.99 and then the adapters are 5 bucks each. So about 100 dollars.

As for fitting in a small flat rate, that is more iffy. I'll run by the PO tomorrow and check when I mail some things. The problem is that the Spartan would need to be put in diagonal and that would probably cause some limits.

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Look above my friend, with tail cap removed I've got over an inch on either end for which is extra padded with a strip of 1" thick acoustical foam. As mentioned, far superior to the factory shipping job I received.

sorry to hijack a bit but

new beam expander with a Spartan for size comparison



front view



and can't wait to use the original DL beam expander with the 589nm

Arrrrghhh. Put me down on the list. Sorry bank account, you are takin' one for the team. again.

Ok, I can't resist, I have to get another. Ha.

Put me down for one also.

crazyspaz said:

Arrrrghhh. Put me down on the list. Sorry bank account, you are takin' one for the team. again.

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same lol I don't have the money... But I'm doing it anyway lol.

We made the 10 needed

I am inquiring of Adam to send me the account and swift numbers ASAP. It's possible I could make the wire transfer as early as tomorrow provided most of you can get your deposits in by tomorrow. For everyone who hasn't already made payment arrangements with me and needing to get me a deposit, please email me ASAP with all your information (Name / Address / Email). Also, PayPal payments can be sent to my alternate email address (don't try to use my PayPal email address to email me, I never check that email anymore, use the forum email tool to email me)

My PayPal email address is m i l l e r j e f f (at) c c m h o n l i n e (dot) c o m

Be sure to remove all the spaces and add appropriate "@" and "." Where they go.

Again, DONT TRY TO SEND EMAIL to that address, PayPal payments only.

Let's see how quickly we can get this done shall we?