Hi Jack,

You state that the RPL is better than the "the generic Viasho pointer".
Could you be a bit more specific? What is the difference?!?

You are probably saying this to defend the price difference.
I wrote an email to Viasho to ask this. There is no difference at all.
I encourage people to do the same thing.

I agree with GooeyGus. You can easily get 50% price cut if chosing Viasho.
Even better price in a Group Buy, I guess?

If you go to Visho, or I do a GB direct from them, there are services and trade up ability you/ we would miss out on. Jack does a very good job of quality control and offers many extra service and things like a case, charger and on and on, so it is a little unfair, I think, to say he is just trying to justify a higher cost. Viasho will not take your (prefectly good), unit back and trade up like Jack will after you decide to move on with your laser facination into a different power relm or wavelength, and they don't provide a battery let alone case, charger, accessories & freebies etc! There are very good reasons many veterans would love to give Jack the order, and these folks are not foolishly wasting the $! (steps off of his soapbox and zips it!) -Glenn

I have ~ 320 USD avaible. Is this a chance for a good deal on a higher power green or should I go with the CNI groupbuy?

Ehhh you could probably get an RPL if you get a little more money

Hi Glenn,


I think its very nice that you do Group Buys for this laser commity.
And they succeed because people trust in you. Good job.

I never said that the price was the only difference.
Optotronics have longer warranty and an upgrade-system. And that is very nice.
If you read my post, you will see that I only responded to Jacks statement about RPL being superior to the "the generic Viasho pointer".
This is bullshit.
I asked Viasho. There is no difference. Exact same parts.

Jack is lying about a quality difference in lasers, because no way the extra charger can cope with a nice Viasho price

I don't know, things like the hercules from Laserglow are clearly different.

CNI wouldn't sell it to me. What was Viasho's email?

With respect to buying a high powered green laser, I've been dragging my ass for quite a while now. I'm like everybody else, I don't want to pay more than is necessay. But I feel like I've been through this story a thousand times. Just when I'm about to commit myself to buying an Optotronic RPL or an LG Aries/Herc - all of a sudden there appears a chance to get "the same thing" at half the price. And always, after researching this new deal, I find out that it was too good to be true. The old saying "you get what you pay for" hangs tough. The writing is on the wall for me - I'll support an Opto GB.

Dave

Well it is hard to pass up a deal like this Giface. I was in the same thing as you. It's hard to cough up the money, when a discount like this is slapping you in the face it really isn't

It's the slapping that comes after the purchase that I'm most concerned about - but I honestly hope I'm wrong.

Dave

Nahhhhh Just buy something small to start out with then? 165mw for around 400.

I hope Jack would honor the retail prices if we wanted to upgrade, or that'd kind of make the discount void

Hey Void, I understand your stance, and it was also similarly stated by BlueFusion a while back. Even though the lasers are all built, (by Viasho), to the same requirements from the same line of production parts, there is variation, and if Jack will test and select the better units and return to the mfg those units that do not meet his QC for power stability or low divergence etc., then these Jack sells are more "select" units indeed. And like I said, the extras are quite considerable as well.
None the less, I am still looking into and considering the possibility of using a direct buy from Viasho, in which case, I need to be good at QC myself among other services to my friends buying here. This, I also have been doing with other suppliers and other goods such as mirrors, sleds, and other companies lasers and products.
To tell you the truth, the biggest hassle is the shipping internationally and finding all the time and trouble dealing with USPS and other shippers and insurance etc. Nearly every country is a study in it's self of costs options customs and and local reliability of the shipper. It's sure much easier to just want something, order it, and then have others preform ideally or be flamed!

Opto have a good reputation.
Especially the upgrade system is very nice.

I paid 750$ for a Viasho ~440mW (average output, 60sec). I wont need an upgrade.
If you ask politely, maybe Viasho will pick a good unit for you. I like 'em overspec'ed.

Good luck with the group buy. I have a plane to catch and a vacation to enjoy

Depending on when this happens, I may be interested in getting into this for a "pen style Premium 150mw" greenie. Is it a CNI or a Newwish though? I couldn't find a website for Viasho, so I'm not sure, or is this going to be through Jack?

Glenn, I'm also interested in the prices on the 594nm RPL's. I doubt the house commander will let me buy one (lol), but I'm still curious!

Hey quadcam, there are only two colors of true RPL's Green and Blue. They are great lasers if limited to these 2 wl's! If you want a portable yellow (flashlight style) you are not alone! I have a Vega -5, (also made by CNI but sold by LasrerGlow), and I still want a CNI (PGL III 593.5nm 5 mW) like the one I got Schriken_Licht, her laser seems twice as bright as mine does peaked! Also the Vega -10 sells from LG for ~$1,199, but I got the PGL III from CNI for about $550 (both btw are costs before shipping or PP fees, But look!, What that deal! For CNI lasers please see my CNI GB's

The Optotronics pens look to be NewWish.

Holy crap! That is crazy. God now I'm torn Void. I just need more work! I only got 4 hours this week WTH!!!!

Viasho definately seems cheaper. Does it also have no duty cycle?

My (limited) understanding is that most of the Viasho units are suggested to use for 5 or 10 min. duty cycles, (likely shorter for very high output and longer for the lowest output units), My Blue Viasho is a minnute warm up, and starts to feel too warm if on for much over 10 min. and although it just does 25 - 29 mW, my guess is that is near the equal of a green 300 mW in terms of IR diode power. I believe Void is on vacation, but ask Jack about duty cycle I am sure he knows. -Glenn

If you have read around, you would have noticed that RPLs use a 2.5W N-light diode. Generic viasho units supposedly use a "Made in china" diode. There is no need to call "bullshit"; the person you contacted[at viasho] may not have been aware of this...

@Glenn, how much of a discount can we get for a 800mw green lab system? Last I recall, they went for $1100 mark; if we can get a 15% discount, I might possibly be interested pending paycheck...

Digital Blue that's what I thought. Opto advertises that on their website and i thought surely Viasho with their non english website couldn't have that

The Viasho contact person know his lasers better than you and me.
Viasho have two options: 2W n-Light vs 2,5W n-Light. If you choose the 2W, price will further decrease. I got the 2,5W n-Light.
As I said, there are no difference.


themandalorian: "...Viasho with their non english website couldn't have that."
The language of the websites says nothing about the origin of the components. You are funny.
Have you forgot? All opto lasers are made in China by Viasho.
Believe it or not, its the same shit.

ok let me chime in here on lab units 10+ need to be ordered for a descent discount
i went to Viasho and haggled for a blue unit for a while -maybe they didnt like me but
i got the same unit except in silver -only opto has that.I was asked not to post the price qouted by Viasho so I wont but i thought why not pay an extra 200.00 or so for a unit thats distributer is in the usa ,but guess what i only ended up paying 70.00 more than viasho offered plus got 9 months more than the offered 90 day viasho warranty
and jack gave me enough optics to choke two or three people

so to me 70.00 usd extra and i got
1) carrying case
2) battery
3) 1 year warranty
4) chrome style host opto only
5) so many optics i have no idea what they do
6) usa distributer with the best in customer satisfaction

so to me i will always use Jack but hey thats just me lol

The Viasho contact person is a sales person and as such will say what you want to hear to make the sale.
The reputation of the RPL far exceeds that of the Viasho portable; that said, they get tons of inquiries not only from hobbyists, but from the big Chinese internet retailers for the RPL. So recently they have been saying what the potential customers want to hear, but they are not the same product. They have a bigger profit margin on their own product due to it's much lower production costs.
As for diodes, I know for fact that their regular Viasho pointers do not use n-light at all, they are too expensive a diode for their regular pointers. And those that are produced in the under 250mw range only use a 1.2W diode (non-nlight).
In fact, nlight does not even make a 2W diode, the lowest they make is a 2.5W. They use to make a 1.2W, but that was discontinued long ago and they never offered a 2W 808nm single emitter diode. Here it the link to the nlight product page for proof of this.
http://www.nlight.net/nlight-files/f...ble_090302.pdf

Before you go around calling people liars, you should get an education in how salesmen who's job and income are based on how much they can sell.
Manufacturers customize their base products to customer needs whether it be a lower cost unit with more profit margin and less expensive components and looser specs or a higher cost with less profit margin, higher perfomance, with tighter specs and longer life.
They want to make their customers happy and sell lots of products to them, so manufacturers will work with their customers to see that their needs are met.

I've got more important things to do than try teach a class in contract manufacturing or argue with new forum members.

So you are calling the Viasho contact person a liar because he is a salesman? You are also a salesman. That does not make you a liar.

You state Viasho pointer don’t use n-light at all? According to the people making all your lasers, they do use n-light if it is requested. Like when you request it.
I will ask Viasho about the 2W diode, but they gave me two options: 2W n-light and 2,5W n-light.

You keep saying there is a difference. I am asking you again: Could you be more specific?
What is the difference? Which components? How is a Viasho 400mW different from a RPL 400mW?

If you don’t want to argue with new forum members, fine with me.
But just because I am a new forum member doesn’t mean I am wrong.

Rats! I was hoping Jack would address the Duty Cycle question!

Void I was referring to the fact that I didn't think Viasho would go through the trouble to get that Better diode rather than throw their own in their, it would make more sense for them to do that so in a way I do believe jack.

I talked to the people at CNI and they were very shady and liars, they might have been lying to you.