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I hope Glenn isn't sending you my PGL 473 50mW. :undecided:
I haven't received it yet...
I sure hope it isn't lost in the mail!
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FrozenGate by Avery
Cni gb #7
- Thread starter scopeguy20
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I hope Glenn isn't sending you my PGL 473 50mW. :undecided:
I haven't received it yet...
I sure hope it isn't lost in the mail!
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lol I'm sure your laser will get there eventually. Stop workin' your self up about it.
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Talking to Glenn... apparently there was a little hiccup with the latest CNI shipment. It's getting sorted now.
Glenn is a good guy.
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Did they send GLPs instead of PGLs?
DJNY
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Isn´t the GLP the more expensive one?
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Yeah, not by much though. The GLP is the penstyle. I think more people prefer the stability, and longer duty cycles of the PGL.
DJNY
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What I can see at the last 473nm PGLs here they are anything but stable!
Hope my GLP does a better job...
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Well they SHOULD be more stable.
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Yeah I was originally getting a 473nm 30mW GLP (pen style) but now I'm getting the PGL 30mW... There was a little mix up with my order.. But Glenn assured me that the PGL portables are far more stable... He sent mine a day late so mine should get here anytime now!!
aryntha
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Rob, I'm going to give that a try here... I've noticed some interesting things, too... I just want to make sure before I make any decisions -- I think we've got 30 days for RMA on these lasers, but Glenn said the sooner the better. So I'm trying to be as thorough as I can be -- I'll post on that soon but, really, thanks for the related experiences with yours;
I was a bit nervous to go too far on a duty cycle like that, but I'll give that a try now, and try to replicate your results.
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cmak
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:kewlpics:I've got a theory on the 473 -- but I don't wanna say anything or speak too soon. Still doing some testing.
The 589 review won't be a problem. I think Glenn's 45mW measurement was, er, um. Conservative.
EDIT: Can y'all say "preview"? I knew ya could.
is the color fairly true-to-life? It's looking a tad on the orange side (well, for a 589nm). Anyways, great pics! The beam visibilty looks pretty good considering the P.O./wavelength/outside lighting
peace & thanks
-cmak
aryntha
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It's more yellow than it looks. More yellow than 593.5's orange. Once I do the real review, I'll tweak the raw files so they match how it looks.
It's probably a color temperature issue because of the snow on the mountainside screwing up the kelvin.
As far as output goes, I really think Glenn's 45mW rating was conservative on this one, i'll get that looked at too.
It's probably a color temperature issue because of the snow on the mountainside screwing up the kelvin.
As far as output goes, I really think Glenn's 45mW rating was conservative on this one, i'll get that looked at too.
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Good Luck & I hope you have the kind of results that I had. rob
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I put my review of the new GLP-473 in the review section.
Thanks Glenn --- HMike
Thanks Glenn --- HMike
aryntha
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Well, here's the 473 update.
When I got the laser, immediately, without fail, power the thing on would result in a bright flash of 473, and a quick - within 5 seconds - fade down to maybe 5mW. A trickle. tem01 or more the whole way.
The immediate response was, "This can't be right - Something must have gone wrong in shipping." Glenn talked to CNI, we got set up for an RMA.
I remembered ElectroFreak's writeup on mode hopping - and how it was usually related to power. And it made me think; so I began trying different batteries, different types of 18650s, from 1800mAh to 3200mAh, protected and unprotected. Freshly charged every time, of course. No change. The laser would just spurt and die out.
(Little did I know I was making the problem worse.)
Well, here's where the key change happened. I ordered some 18650's from MrDusanMandic. They arrived overnight as he had promised and, well, really out of nowhere, I decided to pop one into the PGL-III-C-473 50mW without charging it. I turned it on and noticed, "Huh. that looks like more than 50mW". (I had also read Rob's report of good performance in his 473 by then, and duty cycle, and had it kinda floating in my head. )
So, what's up with these batteries? The laser's... bright. Real bright. What's going on here? I run it for 30 seconds, on a white target, looking for dimming and mode hopping. A little mode instability --- no dimming, doesn't really hop to TEM01. Huh?
I grab some of the batteries I had been using the night it had arrived (We've had about 48 hours elapsed now. Some use, and passive drain on those batteries) - when it was having problems - and put them in. Hmm. Another 30 second run, bright as really can be. Almost have to squint. Funny business... Well, don't want to call it good yet. What, did things get knocked back into alignment? Can't be.
I end up down in Boulder with a friend with a Coherent meter and bearing Rob's test in mind, I try it. With the same battery. 90 seconds of 55-75mW. A one minute pause. I fire it up again and watch my watch, and the meter. 60mW.. 77mW ... watching it count past 30... 75mW ... past 90... 70mW ... Wait a minute. This laser really is starting to behave?
I was able to repeat Rob's tests, almost exactly. 90 second runs of 50-75mW. No problem. Repeated them 3 times.
Tonight? Two 2:00 runs without dimming.
So what on earth is going on? Some of those 18650 cells I got from MrDusanMandic I had on the charger overnight to get charged up. Here's where my hunch comes in. I pull one off and stick it on my multimeter. 4.3v??? .. Oh damn.
Pull the other one off... 4.4v ... Check the battery in the 473. 3.8v. Sure enough, I throw some completely different cells on that charger and a few hours later they emerge at 4.5v.
So, what's the big idea? -- I think that this whole time, it's been the charger pushing my 18650's too far. Maybe other lasers weren't sensitive to it but I have a feeling that the pump diode was just overheating so quickly that power would drop out.
I'm not willing to close the case QUITE yet, but it looks good - I want to keep testing; these two 2:00 runs are a really good sign though. This was not possible with the freshly charged cells. And I'm not really willing to feed it a 4.5v cell again. But, I am willing to try new batteries on another 18650 charger (I do have several, this was a DealExtreme TrustFire...)
But right now my PGL-III-473-50 is putting out some serious photons for at least 2 minutes at a time, and, that ain't half bad.
Just wondering what anyone else thinks of the situation and my logic here? Could it be possible, that that's all it was, and that I'm good, going forward? I'd love to NOT have to RMA the thing.
When I got the laser, immediately, without fail, power the thing on would result in a bright flash of 473, and a quick - within 5 seconds - fade down to maybe 5mW. A trickle. tem01 or more the whole way.
The immediate response was, "This can't be right - Something must have gone wrong in shipping." Glenn talked to CNI, we got set up for an RMA.
I remembered ElectroFreak's writeup on mode hopping - and how it was usually related to power. And it made me think; so I began trying different batteries, different types of 18650s, from 1800mAh to 3200mAh, protected and unprotected. Freshly charged every time, of course. No change. The laser would just spurt and die out.
(Little did I know I was making the problem worse.)
Well, here's where the key change happened. I ordered some 18650's from MrDusanMandic. They arrived overnight as he had promised and, well, really out of nowhere, I decided to pop one into the PGL-III-C-473 50mW without charging it. I turned it on and noticed, "Huh. that looks like more than 50mW". (I had also read Rob's report of good performance in his 473 by then, and duty cycle, and had it kinda floating in my head. )
So, what's up with these batteries? The laser's... bright. Real bright. What's going on here? I run it for 30 seconds, on a white target, looking for dimming and mode hopping. A little mode instability --- no dimming, doesn't really hop to TEM01. Huh?
I grab some of the batteries I had been using the night it had arrived (We've had about 48 hours elapsed now. Some use, and passive drain on those batteries) - when it was having problems - and put them in. Hmm. Another 30 second run, bright as really can be. Almost have to squint. Funny business... Well, don't want to call it good yet. What, did things get knocked back into alignment? Can't be.
I end up down in Boulder with a friend with a Coherent meter and bearing Rob's test in mind, I try it. With the same battery. 90 seconds of 55-75mW. A one minute pause. I fire it up again and watch my watch, and the meter. 60mW.. 77mW ... watching it count past 30... 75mW ... past 90... 70mW ... Wait a minute. This laser really is starting to behave?
I was able to repeat Rob's tests, almost exactly. 90 second runs of 50-75mW. No problem. Repeated them 3 times.
Tonight? Two 2:00 runs without dimming.
So what on earth is going on? Some of those 18650 cells I got from MrDusanMandic I had on the charger overnight to get charged up. Here's where my hunch comes in. I pull one off and stick it on my multimeter. 4.3v??? .. Oh damn.
Pull the other one off... 4.4v ... Check the battery in the 473. 3.8v. Sure enough, I throw some completely different cells on that charger and a few hours later they emerge at 4.5v.
So, what's the big idea? -- I think that this whole time, it's been the charger pushing my 18650's too far. Maybe other lasers weren't sensitive to it but I have a feeling that the pump diode was just overheating so quickly that power would drop out.
I'm not willing to close the case QUITE yet, but it looks good - I want to keep testing; these two 2:00 runs are a really good sign though. This was not possible with the freshly charged cells. And I'm not really willing to feed it a 4.5v cell again. But, I am willing to try new batteries on another 18650 charger (I do have several, this was a DealExtreme TrustFire...)
But right now my PGL-III-473-50 is putting out some serious photons for at least 2 minutes at a time, and, that ain't half bad.
Just wondering what anyone else thinks of the situation and my logic here? Could it be possible, that that's all it was, and that I'm good, going forward? I'd love to NOT have to RMA the thing.
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cmak
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wow, well that's quite the story & explanation there, Aryntha! I totally agree with your logic and think that that's the case. Before, when you were having the problem with the dimming, you said that it started off "real bright". Compared to the lasers current stable output, how high (approximately) would you rate that initial peak? I suppose it could have been peaking over 100mW 
eek and then dying out...
peace & thanks
-cmak
eek and then dying out...peace & thanks
-cmak
