I received my G1 today. It just showed up with no shipping notification ahead of time. Elapsed time from order to delivery - 86 days. The box did include the extra goggles and lens pen. The goggles have no OD rating on them. The battery took 1hr 20min to charge. I've already ordered a pair of 'good' batteries and should have them in hand early next week.
The laser itself appears to be in good condition. No obvious nicks or scratches. The interior appears to be clean without the excessive heat paste reported in the first ones.
If it fails I'm not even going to bother trying to return it. I'll just gut it and use it as a host for a DIY project.
The laser seems to work though I can not vouch for the power output. While I was waiting for the battery to charge I removed the lens from the Training Lens and am using that front cap so there is no extra glass in the beam path.
I ran the laser, nearly non-stop, for over an hour. It was still going strong when I quit. Obviously lower power than at the start but still able to light a match at close range. I didn't really do any serious testing the first time out. This was mainly just to see if the bloody thing worked.
It does. The beam is noticeably out of alignment with the host, but that's really the only thing I could find to complain about and it's not _that_ bad. The beam shape was (eyeball measurement) about 1mmx2mm as close to the laser as I could still see it. At around 12 feet it was....about an inch long? I'll be doing precise measurements later but I'll probably wait until my Spartan shows up so I can measure them both at the same time.
One thing I forgot to do was pay any attention to the battery indicator lights. I know I was down to two lights relatively quickly but I didn't notice when it went to one and I didn't notice when it went to no lights. I do know that I ran the thing for almost thirty minutes with no battery indicator lights showing.
When I shut down to come back inside the host was noticeably warm in my hand. It had been locked in a holder for most of the time I had it running so that heat was internally generated and not my body heat. I'll assume that means the heat sinking is working properly.
So far I'll say that as a hobby laser it's worth the $200 I paid for it but I doubt I would buy another one. Especially considering the hassle I went through acquiring this one. Ask me again when my Spartan arrives and I have another 1W blue to compare it to.
The laser itself appears to be in good condition. No obvious nicks or scratches. The interior appears to be clean without the excessive heat paste reported in the first ones.
If it fails I'm not even going to bother trying to return it. I'll just gut it and use it as a host for a DIY project.
The laser seems to work though I can not vouch for the power output. While I was waiting for the battery to charge I removed the lens from the Training Lens and am using that front cap so there is no extra glass in the beam path.
I ran the laser, nearly non-stop, for over an hour. It was still going strong when I quit. Obviously lower power than at the start but still able to light a match at close range. I didn't really do any serious testing the first time out. This was mainly just to see if the bloody thing worked.
It does. The beam is noticeably out of alignment with the host, but that's really the only thing I could find to complain about and it's not _that_ bad. The beam shape was (eyeball measurement) about 1mmx2mm as close to the laser as I could still see it. At around 12 feet it was....about an inch long? I'll be doing precise measurements later but I'll probably wait until my Spartan shows up so I can measure them both at the same time.
One thing I forgot to do was pay any attention to the battery indicator lights. I know I was down to two lights relatively quickly but I didn't notice when it went to one and I didn't notice when it went to no lights. I do know that I ran the thing for almost thirty minutes with no battery indicator lights showing.
When I shut down to come back inside the host was noticeably warm in my hand. It had been locked in a holder for most of the time I had it running so that heat was internally generated and not my body heat. I'll assume that means the heat sinking is working properly.
So far I'll say that as a hobby laser it's worth the $200 I paid for it but I doubt I would buy another one. Especially considering the hassle I went through acquiring this one. Ask me again when my Spartan arrives and I have another 1W blue to compare it to.
