LaserGlow Aries

[1337mW]

The Aries series of green laser pointers by LaserGlow has been around for a while now. Do any of you guys have an Aries? Does LaserGlow buy these lasers from another company like CNI?

It seems like LaserGlow and WickedLasers are the two most popular sites for buying high power green lasers, but I was wondering before I buy from LaserGlow if some of you all could tell me about your opinion of the Aries series.

 

[randall158]

aries is a fine powerfull handheld laser. i own the 200 and it produces a very stable beam with no dropoff.

 

[windstrings]

I've just been studying the heck out of them.. but never owned one.
If you could stand the cannon size of 3 D cells... the herc is awesome too with its 2.5watt diode.. I notice the initial power readings are about 1/3rd higher than the constant... quite impressive.

Otherwise the Aries seems to be as big as what I would consider "portable"....by my definition.. If I can't smuggle it in to work or a restarant but have to always leave it in the car.. "its not portble".
The Aries will just look like a mouse in your pocket..... but I live in the wrong part of town to put a Herc in my pocket! LOL!

I have found nothing put praises and excellent ratings and numbers.... it sounds like they ran one for 200 days consecutive before they gave up and decided it wasn't going to crash! LOL!

If you look at thier graphs.. the aries display will show a graph to the right of thier 100mw and it spikes to about 180mw for 2 minutes and then goes to 160 for another 2 minutes to settle on 120mw till it goes off the graph.

They take there readings from an average over "10 minutes".. Not 20 seconds. They seem quite confident in their product with their 7 day unconditional return with a 6 month warranty/ 12 Month extended!!!.
With its 1200mw diode, it holds its own quite well.

If you get one.. use the NiMh 5000mah's C cells from http://www.thomas-distributing.com/ap-6000-2.htm
they are 13.97 each if you buy three.....
But I've some research and I think these are actually better for punch under load and they are only 4.20 each!
http://www.amondotech.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=260

the divergence is ~0.9-1.4 mrad.... not bad.... the Herc is even better.
there is alot more I could say.. but I'm sure you already have red the same things.....

I was struggling between this and the Optotronic until I read the review in the LED museum... sounds like they may get a bit warm and may require some stand-down time. http://ledmuseum.candlepower.us/sixth/rpl-260.htm
Start reading below the line that says "very important"
Otherwise, they have a convincing story.. espcially their rechargable version that has the higher powers of the herc with the lower size of the Aries.

All in all, the best I can tell and all I've read the Aries cannot go wrong.

I wonder if they have any further discounts for forum customers?

 

[windstrings]

Well since my last post.. I purchased the 175mw Aries.. it tests at 225 peak and stays at a constant 193mw.. the divergence is 0.9... not bad!...

I will let you know how it is once I get it.....

since my purchase and this post, the 175's are no longer on sale, but the 100's, 125's and 150's are.
Pretty good prices I might add.

No overheating issues and no sloppy beams or divergence issues.. seems to be a very well built unit from these guys based on all the reviews, digging and reading I've done.

The Herc is awesome, but just too sinkin big for my wants.... the size of a 3 D Cell maglite! LOL!... but it cuts the mustard!

Even though it won't fit in my shirt pocket, it will fit in my pants!.. I'll look like I"m packin!

I"ve come to appreciate the power of these bigger lasers with the ample battery bank due to the much bigger batteries along with ample heat sink, those combinations along with better quality lens make a laser that has a punch that doesn't fail under a little pressure.

 

[pseudonomen137]

0.9mRad is pretty good. CNI does make these originally, and specs them to <1.5mRad. However the CNI lasers at the <1.5mRad spec are commonly found at high as 2.0mRad or more though so I guess its just a gamble. The Aries are nice lasers though because of their duty cycle and FDA compliance, though the key, interlock, etc can be a hassle at times. For the price LG has them at though, I would highly recommend them.

 

[windstrings]

0.9mRad is pretty good. CNI does make these originally, and specs them to <1.5mRad. However the CNI lasers at the <1.5mRad spec are commonly found at high as 2.0mRad or more though so I guess its just a gamble. The Aries are nice lasers though because of their duty cycle and FDA compliance, though the key, interlock, etc can be a hassle at times. For the price LG has them at though, I would highly recommend them.

The Aries are suppose to be <1.4 and the Hercs are <1.2mrad... but they will put it on the bence and test it for you. The Hercs come with a sheet with the mrad already stated for each unit, but the Aries is only shown for power "a graph over 10 minutes!" and then the average....and you have to ask for mrad on those.
Seems the average over 10 minutes is "always" higher than the rating they assign too!.. sweet!
So if you buy a 150mw laser, you can rest assured that the average over 10 minute will be more than 150.....

As most out here know, many companies will give you the peak power "that only last for a few seconds" or exclude that peak and give the average over 20 seconds.. or if your lucky "two minutes"... no one else that I"m aware of test over 10 minutes!!!.. and thats with the Peak "excluded" from the figure to come up with the average.... "its not included in the calculations"
So you really get what you pay for. I would say as long as the divergence is good... you can't lose!

Although they seemed swamped with orders and were very busy, they were very polite and agreeable to testing even by looking over the lot and giving me the one I wanted. But I had to politely ask them to do so.
There was another that peaked a little higher but the constant was lower.... that I turned down.
I don't know if they still have it, but they had a 150mw that had a constant close to 175.. maybe 173 or so?... "a hot one".. most companies would have sold that as a 175 knowing the peak and short average of 2 minutes or less would still be over rating.. but I was quite impressed to learn that it was only being sold as a 150.. even though after 10 minutes the average nearly hit 175!
To me that means they really have a spirit of excellence.....

I already had my purchase in when he did this for me... I don't know if he would go to so much trouble if your order was not committed or at least he knew you were very serious..... who knows?

 

[windstrings]

tthough the key, interlock, etc can be a hassle at times.

I will be looking for and read somewhere that you can remove that and replace it with a nice brass plug that looks good.
I will have no need for a lock as I don't have small children and if I did, they wouldn't find nor touch my laser.. I treat it like having a pistol in the house since It may not kill you, but it can kill an eye forever!

Let me know if you know of a clean way to remove those.

 

[pseudonomen137]

Actually removing them is be different, and note, none of this is advised as it is out of compliance with US law, however things like the timer circuit can be cracked. I've heard of people dismantling them and just disabling it. On mine, which needs to be RMAed for this and other reasons, it seems I somehow managed to fry the timer as the laser now only does ~5% of its initial power, and there is no time delay.

The key is easy to avoid, you just need something to hold the plate inside there down. You could probably just shove the end of a bamboo skewer, piece of plastic, etc in thereto hold the plate down and then just epoxy over it. The interlock at the end is a pain because it never seems to contact well on my PGLs, but its a standard plug, so either making a new one wouldn't be hard, or just short circuiting that wouldn't be difficult either. Remember to make sure you do that job well though as it is not on a seperate circuit, but actually just completes the circuit for the power that goes to the laser.

 

[windstrings]

geeze.. sounds rather complicated.. I remember reading about the optoronics unit that at the end of its 50 seconds it dropped to 5% of its power and then shutdown... I wonder if you have it stuck in the shutdown power mode?
Sounds like more than I want to tackle.. I wouldn't do it till my 6 month warranty was up anyways.... Why can't you just leave it in the "on" mode and saw or dremmel the key off and soldier in the cracks and smooth down to look good or something similiar?.. does that drain the battery to leave it on?

 

[pseudonomen137]

geeze.. sounds rather complicated.. I remember reading about the optoronics unit that at the end of its 50 seconds it dropped to 5% of its power and then shutdown... I wonder if you have it stuck in the shutdown power mode?
Sounds like more than I want to tackle.. I wouldn't do it till my 6 month warranty was up anyways.... Why can't you just leave it in the "on" mode and saw  or dremmel the key off and soldier in the cracks and smooth down to look good or something similiar?.. does that drain the battery to leave it on?

No, just some electrical problem that burned the diode facets a bit probably. Aries do not have that auto power down like the RPLs do. No problem really as this is one of a collection of about $2-3k of lasers I need to RMA with the company anyways.

 

[windstrings]

Whats up with that anyway?.. why to RPL's get hot? or is it just certain companies?
Why do they have a shutdown feature to turn off in 2 - 3 minutes while others can run for hours?

 

[pseudonomen137]

Whats up with that anyway?.. why to RPL's get hot? or is it just certain companies?
Why do they have a shutdown feature to turn off in 2 - 3 minutes while others can run for hours?

Heat disappation. Others might get longer times also just because they are run less responsibly. I did notice though that the heat dissipation is not particularly well thought out in the RPL. The Aries are better. With things like the Spyder though, you have TEC cooling which completely changes the situation. Also, you can leave a 100mW green pointer on for hours too because they, like Aries and others don't have anything to shut them off, but it might not be advisable.

 

[windstrings]

the Hercules are advertized to have a 6 hour runtime....
Reading thier article.. they left one on for 200 days consecutively!

The Aries Series Certified Portable Lasers have undergone tests where several units were run for 200 days continuously in order to determine the minimum 6,000 hour life span. All of the units tested were still operational after this period.

 

[windstrings]

For anyone interested... seems the 150 is the sweetspot right now.
Its the highest powered on thats on sale.

 

[SenKat]

Okay - proud owner of an Aries 175 here now.... HOLY CRAP...this thing is DANGEROUS cool ! I am not gonna go on and on forever, but suffice it to say, everything in my lab is in danger of being put to the scorch test ! ;D Burned a hole in my shoe when I first loaded the batteries in it ;D I just HAD to ! Okay - enough talk about it - awesome unit, HIGHLY reccomend !!! And yes, the safety features ARE a little bit of a pain in the ass - but it'll work

 

[tatman]

i'm sick over this. see "i'm pissed". i was so hoping to find all this out in person, but we've hit a snag.