Sigurthr
0
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2011
- Messages
- 4,364
- Points
- 83
Hello all!
Ordering and Shipping:
I placed my order late Xmas day after receiving some gift money. I also sent the $2 fee for registered/insured mail upgrade. My order was acknowledged on the 28th, and went in to processing on the 30th. It was shipped out the 31st. On Jan 5th it went through Chinese customs and on Jan 6th it arrived in the US. It was held in customs until Jan 14th when it began stateside transit to me. It finally arrived at about 11am on January 17th.
The Goods (or should I say, the goodies!?):
Once I opened it up I found it was very well packaged, and it was not messed with by customs. The first thing I did was check the voltage of the two 16340 batteries - 3.59V per cell. I then proceded to pop them in my universal CC/CV Li-Ion charger. I then unpackaged everything and visually inspected my laser and case - all was well. I reinforced the foam padding in my aluminum case with another base layer of closed cell neoprene adhesive-backed foam, and a strip above where the rifle sits in the case. It does not rattle around at all now.
I then donned my Eagle Pair goggles and clicked the tail switch for the first time.... WOW! This laser is amazing! With fog in the room I could see the beam through the goggles. Without fog you can't see the beam at all. After getting my beamstop in place and the laser secure I turned it back on and flipped up my goggles. Careful to not look at the beamstop and only the beam, I marveled at this beautiful laser for nearly a whole minute. I've been keeping a stopwatch active to stick tot he duty cycle. Boy this host gets warm after only 45sec.
The Power Certificate states that my Rifle does 1309mW Peak and 1308mW Sustained. Given there is a 1mW resolution for the LPM, I think it is safe to say it is pretty stable!
Wavelength:
This laser's output appears to be considerably higher wavelength than my single mode 50mW 450nm pointer from laserlands but I've been told this is mostly due to the increased output. The 50mW pointer looks very indigo/violet compared to the Rifle. You can really see the tinge of violet in the beam, spot, and reflected light from the Laserlands pointer. The Rifle is certainly "darker blue" than my 473nm labby, but not as much as I would have thought. I really wonder if this one is close to or around 460nm. It REALLY looks like it could be. It looks VERY much like the beam from StyroPyro's 460nm labby. I don't have a spectrometer so I can't check the wavelength but it is quite visually different than my other "450nm" pointer. RHD has been binning diodes based on wavelength and has only found one at 458nm, so while rare, it is possible. Also, since we are runing these diodes on such hich currents, their wavelength does increase a bit.
Batteries:
By the way, speaking of the batteries; how long do 16340's normally last, per charge? After exactly two 60sec duty cycles the battery voltage was down to 3.98V per cell. After a third duty cycle the voltage was down to 3.89V per cell. Oddly enough after about an hour of charging the lights on my charger for one cell went green. I checked and the cells were only at 4.1V each. Thankfully my charger continues to output 4.19V at a low rate to keep cells charged. I left them in the charger for about 5 hours until they read 4.19V.
My charger is charging them again, and one of the cells always "goes green" faster than the other, by a long shot, but when I measure the voltage (with no load) both cells have the same amount despite the difference in indicator state. I should say that this has never happened with the 18650s I charge on this charger regularly, but those are all protected cells. I don't know if these cells are odd or if my charger can't really measure them well. It is playing it safe and trickle charging them once they get above 4.05V though, so no worries.
Oh, I forgot to mention; I tried using a single 18650 cell, but no go; didn't lase at all. I think maybe it tried to draw too much current and the protection pcb kicked in, or the Vf was not met.
UPDATE 1/23/12 - After cooling the laser enough to do proper extended testing, I determined that one of my two 16340s that I got from Lazerer is underspec in capacity. That is why it was appearing to charge faster, it was. It also discharges faster, and it's voltage sags faster. These batteries trigger the charger's protection circuit before fully charged as well, which makes them take a lot longer to charge up fully.
At 6.65V input the laser drops output considerably and takes much longer to burn dark wood. At 6.3V input it ceases to burn dark wood. At 6.25V input and lower output power drops drastically to the point that it appears dimmer than my 50mW 450nm pointer. At 6.0V input the diode barely lases faintly.
So, this means you can not use any single cell, nor can you use primary lithium batteries. I ordered some good AW Protected RCR123A 16340 cells that I will be using from now on.
Beamspecs:
When I defocus the laser fully and shine the beam at a far wall (~50ft) the spot is circular..... I was expecting a bar... not sure what is going on here. The central stripe of the spot is definitely brighter and it isn't an evenly lit round spot, but I was expecting a pure BAR, with no roundness to it at all.
I'll have some pictures of beamshots and such up in the future.
Pictures:
Ordering and Shipping:
I placed my order late Xmas day after receiving some gift money. I also sent the $2 fee for registered/insured mail upgrade. My order was acknowledged on the 28th, and went in to processing on the 30th. It was shipped out the 31st. On Jan 5th it went through Chinese customs and on Jan 6th it arrived in the US. It was held in customs until Jan 14th when it began stateside transit to me. It finally arrived at about 11am on January 17th.
The Goods (or should I say, the goodies!?):
Once I opened it up I found it was very well packaged, and it was not messed with by customs. The first thing I did was check the voltage of the two 16340 batteries - 3.59V per cell. I then proceded to pop them in my universal CC/CV Li-Ion charger. I then unpackaged everything and visually inspected my laser and case - all was well. I reinforced the foam padding in my aluminum case with another base layer of closed cell neoprene adhesive-backed foam, and a strip above where the rifle sits in the case. It does not rattle around at all now.
I then donned my Eagle Pair goggles and clicked the tail switch for the first time.... WOW! This laser is amazing! With fog in the room I could see the beam through the goggles. Without fog you can't see the beam at all. After getting my beamstop in place and the laser secure I turned it back on and flipped up my goggles. Careful to not look at the beamstop and only the beam, I marveled at this beautiful laser for nearly a whole minute. I've been keeping a stopwatch active to stick tot he duty cycle. Boy this host gets warm after only 45sec.
The Power Certificate states that my Rifle does 1309mW Peak and 1308mW Sustained. Given there is a 1mW resolution for the LPM, I think it is safe to say it is pretty stable!
Wavelength:
This laser's output appears to be considerably higher wavelength than my single mode 50mW 450nm pointer from laserlands but I've been told this is mostly due to the increased output. The 50mW pointer looks very indigo/violet compared to the Rifle. You can really see the tinge of violet in the beam, spot, and reflected light from the Laserlands pointer. The Rifle is certainly "darker blue" than my 473nm labby, but not as much as I would have thought. I really wonder if this one is close to or around 460nm. It REALLY looks like it could be. It looks VERY much like the beam from StyroPyro's 460nm labby. I don't have a spectrometer so I can't check the wavelength but it is quite visually different than my other "450nm" pointer. RHD has been binning diodes based on wavelength and has only found one at 458nm, so while rare, it is possible. Also, since we are runing these diodes on such hich currents, their wavelength does increase a bit.
Batteries:
By the way, speaking of the batteries; how long do 16340's normally last, per charge? After exactly two 60sec duty cycles the battery voltage was down to 3.98V per cell. After a third duty cycle the voltage was down to 3.89V per cell. Oddly enough after about an hour of charging the lights on my charger for one cell went green. I checked and the cells were only at 4.1V each. Thankfully my charger continues to output 4.19V at a low rate to keep cells charged. I left them in the charger for about 5 hours until they read 4.19V.
My charger is charging them again, and one of the cells always "goes green" faster than the other, by a long shot, but when I measure the voltage (with no load) both cells have the same amount despite the difference in indicator state. I should say that this has never happened with the 18650s I charge on this charger regularly, but those are all protected cells. I don't know if these cells are odd or if my charger can't really measure them well. It is playing it safe and trickle charging them once they get above 4.05V though, so no worries.
Oh, I forgot to mention; I tried using a single 18650 cell, but no go; didn't lase at all. I think maybe it tried to draw too much current and the protection pcb kicked in, or the Vf was not met.
UPDATE 1/23/12 - After cooling the laser enough to do proper extended testing, I determined that one of my two 16340s that I got from Lazerer is underspec in capacity. That is why it was appearing to charge faster, it was. It also discharges faster, and it's voltage sags faster. These batteries trigger the charger's protection circuit before fully charged as well, which makes them take a lot longer to charge up fully.
At 6.65V input the laser drops output considerably and takes much longer to burn dark wood. At 6.3V input it ceases to burn dark wood. At 6.25V input and lower output power drops drastically to the point that it appears dimmer than my 50mW 450nm pointer. At 6.0V input the diode barely lases faintly.
So, this means you can not use any single cell, nor can you use primary lithium batteries. I ordered some good AW Protected RCR123A 16340 cells that I will be using from now on.
Beamspecs:
When I defocus the laser fully and shine the beam at a far wall (~50ft) the spot is circular..... I was expecting a bar... not sure what is going on here. The central stripe of the spot is definitely brighter and it isn't an evenly lit round spot, but I was expecting a pure BAR, with no roundness to it at all.
I'll have some pictures of beamshots and such up in the future.
Pictures:
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