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FrozenGate by Avery

MILOS STINGRAY II REVIEW

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Apr 1, 2008
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Well folks, this is my 500th posting & I wanted something really memorable to mark it with, & it just happened to come in the mail today. It came in an about a 1 foot square white box with all the usual postal crap on it, but when I opened it up I was amazed at HOW MUCH :o :o packing material, Milos was able to pack under, on top of, & on all 4 sides of the inner box, also white, which housed a VERY IMPRESSIVE looking ( & yeah, it does remind one of the fastback stingrays ) MILOS, STINGRAY II BR LASER. This thing was so well packed that the New York Jets could have used the box & its contents for a week of Football Practice, without ANY HARM coming to the laser safely nestled inside. The inner box that actually housed the laser itself was full of black foam, with cut-out places for the laser & the 2 batteries to lie in, nice & safe, like a cocoon (THE BATTERIES WERE INCLUDED, AS WAS THE CHARGER) Although I really didn't want to, I forced myself to put the laser & batteries in the pantry, where they would gently & gradually come up to room temp. Finally, after what seemed like days, the Stingray was ready to show me her stuff. Milos thoughtfully included a 2 page information & instruction reference guide, & after reading through it, inserted the batteries correctly, & slowly screwed down the tail-cap which also houses a 'clicky' on / off button, that clicks solidly & with authority, not one of these wimpy switches where you can't tell if the switch clicked or not. This switch produces an audible click each time you turn it on or off. The information page that came with the Stingray informed me of the usual laser info, that you get with ANY QUALITY BUILT LASER. 1st came the WARNING !!! & the seller not responsible for misuse, which may cause blindness. Then came the TECHNICAL GOODIES :) :) :)
COLOR / WAVE LENGTH ~405nm , Violet
Power supplied by 2 RCR 123 3.6V batteries, included as stated earlier with charger. A nice touch I thought.
Optical power out-put: 116mW's avg. & 125mW's Max or Peak, At this point I said to myself, well now that I have a wonderfully built & calibrated DIE 4 THING LPM, courtesy of SenKat, I'll just see about these power claims. I was not surprised to see (knowing Milos's talents) that the Avg. out-put was 116mW's just as he claimed, but I got a bit of a surprise :o on the PEAK, My meter gave me a PEAK out-put of 130mW's :o :o I thought, GREAT, MORE POWER
Next on the agenda was current, which was rated at 135 to 155mA's The 'MANUAL' said that opening the laser would void any warranty, but by going by the mW out-put, the Current seemed about right.
The DUTY CYCLE was next in line, with an advised 1min. on-2min. off even though the Stingray is well HEAT-SINKED.
Next up was Beam diameter at out-put which measured ~4x5mm when collimated to infinity
Beam Divergence was next & that is adjustable
Milos used a standard AIXIZ Acrylic lens, which is finger tight adjustable for easy manual focusing which I improved upon by installing one of Dark_Horses Aperture Caps which made focusing even EASIER
The Driver in the Stingray II has a LM317T based,  home made PCB that limits current & protects the Diode from Voltage Spikes as well as accidental voltage reverse polarity :-?
Milos sure poured his heart & soul into the creation of this laser, with its beautiful flowing lines that takes away the breath of anyone who has ever seen a '66 Corvette Stingray go blasting past them on the highway so fast, you felt like you were parked. When you eye-ball this laser, you get the same sort of feeling ;)  So if you want a GREAT LOOKING BR laser, with those sweeping lines that made the '66 Corvette Stingrays so memorable to look at. Look NO further, she doesn't have 4 on the floor, but she does have a Custom Made Heat-sink. It doesn't have a 427 Cu.In. engine in it. But it does have the heart & soul of a man who builds lasers, with the likes of designers like Carroll Shelby who put HIS heart & soul into the design that became the Corvette Stingrays main competition, The Shelby Cobra.
Designers/Builders like Milos, leave most of the rest of us sitting in his dust as he turns his dreams into REALITY with the STINGRAY II. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being best, this was a 'NO BRAINER" 10 rob
 





It sounds like an awesome laser, Nice review. Your making me jealous :).
Pics!
 
My PC is so old that even after downloading the software that came with the camera, the computer says that it fails to recognize the hardware so IDK ? No pics for now I guess :-/ :-? ::)
 
Nice. Whats your asking price for one of those? Oh, and I looked around, couldn't find the host you used, could you provide a link ? :)

Great work Milos, and great review phoenix77!
 
I don't sell these officially, but I can hook you up sometimes when i have available unit. The host is superfire WF501B, N Its not the simplest mod as it requires custom heat sink, and some creative circuit board mounting, but since you asked...

I am very happy with this mod as heat sink is capable of any possible future upgrade. I'd put it against the best as far as heat dispersion and size goes. Its a heavy piece, but it needs some precision custom work.

thanks for props guys.
 


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