XPL discussion - the mystery company

[Sta]

Re: XPL discussion - "the miracle company"

Do you happen to know if all XPL-532 lasers have an IR filter installed? I bought a 311. I didn't go with the 301 because I've found all 301-303s to have a severe power drop when warmed up slightly, even my Sanwu 303. I have no experience with XPL 301s though, so maybe they're completely different.

All of them have an IR filter. And yes - XPL 301s are indeed completely different, the only component that is the same is the host. :beer:

 

[esqueue]

Re: XPL discussion - "the miracle company"

What battery are you guys using for your XPL-H532G500? Peng said that they can only use 18.5mm x 65mm max. I just purchased four Orbtronic 18650 3400mah protected cell batteries (18.6 mm x 68.9 mm)to allow me to trash my Surefire batteries. Seems that I may have to keep them for a bit longer. Seems that the Panasonic NCR18650B batteries measure 18mm x 65mm so I may have to get a pair or those.

 

[Sta]

Re: XPL discussion - "the miracle company"

What battery are you guys using for your XPL-H532G500? Peng said that they can only use 18.5mm x 65mm max. I just purchased four Orbtronic 18650 3400mah protected cell batteries (18.6 mm x 68.9 mm)to allow me to trash my Surefire batteries. Seems that I may have to keep them for a bit longer. Seems that the Panasonic NCR18650B batteries measure 18mm x 65mm so I may have to get a pair or those.

I use Sanyo NCR18650GA, but NCR18650B should work fine too.

 

[kaunak]

Re: XPL discussion - "the miracle company"

All of them have an IR filter. And yes - XPL 301s are indeed completely different, the only component that is the same is the host. :beer:

Thanks, hopefully my 311 will arrive soon, I'm eager to test it. It made it to the Chicago ISC on Monday so it shouldn't be too long now

Edit: I'm also curious, do all of the high power XPL 532s have a TEM01 beam or just some of them? $425 for a genuine 1.5W 532 is a really good price either way.

 

[Alaskan]

Re: XPL discussion - "the miracle company"

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/pr...-green-laser-pointer/1722148_32603221740.html

Price for 1.5W now 395 USD, but I see no mention of whether part of that power is IR and if so, how much IR?

 

[CaliKirk]

Re: XPL discussion - "the miracle company"

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/pr...-green-laser-pointer/1722148_32603221740.html

Price for 1.5W now 395 USD, but I see no mention of whether part of that power is IR and if so, how much IR?

Very very low IR if any at all, with safety glasses I can filter the 532 output from ~1.5w to ~100mw on an LPM. I'd imagine with a 10w pump and no IR filter would lead to insane amount of IR leakage once 532 was filtered out. But all XPL 532s have IR filters in them, even their 'low end' units as well.

Edit: I'm also curious, do all of the high power XPL 532s have a TEM01 beam or just some of them? $425 for a genuine 1.5W 532 is a really good price either way.

Man with my 1w it's more like mode hops like a mad man than getting mine to stay locked in a mode, even for (2) seconds. Going back and forth with XPL he says that mode hopping is completely normal for high powered 532s even though they clearly advertise TEM00 on all their 500mw and up 532s. :thinking: Maybe other units but definitely not on mine. I can only guess that the even higher powered ones, 1.5 and 2W, are even worse at mode hoping and if I'm noticing heating issues within 20-30 seconds of use on my 1w then the duty cycle of the 1.5/2w version must be horrid.

But hey if you get lucky you might get a solid and stable 532, hopefully the new host will solve some issues but who knows. My 1w peaked right over 2W multiple times (fresh batteries) with consistently outputting 1.9w max and settling down to 1.4w once warmed up.

As far as raw output, I mean hell 1.9-2W of 532 is an insane site to see. But you can clearly see the TEM modes changing in the beam itself, might not be a problem for some, but some it might be. Although you gotta remember your paying around $300 for a 1W 532, you really can't expect too much you know.

I am very curious to find out what the 1.5w and 2w version peaks at if the unit I have peaks as high as it does. I also could have gotten lucky so who knows. I dont think anyone on the forum has bought more than a 1w 532 but I've been keeping my ears out cause I'd love to know.

 

[Alaskan]

Re: XPL discussion - "the miracle company"

I'd love to have one but for that money I could PBS cube combine two 520 nm 1+ watt diodes and 3x expand the beam to get the divergence down and have a stable laser.

 

[CaliKirk]

Re: XPL discussion - "the miracle company"

I'd love to have one but for that money I could PBS cube combine two 520 nm 1+ watt diodes and 3x expand the beam to get the divergence down and have a stable laser.

You and me both brotha!! Ive kicked myself a few times seeing all the 1.4w 520 builds and thinking "dang, should've went with 520!". For a little more than I paid for my 532 I could have had a bad ass custom made 520. Live and learn right!

 

[Encap]

Re: XPL discussion - "the miracle company"

Man with my 1w it's more like mode hops like a mad man than getting mine to stay locked in a mode, even for (2) seconds. Going back and forth with XPL he says that mode hopping is completely normal for high powered 532s even though they clearly advertise TEM00 on all their 500mw and up 532s. :thinking: Maybe other units but definitely not on mine. I can only guess that the even higher powered ones, 1.5 and 2W, are even worse at mode hoping and if I'm noticing heating issues within 20-30 seconds of use on my 1w then the duty cycle of the 1.5/2w version must be horrid.

But hey if you get lucky you might get a solid and stable 532, hopefully the new host will solve some issues but who knows. My 1w peaked right over 2W multiple times (fresh batteries) with consistently outputting 1.9w max and settling down to 1.4w once warmed up.

As far as raw output, I mean hell 1.9-2W of 532 is an insane site to see. But you can clearly see the TEM modes changing in the beam itself, might not be a problem for some, but some it might be. Although you gotta remember your paying around $300 for a 1W 532, you really can't expect too much you know.

I am very curious to find out what the 1.5w and 2w version peaks at if the unit I have peaks as high as it does. I also could have gotten lucky so who knows. I dont think anyone on the forum has bought more than a 1w 532 but I've been keeping my ears out cause I'd love to know.

Calikirk:
Personally, I would have returned it as defective or unacceptable based on the XPL published TEM00 spec..
The handwriting is on the wall when you notice -- no warranty on the pump diode -- no duty cycle listed even of 1 minute which used to be stated -- no features beyond on and off -- low price compared to every good quality laser maker on the planet.

So far, XPL has not delivered anything to anyone on LPF but a poor second quality 500mW and above 532nm lasers.

Is a problem with XPL. Perhaps they count on customers that don't know any better or the dfference and just want cheap product that produces 532nm regardless of quality. Anything outputting green even for a few seconds is good enough, so XPL buys and uses modules or parts that other makers reject rather than sell --who knows?

Remains to be seen what the new host models will be but it is not likely they will be much better or different --hopefully they will have little better heat sinking and be focusable with relatively smooth mechanism that doesn't create lens wobble with loose threads.

I could be wrong but would guess from everthing seen so far that XPL is not known for and thus does not have any customer base for high quality 500mW or greater 532nm lasers. XPL is obviously not known for same nor interested in making a market for them , to date.

 

[CaliKirk]

Re: XPL discussion - "the miracle company"

Encap- I did get a partial refund for those very reasons. As well kept the laser. The issues I had was stability is terrible, the laser heats up less than 30 seconds and the fact that it was advertised as TEM00 and is clearly not. XPL made it seem that everyone should know that high powered 532s will have these issues.

I honestly do believe XPL is counting on naive buyers from my experience. I wish I could have saved the PayPal conversation as the finger pointing was ridiculous. Once I brought up the laser not meeting specifications, literally all he kept doing was saying that I waited too long to bring up this issue and I knew these issues when buying even though I had documentation on alixpress from me bringing up these issues right off the bat. I understand the language barrier but completely avoiding the question at hand, blaming others and making it seem that I should've known possible issues with 532s before buying is crap.

The other issue was the fact that I was sent a laser with a defective switch that stays ON. Come to find out the driver has zero support and sways back and forth inside the host causing everything to get cockeyed. Personally I think it's a bad design but I was told by XPL that its the shipping companies fault. I brought up the driver not being supported and able to move, and again it was thrown on the shipping companies back and furthermore my question about the driver not being supported was never answered.

I had to use PayPal to make the transaction and at first I was very upset since Alixpress has a strict policy on getting what is actually described in the listing but in the end i guess it all worked out as I found out PayPal is also very strict with companies advertising something that isn't true.

I'm hoping the new host will cause them to address these issues properly. But again you do have to look at what these lasers are selling for, still not an excuse I know.

 

[diachi]

Re: XPL discussion - "the miracle company"

I'm hoping the new host will cause them to address these issues properly. But again you do have to look at what these lasers are selling for, still not an excuse I know.

I doubt the mode/stability issues will be resolved unless they're also completely changing the module. That's a temperature/cavity design issue and it's hard if not impossible to resolve in a host that size with that power output at that price point. If I recall correctly the Hulk Ultra (And perhaps just the regular Hulk) from DL is both larger and active cooled and it only goes up to 1W or a little over.

 

[kaunak]

Re: XPL discussion - "the miracle company"

Calikirk:

Is a problem with XPL. Perhaps they count of customers that don't know any better or the dfference and just want cheap product tha produces 532nm regardless of quality. Anything outputting green even for a few seconds is good enough, so XPL buys and uses modules or parts that other makers reject rather than sell --who knows?

I hope my 311 doesn't have that problem. After buying the Sanwu 303 and a different 301 I'm tired of these cheap green leasers that have a huge power drop once they warm up slightly becoming the norm. I sent a few long messages to XPL explaining that even a cheap true 100mW green laser should not have a duty cycle of only one minute, and even if it does have a one minute duty cycle there should be no significant reduction in output over that time like the typical 301s have. I used an example of a mini 100mW 532 I bought from Lazerer back in 2012 that had a stable output of 100mW for 15+ minutes continuous with no power drop. That laser only cost $50 back in 2012. The 311 I bought cost me $56 so we'll see how it does, it should hopefully arrive soon.

 

[Sta]

Re: XPL discussion - "the miracle company"

Calikirk:
Personally, I would have returned it as defective or unacceptable based on the XPL published TEM00 spec..
The handwriting is on the wall when you notice -- no warranty on the pump diode -- no duty cycle even of 1 minute which used to be stated -- no features beyound on and off -- low price compared to every good quality laser maker on the planet.

So far, XPL has not delivered anything to anyone on LPF but a poor second quality 500mW and above 532nm lasers.

Is a problem with XPL. Perhaps they count of customers that don't know any better or the dfference and just want cheap product that produces 532nm regardless of quality. Anything outputting green even for a few seconds is good enough, so XPL buys and uses modules or parts that other makers reject rather than sell --who knows?

Remains to be seen what the new host models will be but it is not likely they will be much better or different --hopefully they will have little better heat sinking.
I could be wrong but would guess from everthing sen so far that XPL is not know for and thus does not have any customer base for high quality 532nm lasers. XPL is obviously not known for nor interested in making a market for them , to date.

Encap - XPL does have a 3 month warranty on the pump diode, for LPF members. The new host has a great number of features - analog modulation, pulsing, code switch, focusing, and ability to fit star caps / sanwu x3 beam expander.

 

[CaliKirk]

Re: XPL discussion - "the miracle company"

I doubt the mode/stability issues will be resolved unless they're also completely changing the module. That's a temperature/cavity design issue and it's hard if not impossible to resolve in a host that size with that power output at that price point. If I recall correctly the Hulk Ultra (And perhaps just the regular Hulk) from DL is both larger and active cooled and it only goes up to 1W or a little over.

I doubt the new host will be actively cooled, but possibly the new host will provide better heatsinking to the crystal assembly? Probably wouldn't make that much of a difference in the end. There's obviously a reason why you don't see many companies selling 532s handhelds above 1W.

 

[Encap]

Re: XPL discussion - "the miracle company"

Encap - XPL does have a 3 month warranty on the pump diode, for LPF members. The new host has a great number of features - analog modulation, pulsing, code switch, focusing, and ability to fit star caps / sanwu x3 beam expander.

Yes I know XPL will give a 3 month warranty to LPF customers-- is better than nothing but far from industry standard---I meant from XPLs web site spec..
The new features sound good. Companies say a lot of things that are mostly all smoke and mirrors marketing, especially Chinese companies. Will have to see what in the real world is actually delivered quality wise that fits the description. of the new host.
Now if they can only get the 532nm laser module worth buying part right, XPL might have something interesting they can create a market and demand for.

I doubt the new host will be actively cooled, but possibly the new host will provide better heatsinking to the crystal assembly? Probably wouldn't make that much of a difference in the end. There's obviously a reason why you don't see many companies selling 532s handhelds above 1W.

Glad to hear you received at least a partial refund. Shows that they will partially respond if challanged buy a customer who knows better. I would reject, even for free, what you received but that's just me. I mean in all fairness, it is not what you wanted and paid money in good faith for and I doubt you would accept similar procuct deficiencies in any other catagory of product or merchandise.

I think you and Diachi are correct.

So far XPL is less a "miracle company" and more a "kings new clothes" company that has not done anyone or the laser industry any favors.

Goes to show--something for nothing doesn't exist--never has, never will, daydreams of same notwithstanding.

 

[Sta]

Re: XPL discussion - "the miracle company"

Yes I know XPL will give a 3 month warranty to LPF customers-- is better than nothing but far from industry standard---I meant from XPLs web site spec..
The new features sound good. Companies say a lot of things that are mostly all smoke and mirrors marketing, especially Chinese companies. Will have to see what in the real world is actually delivered quality wise that fits the description. of the new host.
Now if they can only get the 532nm laser module worth buying part right, XPL might have something interesting they can create a market and demand for.

So far XPL is less a "miracle company" and more a "kings new clothes" company that has not done anyone or the laser industry any favors.

Goes to show--something for nothing doesn't exist--never has, never will, daydreams of same notwithstanding.

Several people purchased the 150mW 301s from XPL, which were apparently extremely good (rock solid in TEM00, excellent divergence.) My 500mW, while it isn't in TEM00, does not mode hop. Hopefully they improve their consistency.

Also, from what I've heard from Peng, this is a side market for XPL. There is not a huge demand for this type of high-powered laser. XPL makes a lot more money from things like the Christmas laser lights sold at Wal-Mart.