Where's the cheapest place to get a 30-100mw Aries style laser?

[Raccoon]

I almost forgot someone very important to the laser scene. Kevin Nardelle came even before ExtremeLasers, and posted some of the (if not THE) first images and instructions for laser mods. They are best remembered from ExtremeLaser's home page of a laser pointer sitting on a stair step, rated at 120mW (back when that number was inconceivable!) He's been on the web since ~1994 with a host of sites dedicated to electromagnetic physics, from tesla coils to lasers. Sadly, Kevin dropped off the web sometime in 2003 but made a brief re-appearance in 2004 for a week or two.

I hope he survived Hurricane Katrina. None of his websites work anymore.

 

[That_Guy]

The Optotronics lasers are Lambda lasers. Apparently both Lambda and CNI source their parts from the same unknown manufacturer.

 

[bootleg2go]

I don't sell "CNI" lasers.
I have bought one before as well as get stock from several sources inside of China In my dealings with all of the companies I have not come across the original manufacturer of these units, They all are born somewhere that I have not yet discovered. The reason I say this is that they are all very much alike with only small differences between them, but what gives it away the most is that the serial numbers from all of these manufacturers is in the same number format and range, ie. 30275 to 30500. In fact I've gotten some from different sources that were slightly different in outer build that have serial numbers that differ by only 15-20. I am still trying to figure this out and who is really making all of these. KBlaserman is right, they are all of aluminum, none are plastic. I am 99.9% certain that CNI or any of the other sources I've used in the past are the original builders of these lasers, It does appear that each reseller/distributor like CNI does do some very limited customization of the lasers before sending them to customers. I'm not trying to put down CNI in anyway, I've not gotten enough from them to really tell the quality. The one from them and it suffered from a large amount of instability and was below the promised power level. That was awhile back and things could have gotten much better, and like I said a sample of 1 unit is too small to make any real conclusions. I found better, less expensives sources that have provided more than the promised power output level. It is not as easy a business as I thought it would be in the beginning. Even now, I still sometimes need to return up to 25% of my order back to China as they don't meet my quality standard or produce the promised output power. But my sources are slowly learning that I won't accept sub par output or quality, they know I'll be testing them and they will be returned if they don't pass, probably to just be sold to others who may not care about or test for output level and beam quality. Not to mention the hugh amount of time and effort put into customer support to make sure each customer is completely satisfied.

A good weekend to all
Jack

 

[KBlaserman]

The Optotronics lasers are Lambda lasers. Apparently both Lambda and CNI source their parts from the same unknown manufacturer.

Wow, that doesn't even look like a large sales company, however since seeing this i stand Corrected.

Jack I owe you an apology, and I am sorry.

 

[exterminate]

Next time, for the sake of the thread and the forum, if you think anything is wrong with a person's message then PLEASE use the PM message. By stating your fact in public is assuming arrogance and it's inefficient for people who are actually in the thread for its stated purpose.

 

[KBlaserman]

Next time, for the sake of the thread and the forum, if you think anything is wrong with a person's message then PLEASE use the PM message. By stating your fact in public is assuming arrogance and it's inefficient for people who are actually in the thread for its stated purpose.

I completely agree with you exterminate.

 

[nerdtoy]

My old friend!! Yes I am still alive and I fought through Katrina just fine, gun in one hand, light in another. Search and Rescue and the whole bit.

My rants are all on http://www.realnola.com and there is one on blogspot you should read.

The original mod page is still up and going but not for too much long. Nerdtoy.com is down but my original genlight.com page is up and going still. http://www.genlight.com/laser or lasers I dont remember exactly..

Katrina really kicked our butts down here, I am on the brink of losing the ability to support my kids and wife completely. Its a crying shame with all we went through the feds turn us down for everything.

I almost forgot someone very important to the laser scene. Kevin Nardelle came even before ExtremeLasers, and posted some of the (if not THE) first images and instructions for laser mods. They are best remembered from ExtremeLaser's home page of a laser pointer sitting on a stair step, rated at 120mW (back when that number was inconceivable!) He's been on the web since ~1994 with a host of sites dedicated to electromagnetic physics, from tesla coils to lasers. Sadly, Kevin dropped off the web sometime in 2003 but made a brief re-appearance in 2004 for a week or two.

I hope he survived Hurricane Katrina. None of his websites work anymore.

 

[dr_lava]

The original mod page is still up and going but not for too much long. Nerdtoy.com is down but my original genlight.com page is up and going still. http://www.genlight.com/laser or lasers I dont remember exactly..

Went to that page but didn't see the mod. Maybe you took it down? 2A is a LOT of current to be pumping through a pointer. I take it this was no leadlight with 5mm diode, it must have been a 9mm?

 

[Raccoon]

My old friend!! Yes I am still alive and I fought through Katrina just fine, gun in one hand, light in another. Search and Rescue and the whole bit.

My rants are all on http://www.realnola.com and there is one on blogspot you should read.

I'm glad to know you're alright. I was hoping you'd find my post upon Googling your name (Google Alerts is NICE for that), and so you did! So you're doing Search & Rescue now? Welcome to the forum, you're bound to find some invaluable lights for the job.

I hope you pull through financially... New Orleans was an absolute disaster, and not just damage-wise. Fortunately there should be a number of niche markets opening up for reconstruction soon. Get your foot in wherever you can, man. Lots of businesses were wiped out and competition should be wide-open.

 

[blindsided]

bootleg2go,

i've seen your site the aries series looks nice there. But how is it that you have 260mW? i know cni/lamda doesn't manufacture that model to that output, and no one else seems to have that laser model supposedly peaking at ~290 like your site states. I'm interested to learn more, is this a new model or something, because other laser sources didn't seem to have it at all?

 

[Raccoon]

As pointed out earlier in the thread-- these lasers are NOT from CNI. I'm sure bootleg's sources are bootleg's business, but I suspect higher crystal quality by request.

I wish it were possible to go straight to the source of the MCA manuf. and ask them for a higher binning. Or is this already possible?

 

[bootleg2go]

bootleg2go,

i've seen your site the aries series looks nice there. But how is it that you have 260mW? i know cni/lamda doesn't manufacture that model to that output, and no one else seems to have that laser model supposedly peaking at ~290 like your site states. I'm interested to learn more, is this a new model or something, because other laser sources didn't seem to have it at all?

Hi Blindsided,
I have several OEM sources for my lasers, currenty CNI is not one of them though. With the quantities I order in and the number of units per month, I do some clout and am able to obtain the highest output units of each production run; at a cost. The 260 PPL is not a common laser by any means. Only about 5-8% of the units I get are of this quality and that is after the OEM is hand sorting their best units for me. I'm not really concerned about peak output as that is usually very short and not lasting, it's the average output over time that matters. The "peak power" of a PPL-260 has been measured as high as 330-340. I haven't had many units in the 260mW output range, in fact in the 11 months I've been in business the number of +260mW units I've gotten is less than one dozen and all of this have been in just the last couple of months. I still do have my personal PPL which averages 411mW, I've had that since early last summer and have been offered over 3k for it. One fellow I've sold many units too even offered to trade a brand new Coherent dual channel "Ultima LabMaster" meter with 2 heads of my choosing to go with it (Value of over 5K I expect)...I'm still thinking about as it's a lot of meter/ or money (if sold one Ebay)...I've got a fieldmaster GS and power head (from this same customer in a previous trade) that does pretty much everything I need for now....Well I'm really going off on a tangent aren't I? Guess I'm pretty proud of my 411 unit, it brings a big smile to my face every time I turn it on

Jack

 

[Raccoon]

Leave it to bootleg to take us into Class IV handhelds. No longer is it "you'll shoot your eye out", but rather "you'll melt your flesh off". :thumbsup:

 

[blindsided]

cool, much apprecciated info

oh and what is the coherent meter going for, are they in stock?

 

[LaserSpecialist]

I have found that the aforementioned lasers are overpriced. I recently purchased the same laser at a much cheaper rate. I recommend searching biglasers.com before you buy anything--I have used them a few times and am very satisfied.

 

[LaserSpecialist]

Here's a link to their handheld laser pointer webpage for who ever is intersted:

http://www.biglasers.com/site/1589403/page/45031

 

[Raccoon]

Curious.

Optotronics.com
120mW 532nm hand-held - $499
260mW 532nm hand-held - $899

Biglasers.com
100mW 532nm hand-held - $879.99

You're correct. Biglasers.com IS a rip-off. Their lasers have half the output and cost twice as much!

 

[Athoul]

Hmm every post that person makes is in reference to biglasers.com... I think he is promoting his own site myself...could be wrong.

 

[abeland1]

Hmm every post that person makes is in reference to biglasers.com... I think he is promoting his own site myself...could be wrong.

Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur. Which is all right with me.

 

[Raccoon]

Iay inkthay Arnolday isay ontoay omethingsay.