RPL-165

jtice said:

I have a PPl-125, and have loved it.
I dont use it all that much, and even think of selling it from time to time,
but I just cant bring myself to do it.

They are really well made, great performers, and they are great ppl to deal with.
http://www.jtice.com/blogs/ppl-125_laser_8-19-06/

~John

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Aseras said:

I've got a rpl-260 ( certified to 269mw ). I personally have seen it peak at > 350mw and hold that for almost a minute then drop to around 300 and stay there on a full charge.

beam diameter is ~ 1mm and .95 mrad of divergance (dot as viewed through goggles at 100feet)

at power level 1 it's 44mw, level 2 is 80-100mw, level 3 is 180mw and level4 is max power 250+mw and climbs to max. all other settings perform the same.

I see less than 1/2 mw of IR leakage for 280mw of green ( when i measured )

It's my favorite handheld laser, and my second favorite overall laser ( i've got a 5watt yag too )

as far as burning, yes. almost anything, instantly. I've even lit a candle with it ( that's NOT easy ). it will light white paper matches ( not red and not sharpied ) in less than a second... from a foot away. I can smoke "test foam" ( basially black cellulose, like what you get electronics, cpus and diodes packed in ) for over 25 feet along the entire length of the beam.

Optically the laser is nearly perfect, with goggles there's a slight artifact beam 1 degree or so off of the primary beam, that's internal to the laser ( it's not lense related ). you cannot see it even with goggles unless you mask the primary dot emmision. ( think trying to see the planet mercury against the sun)

I love it.. even more so that I bought it for so cheap ( I got it second hand for just over $600 ). However i will add that it need some clean up work, the optics needed a lot of cleaning, laser had been opened, stickers removed etc.. Once cleaned up it's very very nice. Well worth the full price.

My only worry about not buying a rpl outright was runtime, that's has been quelled with this laser. on the low power levels it runs until i turn it off. I've let it run for over an hour. At high/max power it will run for about 10 mins straight, and then cut out or start blinking. The laser will get warm/hot to touch at this time.

Now for support. I originally emailed several laser manufacturers when I started looking at integrating handheld lasers into a scientific device. Jack was the first to respond, the same day, and not just a canned response, but a well detailed response and included examples from a previous customer. Laserglow took over a week and bascially sent me a form letter and avoided every technical question I asked. Wicked never responded at all. A few other oems ( be meyers, coherent,SP, axiz ) also responed over several days and didn't have what I was looking for, didn't have things that were the right size or were too hard to integrate, or just plain too expensive. Jack also looked up the history of my rpl, gave me additional info on it and also has answer some other technical questions I had.. all without me personally paying him a dime. That's excellent support, and the type of place I'd want to do business with. If and when the time comes that I can go from prototype to product, I'm talking to him first.

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lazercraze45 said:

Do you think a RPL-165 will be like that

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Aseras said:

it wont be as good of a performer burning wise, but it will do almost everything the same ( just a bit slower ). brightness wise you probably wouldn't be able to tell the diffrence much at all. you need almost 4x the power to double the brightness.

There's also the chance that since the 165 are overstocked, that you *might* end up with a higher rated laser. I'll guarantee you it will be more than 165, but by how much, who knows. Jack's also been known to throw goodies in the mix as well.. check out this thread..
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/158138

I can't guarantee something like that will happen as he shows up and does stuff like that from time to time, but there is a cpf special on rpl's according to Jack's signiture ( it's a free 8mw 532nm pointer ) his username is bootleg2go

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Freyth said:

Optotronics is an excellent company to deal with amongst its other competitors. You will NEVER be disappointed with Optotronics, service wise and its products. The RPL are fantastic, and just recently got the RPL-300. I have to say, it has exceeded all my expectations.

I'm sure any RPL or PPL you're looking at will satisfy your needs, although that will never be the case. You'll always be asking for more! Right now, I can't purchase any lower power lasers cause they'll really never be the same as 300mW. So all I can look at is 300mW or more. I'm torturing my wallet.

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Hi Nick,

The RPL-165 is really a great deal right now at this sale price, one reason being is that most of them are closer to 200mW than they are to 165mW in output.

If you want me to hold an RPL-165 for you until early/mid June at the sales price, you can do a layaway/ deposit on one by sending a 15% down payment ($100 on the RPL-165) If you change your mind about buying after sending the %15 only 1/2 of the deposit is refundable. Layaway can be paid by sending me a money order or by PayPal to our account ( [email protected] ). Once payment is made, I'll pick out the best RPL-165 I have and set it aside for you. The best RPL-165 I have right now averages ~188mW with peak output of 204mW.

Have a good weekend, here in Colorado it's going to be a hot one with no clouds and close to 90 degrees.

Jack

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