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200mW labby from laser show parts or RPL ?

diachi

diachi

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I just hit a dilema, I went on to laser show parts to look about, and saw that one of the green lasers is only $425 for >200mW ( http://lasershowparts.com/store/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=35 ), now I know I havent saved, but I dont know now wether to get this or an RPL. The lab style would obviously have nearly 100% duty cycle, but what about power supply, does it just plug straight into the mains ? I'm not bothered about portability too much, If I wanted I can always put it in a case, take it to where I need and plug it in. All I want it for is for maybe sometime making a spiro graph, some optical experiments and for burning.

What do you think.

thanks,

Diachi
 





the laser comes with a universal AC adapter so you just need to plug it in - also these modules will have 100% duty cycle but will need a heatsink on the bottom as they are TEC cooled
 
thats no problem, I ave 3 heatsink lying around my room somewhere.

So do you think I should go with one of these or an RPL
 
depends on what you want it for, RPLs are great for the portability and show off factor - but lab modules have an advantage when you need the laser on for a long period of time and/or want a permanent installation
 
I've always been a fan of the lab lasers. Once you have a couple of pointers the fun meter pegs. Now you can run 100% duty cycle and get to powers unheard of in pointers
 
I wont be able to take an RPL anywhere except the garden or front door if I did get it, but If I got one of these then i can still take it to the front door if I use an extension.

and the 100% duty cylce would be good too .

Diachi
 
Go for the RPL. I have always been a fan of portable lasers. They usually have better beam specs and you can easily take them around to show off. What fun is a laser that can never leave your room and needs 120V AC to work? It's worth it for CO2 lasers and argons, but portable greens are usually a lot more fun than labs unless you need 100% duty cycle for a lasershow or something.
Also if you already have a dx labby what would you do with another one? The new 200mw would make the DX obsolete.
 
I'm also thinking you should go with the RPL also. Razako summed it up very nicely, but one of the fun things to do with a high powered greenie is to point it into the sky, it won't be easy to do that with a labby. Also, the RPL will have better beam specs, the divergence of that labby is 2mRad.
 
If you get the 200mw labby all you will be able to do is burn and do lasershows. Portable units are simply a ton more versatile and you are less likely to lose interest in them.
 
Razako said:
 What fun is a laser that can never leave your room and needs 120V AC to work?  It's worth it for CO2 lasers and argons, but portable greens are usually a lot more fun than labs unless you need 100% duty cycle for a lasershow or something.
Click to expand...

Have you ever owned a quality lab greenie - especially the type with a separate head/PSU (so you can still maintain a relatively small and movable beam emitter)? Its pretty awesome! I gotta say, just a personal preference, but I'd disagree with you about portables. Even if I wanna show off, unless I wanna run around in the streets shooting my laser everywhere waiting for the cops to come, I find I'm near enough a wall outlet. Being able to put the laser down and experience a high quality beam, without having to worry about the laser rolling around, or dropping off in power after 60 seconds (and lets be real, as awesome as RPL and Prometheus lasers are, you can rarely expect to maintain full output more than a minute at a time), etc. is a real plus to me.

That said, I'm talking about a QUALITY lab laser - the type of laser that costs more than an RPL 200 anyway. I've sold a few of those lasers that dave sells at lasershowparts. They're like DX lasers - cheap as hell, but if you're looking for something nice and reliable, you've gotta be kidding yourself. A good lab laser will beat the beam specs of an RPL, but those Aijii units aren't that impressive. The semi-DIY style PSU does not give you the sense of security a good lab laser would, and the module's sub-par build quality and thirst for heatsinking leave a bit to be desired.

In the end, its a toss up for me and would heavily depend on what I want to use it for. The lab laser is cheaper, but its pretty sad when many portable lasers have better build quality than your labby. A 200mW RPL wouldn't be entirely convenient either, and brings a whole host of cons, but in any case its an awesome portable laser. It'd definitely be a tough choice for me!

All the criticisms said, if you decide on a 200mW from Dave instead of the 200mW portable, give me a PM. I may have a lightly used one in one of my setups that isn't being used anymore that I could sell off for a bit of a discount.
 
FrothyChimp said:
I've always been a fan of the lab lasers. Once you have a couple of pointers the fun meter pegs. Now you can run 100% duty cycle and get to powers unheard of in pointers
Click to expand...

exactly. The more I've gotten into this hobby, the more I've been leaning towards lab style lasers. I think once the 'showing off' effect wears off, and you're just buying lasers for your own enjoyment, the lab lasers are just more practical. I think another plus when using a labby, is that you get to experience the laser from many different perspectives. With my hand-helds, its always me holding the laser. I really only get to look down the beam. With a labby, you get to see it and experiment from many different angles.
 
@ Psuedo, I wont be able to buy it for another month or two at any rate as im short on cash, Depending on how much I save up I'll probably decide from that, if I get enough I may get both, if I get enough for an rpl 225 or 260 or even 300 I'll get that, if I only get enough for the lab style I will just get that.

@GooeyGus, I agree completely, with the 100% duty cycle and the ability to see it from so many different perspectives is a good thing, thats What I like about the DX labby. Also, I would only be able to shine an RPL around my room or at things far away.

But I'll just see when it comes to the money side of it, as the opnions seem to be balanced .

thanks,

Diachi
 
It seems to me that (at least from my own experience) when you are new to lasers portables are best to have because you want to show them off, and it is nice to be able to take them just about anywhere.

However, just as some others have noted, the more you fool around with lasers the more you will get out of a nice powerful lab laser. I tend to use my green lab laser more than my portable one now. Another plus with lab lasers is they don't have a duty cycle, as do many green pointers (off the top of my head I don't know about the RPL). My 125mw pointer I can only leave on for about 90 seconds - not enough to do the things I want to do.

But, if this will be (sounds like it) your first truly high-powered green laser, you might just be better off with a portable, especially if it has no duty cycle. You WILL want to show it off! And then when you get tired of that after a while, you can save up and get a lab laser and have the best of both worlds.
 
As I have recently acquired my RPL-260 (measured at 298mW) I can tell you that you will love it !!!

PharmD4
 
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