PGL RB (RED/BLUE) PORTABLE LASER
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Somebody set up us the bomb.



PGL RB Portable Laser, retail $TBA (www.cnilaser.com/PDF/PGL-RB-640.pdf)*
Manufactured by Changchun New Industries {CNI} (www.cnilaser.com)
Last updated 10-24-12





The PGL RB Portable Laser is quite unusual as far as portable lasers go.

Not only can it produce a blue beam, it can produce a red beam and even a pink beam (by having both the red & blue lasers on simultaneously)!

Before you fire up this studly laser, lock the kids upstairs and put out the dog...hmmm...locking the children in ***ANY*** room isn't a very good idea, and putting out the dog would also be a poor idea because it isn't on fire...but you know what I mean!

It comes in a rather beefy aluminum body with what I believe is a baked enamel finish (colored black), and feeds its two laser diodes with a pair of CR123A lithium "camera" cells (or, "batteries" if you prefer to be incorrect).

I cannot verify the finish, as the testing method I use could (well, probably ***WILL***) damage the finish, and this laser does not belong to me.


* This is a .PDF file; you'll need Adobe Acrobat or other .PDF reader in order to view this.


 Size of product w/hand to show scale SIZE



To use your PGL RB Portable Laser, please be certain that the CR123A cells are installed (see directly below), and THEN you can go liven up that dull, boring party.

Before your first use, remove that blue plastic disc from the laser aperture (beam opening); that is there to protect the optics from dirt, dust rabbits, or whatever other unwanted material might find its way in there during shipment.

Press the tailcap button firmly until it clicks, and then release it.

To energise the blue beam, gently press & release that blue button on the barrel.
To energise the red beam, do the same thing again.
To turn both lasers on at once (which will result in a pinkish-blue beam terminus spot), do the same thing a third time.
To turn the beams off, do the same thing a fourth time.

Just like it reads on the backs of many shampoo bottles, "lather, rinse, repeat." In other words, pressing the blue button a fifth time starts the sequence all over again, beginning with the blue laser.

To neutralise the laser (disabling the blue pushbutton), simply press the tailcap button firmly until it clicks, and then release it.



To change the batteries in your shiny new (or corroded old ) PGL RB Portable Laser, unscrew and remove the tailcap, throw it into the the dustbin (garbage can), tie off the bin liner (plastic garbage bag), carry it to the outdoor wheelie bin (wheeled garbage can), throw it in, slam the lid down, roll the wheelie bin to the curb, and wait patiently for garbage day so that the dustman (garbage man) empties the wheelie bin into his dust lorry (garbage truck)...O WAIT!!! YOU'LL NEED THAT!!! So just set it aside instead.

Tip the used CR123A cells out of the barrel and into your hand, and dispose of or recycle them as you see fit.

Insert two new CR123A cells into the barrel, flat-end (-) negatives first. This is the opposite of how batteries are installed in most flashlights, so please pay attention to polarity here.

Screw the tailcap back on, and be done with it.
Aren't you glad you didn't throw that tailcap into the dustbin now?


Current usage measures:
Quiescent: 3.268mA
Blue: 389.20mA
Red: 333.50mA
Pink: 1,670mA

New (08-17-12) measurements:

Quiescent: 4.04mA
Blue: 1,329mA
Red: 404mA
Blue + Red: 1,669mA



This is a portable laser, not a flashlight. So I won't try to drown it in the toliet tank, bash it against a steel rod or against the concrete floor of a carport in effort to try and expose the bare Metalmarineangemon - er - the bare Metaltrailmon - um that's not it either...the bare Metalsusanoomon...er...uh...wait a sec here...THE BARE METAL (guess I've been watching too much Digimon again! - now I'm just making {vulgar term for feces} up!!!), let my mother's big dog's ghost, her kitties, my kitty or my sister's kitty cat piddle (uranate) on it, hose it down with my mother's gun, run over it with a 450lb Quickie Pulse 6 motorised wheelchair, stomp on it, use a medium ball peen hammer in order to bash it open to check it for candiosity, fire it from the cannoñata, drop it down the top of Mt. Erupto (now I guess I've been watching the TV program "Viva Piñata" too much again - candiosity is usually checked with a laser-type device on a platform with a large readout (located at Piñata Central {aka. "Party Central"}), with a handheld wand that Langston Lickatoad uses, or with a pack-of-cards-sized device that Fergy Fudgehog uses; the cannoñata (also located at Piñata Central) is only used to shoot piñatas to piñata parties away from picturesque Piñata Island, and Mt. Erupto is an active volcano on Piñata Island), send it to the Daystrom Institute for additional analysis, or perform other indecencies on it that a flashlight might have to have performed on it. Therefore, this section of the laser's web page will seem a bit more bare than this section of the web page on a page about a flashlight.

This is a directly-injected laser though, who's active components are the laser diodes and the collimating lens. So it should withstand accidents better than a DPSS (diode pumped solid state) laser - the type of laser assembly found in yellow (593.5nm), green (532nm) and slightly greenish-blue (473nm) laser pointers & portable lasers / laser modules (handheld or laboratory). These lasers have several additional components (crystals, filters, etc.) in the optical train, and you can knock them out of alignment by doing little more than looking at them the wrong way. And if any of these components are knocked out of whack, you'll no longer get your yellow, green, or greenish-blue laser beam.


This is also a loaned item, so I would have not performed any potentially damaging or even destructive tests on it regardless of what type of product it was.

One thing that really pisses me off about this laser is that it has a totally asinine duty cycle recommendation -- the "ON" time is just 45 seconds to 1 minute max!!!
This is just preposterous for a portable laser in such a heavy aluminum body -- even more so that neither of the lasers are DPSS; they're both directly-injected diodes.



Beam photograph (blue only) on the test target at 12".
White and purple colors do not exist, and those blue "splotches" are camera artifacts which do not exist in the actual beam.



Beam photograph (red only) on the test target at 12".



Beam photograph (red + blue simultaneously) on the test target at 12".
White and purple colors do not exist, and those blue "splotches" are camera artifacts which do not exist in the actual beam.



Beam photograph (blue only) on a wall at ~8 feet.
White and purple colors do not exist, and those blue lines are camera artifacts and do not exist in the actual beam.



Beam photograph (red only) on a wall at ~8 feet.
That horizontal "spike" you see going through the beam really does exist; it is not a camera artifact this time folks!!!



Beam photograph (red + blue simultaneously) on a wall at ~8 feet.
Again, that horizontal "spike" you see going through the beam really does exist.
White and purple colors do not exist however, and those blue "splotches" are camera artifacts and do not exist in the actual beam.


Power output analysis
Blue laser only. Tops out at 150mW.


Power output analysis
Red laser only. Tops out at 132mW.


Power output analysis
Blue & red lasers on simultaneously. Tops out at 196mW.


Remeasured with different batteries:


Power output analysis
Blue laser only. Tops out at 232mW.


Power output analysis
Red laser only. Tops out at 144mW.


Power output analysis
Blue & red lasers on simultaneously. Tops out at 346mW.


Power output analysis
Short-term (600 seconds {10 minutes}) stability analysis (both blue & red beams energised simultaneously).
Laser temperature was 116°F (46.7°C) at the conclusion of this test.


Power output analysis
Blue laser only (repaired unit). Tops out at 229mW.


Power output analysis
Red laser only (repaired unit). Tops out at 112mW.


Power output analysis
Blue & red lasers on simultaneously (repaired unit). Tops out at 301mW.

All power output and short-term stability analyses were performed on a LaserBee 2.5W USB Laser Power Meter w/Thermopile.


Spectrographic analysis
Spectrographic analysis of the blue laser in this product.


Spectrographic analysis
Spectrographic analysis of the blue laser in this product; spectrometer's response narrowed to a range between 440nm and 450nm to pinpoint peak wavelength, which is 445.188nm.


Spectrographic analysis
Spectrographic analysis of the red laser in this product.


Spectrographic analysis
Spectrographic analysis of the red laser in this product; spectrometer's response narrowed to a range between 650nm and 670nm to pinpoint peak wavelength, which is 662.306nm.


Spectrographic analysis
Spectrographic analysis of the blue laser in this product -- repaired unit.


Spectrographic analysis
Spectrographic analysis of the blue laser in this product -- repaired unit; spectrometer's response narrowed to a range between 440nm and 450nm to pinpoint peak wavelength, which is 447.280nm.


Spectrographic analysis
Spectrographic analysis of the red laser in this product -- repaired unit.


Spectrographic analysis
Spectrographic analysis of the red laser in this product -- repaired unit; spectrometer's response narrowed to a range between 658nm and 668nm to pinpoint peak wavelength, which is 660.997nm.

USB2000 Spectrometer graciously donated by P.L.


ProMetric analysis
Beam cross-sectional analysis (blue, x-axis {fast axis}).


ProMetric analysis
Beam cross-sectional analysis (blue, y-axis {slow axis}).


ProMetric analysis
Beam cross-sectional analysis (red, x-axis {fast axis}).


ProMetric analysis
Beam cross-sectional analysis (red, y-axis {slow axis}).

Images made using the ProMetric 8 Beam Cross-Sectional Analyser by Radiant Imaging.






TEST NOTES:
Test unit was loaned to me (shipped to me directly from CNI) by M.H. on 08-13-12.
Since it is a "loaner", the dreadful "" icon will be appended to its listings on this website at once, denoting the fact that I no longer have custody of it for additional comparisons or analyses.


UPDATE: 08-17-12
Power regulation is very poor to nonexistant.

I connected it to my variable voltage PSU, set it for ~6 volts, energised both beams, and started turning the voltage down...it hadn't quite yet decreased to 5 volts before the blue laser pretty much extinguised; leaving the red laser blazing away and the blue laser below lasing threshold...guess it's "gonna" be losing some stars off its rating.


08-19-12
This laser became worm food (died) almost immediately after the short-term stability analysis.
As a result, the dreadful "Failed or was destroyed during/after testing" icon will be appended to its listings on my website.


08-24-12
This laser has a totally asinine duty cycle recommendation -- the "ON" time is just 45 seconds to 1 minute max!!!
This is just preposterous for a portable laser in such a heavy aluminum body -- even more so that neither of the lasers are DPSS; they're both directly-injected diodes.

As a result, the laser will be derated ***SIGNICANTLY*** and wind up floating in, "The Toylet Bowl" section of this website, denoting products which are particularly {vulgar slang term for fudge bunnyty}.


09-02-12
Weighed laser with my brand new scale.


PROS:
Very unique as far as portable lasers go
Colors are radiant and unusual for a portable laser
Batteries it uses are rather readily available; though not cheap unless you procure them online


CONS:
Some chromatic abberation is present
Some safety features mandated for a CDRH Class IIIb laser are missing (this is what lopped off ½ star)
Power regulation is very poor to nonexistant -- that's what took out another full star
Totally bogus duty cycle -- that's what nocked off the rest of the stars!


    MANUFACTURER: Changchun New Industries
    PRODUCT TYPE: Multicolor portable laser
    LAMP TYPE: Blue and red directly-injected diode lasers
    No. OF LAMPS: 2
    BEAM TYPE: Extremely narrow spot
    SWITCH TYPE: Pushbutton momentary on/mode change/off
    CASE MATERIAL: Metal
    BEZEL: Metal; laser aperture is recessed into a hosel for it
    BATTERY: 2x CR123A lithium cells
    CURRENT CONSUMPTION: 4.04mA to 1,669mA
    WATER- AND POTTY-RESISTANT: Very light splatter-resistance max.
    SUBMERSIBLE: ¡¡¡HUSOOS CRISTO USANDO UN ANDADOR NO!!!
    ACCESSORIES: None that I'm aware of
    SIZE: 40mm D x 204mm L
    WEIGHT: 425.50g with battery
    COUNTRY OF MANUFACTURE: China
    WARRANTY: 6 months

    PRODUCT RATING:

    Star Rating





PGL RB Portable Laser * www.cnilaser.com/PDF/PGL-RB-640.pdf







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