100mw 473nm (blue) - LE Series Economy or CNI

[dave]

Hi Andy,

I think you will find the specs are very similar, CNI tend to be conservative with their specs

Ill do a test tonight, and let you know the divergence of the CNI's

[steve-o]

subscribing to this thread.. nothing to say..

[andy_con]

ok thanks dave

how big is the psu on the cni???

[dave]

Hi Andy,

I did not have the time to pull one of the blues out of the projector, but I had a green 100mw lying around. In my experience the beam specs are very similar, so I measured that.

at 0m, the beam is just under 2mm, and at 5m, the beam is about 5mm

Im not sure whether this calculator is 100% correct, but it gives me a value of 0.6mrad

http://www.pseudonomen.com/lasers/ca...alculator.html

[buffo]

Both Lasever and CNI have very good beam specs. Lasever has had some problems in the past with their DPSS blue lasers, but they claim that the problem has been identified and corrected. (I'll know for sure in another week or so when my laser comes back from China.)

I do know that the other Lasever DPSS green laser I own has excellent beam specs and has been very reliable for over 5 years now. But that Dragon Lasers DPSS blue unit I reviewed (which turned out to be a re-branded CNI laser) had similar beam specs to my Lasever green.

You can't go wrong buying from LaserShowParts.com. They will stand behind what they sell no matter what. But as dave321 said, if the money is the same you might want to go with the CNI.

On the other hand, buying direct from Lasever (or from someone here in the US that is importing them from China) could save you some money. It's up to you if you want to go that route or not.

Adam

[andy_con]

ok so the general view is CNI is better quality but both have roughly the same beam spec.

the other good thing about the lasever is the size, its very small with a small psu.

what is the size of the cni psu??

[buffo]

The laser driver modules for both Lasever and CNI lasers are roughly the same size.

The CNI head is much larger than the Lasever head. It's also got a thicker baseplate, and it's heavier.

Personally, the size of the head isn't that big of an issue. I have plenty of room in my projector for a larger optical table. But if you're trying to make a very compact projector, then I can see where the size of the head would be an issue.

Adam

[andy_con]

ive not got lots of room left. but i may be able to make some room

[Pitts]

I have had no experience with Lasever, but I do have two CNI units. (500mw green, 250mw blue)

In addition I have two Viasho units. (1.5watt & 1.7watt)

I would say that I am dissapointed in the beam quality of the CNI's given the kudos that is heaped on them here at PL.

My green CNI has two dots closely spaced one above the other and the blue has a funny crescent thing off to one side. Another PL member also reported this crescent thing with his blue.
My Viasho on the other hand is clean and shows no funny beam characteristics.
I must say though that Viasho was also disappointing in that they supplied via Lasershow Parts (Australia) a second hand and or repaired unit at new price.
Although the guys at Lasershow Parts were on to it straight away (even offered to upgrade me to the next size) the barb was I had to pay to return it to China even though I had purchased via Australia (not so bad although I do wonder why I should have to pay for this being a brand new sale) BUT the Chinese have an import tax of around 30% which I was also asked to pay as well !! OR I would have to lie to the Chinese Government Customs about the value of the laser...(risk losing the expensive laser and possibly appear on some Chinese official customs list for life ? )

So I have a second hand laser of some indeterminate life that is just not economic to return to China.... The dealer who made his $$ margin has had to do nothing because I am trapped within the system.
The message here is just be careful what, where and how you buy there are "hidden" traps.
Check out the warranty with whomever you buy from, see if it covers return freight, customs and other related costs in the event of a fault.
Caveat Emptor I think is the saying.... buyer beware !!
Given this experience and now knowing this there seems no point in dealing with dealers as one might as well talk direct to the manufacturers because where is the advantage in using a dealer in the case of Chinese manufacture.
I think they call this "drop shipping" something you can do yourself by VISA and email. Sometimes at very significant savings.

Suggest before you buy whatever you decide email the factory direct and see how the price compares.

Ray
NZ

[buffo]

Ray;

Here's a thought: If the laser needs to be returned to China because it's defective, then it's not worth it's full value. Declare it as "defective power supply" or "defective head assembly" and declare it as "return goods". A broken laser is not worth much...

I've had to do this twice. Both times the people AT THE US POST OFFICE told me to fill out the customs declaration form to reflect the unit's actual value, not what it would cost to replace it. In that case I put down $50, since the thing was just about useless as long as it was still broken.

However, I *insured* the package for $700. That way if it got lost I wouldn't loose out. (See, the Chinese manufacturer wouldn't replace the laser until they got the old one back, so if they never got the old one I'd be forced to buy a new one to replace it.) The folks at the post office made it clear that you do *not* have to fill out the insured value on the customs form. It's perfectly acceptable to insure something for more than it's worth. (The thinking here is sentimental value, but the priciple applies to defective goods as well.) So I didn't fill out the blank for the "insured value". I only filled out the blank where it asked for the actual value of the goods.

Evidently this is rather common practice. I've only had to do it twice, but the folks at the post office were more than familiar with the process, and the second time I filled out the form the woman at the counter actually warned me NOT to declare an insured value because it might force the receiver to pay tax on that number rather than the actual declared value.

And in any case I wouldn't worry about landing on some secret Chinese customs list. They must receive millions of packages each day, so I seriously doubt that you are even on their radar. And if you mark it defective, you are not lying to them. (It is broken, after all... That's why you have to send it back to China!)

Adam