Review of 2 Hosts with Corrective Optics

I'm a little overdue on sharing a review of a couple of hosts I have purchased from fellow LPF members. Oddly enough, I wish I had more beamshots, but once the rain clears out of the US mid-west, I'll try to get some that do justice.

The 1st host is the 'lpf-member designed host slow axis correction' (here is the link, looks like it moved to the veterans section and there I cannot confirm its the right link:
https://laserpointerforums.com/f42/l...103080-18.html)

I saw the project and reached out to trinh hong phuoc to see if he'd make me one. Communication was great, everything went as planned, got pics of the host before it shipped - and the rest is history. Would absolutely deal with trinh again.

Some pics:

Very well packed!
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Clik here to view.IMAG5438 by Lewie Wilkinson, on Flickr

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Clik here to view.IMAG5440 by Lewie Wilkinson, on Flickr

Pre-wired, just needed a 20mm module - which Lifetime (Rich) made me an adapter for a 12mm module - and we were throwing light!

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Clik here to view.IMAG5441 by Lewie Wilkinson, on Flickr

This is very well put together, and has a rear latching switch, and a side latching switch w/led indicator. Takes 2 18650s. I got a pair of 6x cylindrical lenses from OPT lasers (poland - LINK). What wasn't great is that I ordered the pair WITH a brass mount, and was only shipped the lenses. OPT was quick to get the mount in the mail for me, but that was a bunch of waiting that wasn't expected.

I don't have much patience :) So I put these on wood temporarily:

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Clik here to view.IMAG5526 by Lewie Wilkinson, on Flickr

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Clik here to view.IMAG5528 by Lewie Wilkinson, on Flickr

Finally, I took the time to mount them on the brass:
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Clik here to view.IMAG5956 by Lewie Wilkinson, on Flickr

I do have a Sanwu 3.3x expander - but I honestly like this host just using the 6x corrective optics alone. It certainly looks awesome either way!

The 6x optics are def awesome when paid with an m44. I really enjoy this laser, I'm super thankful for the folks that put their brainpower and time into making this.

(GET SOME BEAM SHOTS..)


The 2nd host is is from badboybilly, and is made for corrective optics. Again - super easy to deal with - good communication and transaction went through without a hitch. Also, well packed, but I'm not sure where the photos went. (Side note - its really cool to get newspaper from another hemisphere as packing material!!) This host is made for 2x 18350s. This is the 1st piece of hardware I've acquired from BBB, and I was stoked from the moment I saw it posted. Originally, I was going to use it for a NGD7475, as I have several NUBM01s, but wanted a 7475. At the same time, I've been wanting a high-output RED hand-held, and my 7475 still hasn't been delivered, so I took that as a sign to transplant the USHIO HL63283HD 638nm. You might have seen my "low budget corrective optics" post a while back which resulted in this...

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Clik here to view.IMAG4997 by Lewie Wilkinson, on Flickr

a PVC cavity shoved onto the end of a C6 host. It worked. But now I had this legit hardware.

Get to work:

Another host with a rear latching switch. This host's side switch is not latching, just momentary (fine by me).

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Clik here to view.IMAG5992 by Lewie Wilkinson, on Flickr

Was not pre-wired, so that's pretty much step 1:

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Clik here to view.IMAG5990 by Lewie Wilkinson, on Flickr

This, too, was ready for a 20mm module - so I got my 1st 20mm from DTR and I'm using a Astralist Driver set to 1.5A:

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Clik here to view.IMAG5996 by Lewie Wilkinson, on Flickr

With everything together - the laser module / optics cavity portion would not fit all the way into the host:

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Clik here to view.2018-09-08_11-35-15 by Lewie Wilkinson, on Flickr

All the prices 'float' (very fine tolerances, but are not locked down) within the main cavity...so, I could do one of a few things to gain some space - starting with cutting down some of the tail-cap spring, but its a nice spring :) . Also, not wanting to try to remove the rear switch as the battery tube/switch is all put together very nicely to be 1 solid piece. I could use shorter batteries, but it probably still would not have bought me much room, annd I did not want to use smaller cells. So, I went for shortening the 20mm module. I am not going to go into all the painful and stupid things I did, as I think I ended up harming this WAY TOO EXPENSIVE diode in the process, but I got it shortened up and now everything is nearly flush!

Putting the lenses down into the cavity was a chore - I used electrical tape wrapped tweezers to place/adjust them, and UV glue to set them.


Without the cylindrical pair - at 28.5 feet - G2 lens: ~7"
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Clik here to view.2018-09-03_04-38-10 by Lewie Wilkinson, on Flickr

With cylindrical pair (2x from eekbay) - at 28.5 feet - ~3"
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Clik here to view.2018-09-03_04-39-07 by Lewie Wilkinson, on Flickr

This doide certainly needs more than 2x lenses. IMO, this diode is not worth the amount I paid for it, when you can get over a watt with a $20 diode, and the divergence is crazy.

This is a super nice host, and I'll likely be using it for the 7475 in the end :) . We shall see.

Sorry for lack of beamshots, and overall length of post. I hope to update this soon.

Of course, huge thanks to trinh and badboybilly!!!