Review - 475mw RGV NRG/Laser Know How Projector

[andy_con]

This is the RGP 475mw scanner from NRG / laser know how. This scanner is aimed at the lower end of the market costing £499 or £699 with Moncha DAC.

The spec –

2 x 150mW red 655nm
1 x 80mW green 532nm
1 x 80mW-100mW purple 405nm

12K ILDA scanners

TTL Modulation - although I have noticed the green is analogue.

Ill start with the outside, working inside and then last the output.

The important part first, safety! It would seem NRG take safety very seriously, the scanner comes with a key switch, Scanfail signal detector and interlock. On the unit I received the key could be removed from the key switch in the on position. Before posting this review I sent it to NRG and they have now changed their projectors, so anyone purchasing a projector from now on will not be able to remove the key from the key switch in the on position. This just shows what a quality company NRG are and safety is there top priority.

I also received an emergency stop switch with a long cable, they key cannot be removed from the key switch in the on position. The emergency stop is and extra and does not come as part of the scanner.



The unit is a funky bright blue colour, the finish on this unit wasn’t perfect, there was some scratching on the bottom and some of the holes were a little messy. But this I just me being picky. The unit has a fan on the back which has a dust filter, so nice clean optics.











As expected this unit has a DMX and the normal DMX controls, it also have an ILDA input.

The inside. The build quality is very good, everything seems bolted down not just glued. You may also noticed there is a lot of empty space inside, well this case is also used for a higher spec’ed projector (more power and better scanners). All wire joints are covered with heat shrink wrap and the wiring is generally tidy. A little feature which I love are the three leds on the rear of the case. Red, green and purple, these are connected to the blanking of each laser, pointless I agree, but I think it’s a very good idea. Although they are not full on proper adjustable mirror mounts they aren’t just pieces of metal as found in most off the shelf scanners. So if the lasers were to come out of alignment you could re-align them.

due to the configuration of the DMX i was unable to get a beam out of the projector without modulation so i couldnt not doing any power readings. as this isnt my projector i didnt want to start cutting and rewiring just to get some power readings.













The lasers, optics and scanners sit on a 5mm thick aluminium plate so everything is heat sinked and there is no flexing.




now for the output. The scanners are the run of the mill 12k Chinese scanners which are great for beam shows but that’s about it. As stated this is aimed at the lower end of the market so if you want text and animations this isn’t the option for you. There is a little hum on the scanners so the output isn’t perfect, NRG are going to look into this to see if its just this scanner or all of this model, its probably something very simple to fix though.

The beam outputs are very good with good sized dots and little scatter from the optics. 100mw of 405nm is very low and doesn’t match the green or red very well. I have flagged this up with NRG.

Doing a bit of power adjusting in the software and I got a very very nice white. This is the first time ive seen white produced using 405nm.



































videos -

http://s187.photobucket.com/albums/x...t=DSCN3206.flv

http://s187.photobucket.com/albums/x...t=DSCN3207.flv

http://s187.photobucket.com/albums/x...t=DSCN3220.flv

http://s187.photobucket.com/albums/x...t=DSCN3222.flv

http://s187.photobucket.com/albums/x...t=DSCN3224.flv

so to end this review, there is some room for improvement with this projector which I have flagged up with NRG but nothing major. Generally this is a nice little unit and perfect for someone just starting out. The quality I would say is good and I wouldn’t be disappointed if a brought it.

[mliptack]

Awesome Great Write-Up!! Just out of curiosity were there any case interlocks, I didn't see any.

Also there was some wondering of good ways to wire up the LEDs for the Laser Emission LED on the case... I was wondering if you could see how it was done with that projector.

-Max

[andy_con]

no, no case interlock.

no its all run on some internal circuit as aposed something seperate, if that makes any sense? this is probably why i could get the lasers to output without modulation

[mliptack]

Yeah that makes sense, thats what I figured, but I asked anyway just to be sure.

Sorry I forgot to say - GREAT PICTURES!

[andy_con]

i have already asked gary from nrg about the internals, safety feature wise and the place he gets em from does not sell the boards seperatly. which is a shame.

thanks

[smogthemog]

Good review Andy - as ever!

I do like those colours and am quite impressed with what you get for the price

[andy_con]

the colours were really really nice, adding 405 is sweet.

as i said had i oh paid for it i wouldnt be dissapointed

[ondahonda]

we baught a similar one but it arived smashed in the mail. we never got to see it run. for a violet diode that looks pret blue! do you think a 610mw rgp will be worth a spin then?

[andy_con]

bloody mail men!!!

yes i recon it would be a good purchase

[ondahonda]

well, i bought a 2oomw green instead. im not sure if it has any saftey features though. it is from cds. if anybody knows anything about the saftey of it id be keen to know. im thinking i would be safer with the 610mw as the green is only 60mw. it isn't as smooth as the 100mw i previously had either,