Spectra Precision HL Series

In terms of laser receiver performance, this laser receiver from Spectra Precision (which is a re-branded Seco Apache Storm, Trimble owns both Spectra Precision and Seco) and outclasses not only the LS-80L that my RL-H5A came with, but the recommended Topcon upgrade (the LS-100D) as well. All three sell for about the same price give or take, but the HL-700 is the better performer of the bunch in my opinion. The HL700 is designed to be compatible with all red beam rotary laser levels, more or less. On the topic of compatibility, I'd say that compatibility is good, except for two noticeable areas: you lose the ability to monitor the rotary laser battery status and the height alert of the RL-H5A remotely on the laser receiver (you keep these functions with the Topcon LS-100D). Only you can decide if these are showstopper issues for you. They were not for me, as I tend to keep an eye on the battery status (4 D cells last over 100 hours!) and in my application no one really messes with my rotary laser. For me, I decided to trade off those two alerts for the added features and robust design of the HL-700. Note that I am referring to REMOTE alerts that display on the laser receiver, my Topcon laser itself will NOTICEABLY display that these conditions have happened locally on the rotary laser by flashing all of its panel lights and slowing down its rotation. Low battery occurs once the battery voltage drops below 4 volts, so pretty soon afterwards the rotary laser will just stop working. The only other nits I have to say about the current version of the HL-700 is that you will need a flat head screwdriver to pry open the battery compartment, the latch is way too tight to use your fingers. This is probably intentional, to ensure a strong watertight seal on the battery compartment door rubber gasket. And the included rod bracket should have a molded indicator pointer showing exactly where to read grade. On the HL-700 bracket, you need to realize that the top edge of the rod bracket handle is at the same plane as the indicator on the HL-700. Its OK once you realize this and are used to it, and just read off the top edge of the rectangular handle. One other thing to be aware of is that if you wear polarized glasses outdoors, you might have trouble reading the LCD displays on the HL-700. When I wear my polarized sunglasses, the LCD screen on the front and on the back has all sorts of rainbows on it, making it hard to read. I just peek over the top of the glasses to see the screen, but this might be a problem for you if you wear prescription sunglasses. Keep in mind that this happens with other LCD screens for me too, not just the HL700. Otherwise, for the money the Spectra Precision HL-700 tops anything offered by Topcon. One point to note is that the HL-700 is a much bigger and better built laser receiver than the LS-80L, thus it is noticeably heavier, which is to be expected. When moving it from section to section on your grade rod, it is much easier to fumble it and drop it. Thankfully, it is designed to take a 10 foot drop to concrete and survive, something I cannot say about the Topcon laser receivers. I do not think you will disappointed with the HL-700, it does everything the marketing literature says it does, and does it well even when paired with a non-Spectra Precision red laser (except the remote alerting described earlier). With Amazon's excellent return policy, you have nothing to fear buying it here!

I am a DIY’er, not really professional at anything. I have a small farm and have many small excavating jobs that can be with box blade, grader blade, mini excavator. Can set up laser and mount this on implement to get reference height. Then work for pretty long periods without having to get off machine. Helps to make some brackets to mount I. Implement so you have more height adjustment.

I use this on the excavator stick when loading trucks. I watch the lights on the receiver. The lights are bright and easy to see. It keeps me close to grade. Would also work for fine grading.

Works well. Good range.

The HL700 replaces the standard receiver that came with my spectra Laser. The old one would not tone and I just didn't trust it any more. The HL700 has features that my old one did not have. I can now just look at the read out and know how high or low I am. It also has more control, in that I can set it from 1/32 to 1/2 increments. It seems to be more rugged that the last one. I like that the rod clamp is removable. All in all, I would say that I got my money's worth. As an adder, after having had it for a while now, I would say that it is ABSOLUTELY worth the extra $ for my application. I would bump this up to five stars except that I wish it had one more feature; that being a laser catcher reader thingy on the back of the receiver. This one does seem to catch the laser at a wider angle that my old one, but still would be nice for it to read at nearly 360 degrees. Some times it is such that I can not get the story pole tight to the surface I am leveling to and I have to use a speed square to get an accurate mark. Not always a small thing when you only have two hands.

I've been using Spectra Physics lasers for years, this receiver seems to be better than the original that came with the lasers I've bought

EXCELLENT!

Hard for me to believe Spectra Precision puts their name on this. My 30 year old receiver finally had enough. My thinking of saving $175 because I dont use it very much was wrong. Its already fallen off the bracket (not the bracket falling off the rod) from 15' up in the air probably 5 times in 5 outings. It just snaps into plastic. Does not screw on to the bracket. When you are getting close to your number on the way up it only beeps slow. Never gets fast on the way up. You have to run past then come back down to get it to beep fast. Then it does not beep solid when you are on your mark it just stops beeping altogether. Then you question whether its right so you start all over. Its impossible to know if you are accurate or not. So much wasted time. Absolute piece of garbage. Would not recommend this to my worst enemy.

Bought this as a replacement for my old stabila LAPR 100 receiver, works better that the original! And as far as I can tell it works with all red beam laser levels. It's solid, and picks up the beam with no problem.

This product works great with my existing laser.

Works great, genuine product

Great tool, takes all the effort out of laser leveling. Precision display makes adjustments easy. Worth every cent.

Came with holding good quality bracket