642nm 300mW Homemade Module

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12-12-2009, 08:14
MisterWilling

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642nm 300mW Homemade Module

This is my first laser module, I have been building personal pointers for a little while and I feel I have enough practice to get into the scanning world. I am getting ready to build a couple more modules and put them all into one projector.

Diodes: 2x 150mW CW rated 642nm info here: World's First 642nm 150mW Laser Diode Launched by Photonic Products
Mounting: Diodes are mounted in custom copper housing placed in copper blocks with clamping screws to allow for rotation to dial in polarization
Lens: 650-G-1 single element lens in custom brass assembly (same as 405-G-1 lens but coated for red AR) info here : FS: Hi-Power AR Lens Assy- 25-30% Inc. vs. Aixiz
Drivers: Dual Flexmods set at 100mA idle and 320mA with modulation
Cooling: TEC cooled to 10°C and temperature controlled with a Die4Laser TEC controller
Output: 150mW after Lens at each laser and 293mW after optics from Knife Edge combination
Polarization: Horizontal
Everything is electrically isolated, the copper clamping blocks are clear coated so they are not contacting each other.

This module wasn't built with space in mind, but my next ones will be. I plan on building another one with dual 650 DVD diodes and combining these two reds using PBS after both knife edged modules. I will also repeat this once more with two 12x blu-ray diodes combined with a PBS attempting to get 600mW blu-ray with a reasonably decent life on them. I am about to order a 300mW 532nm module and a 100mW 473nm so this scanner should be pretty decent when completed. All analog modulation of course.

Smoke was used in this photo session since I didn't have a tripod to mount camera and do long exposure shots.
I didn't have my L wrenches to adjust the mirrors so the beams aren't aligned. Plus those mirrors are just mock up mirrors, I will replace them with clean ones when I get them in the mail.

Thanks for checking this out, comments and criticism are welcome.
12-12-2009, 08:24
ElektroFreak

Looks very good!

I do have two questions, however:

How do you compensate for condensation at -10C?

Why not just use a PBS cube for combining as you've suggested with your other projects? It would give a completely concentric beam..
12-12-2009, 08:53
MisterWilling

ahh

Well I am combining this module with another red so I will use the PBS to do that. If I combined these with a PBS then I would have to get a special dichro to combine the two different colors of red.

I'm trying to build this projector as cheap as possible. That's why I'm building my own modules. I made this one for significantly less then I could find a 640nm 300mW module.

As for the condensation compensation, I can't control it. It was a typo, I meant +10C.
12-12-2009, 10:03
ElektroFreak

I misunderstood your statement in the original post and didn't realize that you were combining this with another red..

Sounds good all around.. it'll be sweet to see them in a projector.
12-12-2009, 13:27
pelosh

It looks like that all 642 diodes are designed to do 150mW, so modules doing 300,600,900,1.2.....make sense. How the hell is then possible that LaserWave 640nm module is doing 200+mW? :rolleyes:
12-12-2009, 14:01
Diachi

Quote:

Originally Posted by pelosh

It looks like that all 642 diodes are designed to do 150mW, so modules doing 300,600,900,1.2.....make sense. How the hell is then possible that LaserWave 640nm module is doing 200+mW? :rolleyes:

Two underdriven diodes.
One overdriven diode
One higher spec'd multi-mode diode.
12-12-2009, 20:17
Xytrell

Quote:

Originally Posted by MisterWilling

As for the condensation compensation, I can't control it.

But have you made the condensation compensation computation with enough combination of concentration? :)
12-13-2009, 00:08
MisterWilling

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xytrell

But have you made the condensation compensation computation with enough combination of concentration? :)

I have never seen so much alliteration in my life.
12-13-2009, 00:42
badger1666

hi martin
opnext do 250mw diodes so bridge proberly uses them ;)
12-14-2009, 10:20
mccarrot

Quote:

Originally Posted by badger1666

hi martin
opnext do 250mw diodes so bridge proberly uses them ;)

Optnex 250mW got bad beam specs so I dont think so.
12-14-2009, 17:06
flecom

could be putting them through a fiber or something and losing 50mw?
12-15-2009, 02:15
mccarrot

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diachi

Two underdriven diodes.
One overdriven diode
One higher spec'd multi-mode diode.

I would put my money on option 2
12-15-2009, 02:23
mccarrot

Quote:

Originally Posted by MisterWilling

T I am about to order a 300mW 532nm module and a 100mW 473nm so this scanner should be pretty decent when completed. All analog modulation of course.

Thanks for checking this out, comments and criticism are welcome.

The 300mW green needs to be turned down to about 1/3th of the power to balance. Some green lasers will not modulate that nice at 1/3th of the power and start to get noisy.
so maybe its better to go for a 150-200mW green.
12-15-2009, 06:06
MisterWilling

With the 500-600mW blu-ray I'm adding it would only need to be turned down to 2/3-3/4 to balance for white.
12-15-2009, 14:02
cyberb0b

I removed thebluray from my system, cause it looks nice at the power meter, but it does not give the results i was searching for.

I only got bigger safety issues.
12-15-2009, 14:06
MisterWilling

Can you give details? How much Blu-Ray did you add and what where the powers of the other lasers? Also What kind of situations do you use the projector for? I would hate to go through all the trouble of setting up the blu-ray and to be dissappointed.
12-28-2009, 14:22
mccarrot

Bluray will give you almost no extra brightess, but it will make nice white.

But for beamshows you want to have brightness, so in my oppinioin 405nm is not worth the trouble.
12-28-2009, 14:35
MisterWilling

Ahh. I have been convinced to leave blu-ray out of my projector. Thanks for the info.