532 more expensive than 445??

[ZeroPoint]

im a little confused because up until now i have always thought that blue lasers were more expensive than green ones. ive been pricing out some stuff on ebay and other sites and have noticed a few things. i have found several people selling 445-450 diodes for under $100 and advertising them as being capable up up to 1.2W. drivers and modules for those diodes seem to range anywhere from about $15-$50. these are well within my price range, however when it comes to the green diodes things seem to change. 150mW 532s are readily available for under $100 but i want something closer to 500mW. everything over 200mW seems to run about $100 per tenth of a watt, making a 500mW module almost $500! im interested in putting together my own laser module but cant seem to find any individual parts for 532s capable of over 150-200mW. why does it seem that 445 parts are cheap and readily available while 532s tend to only come as complete modules and are so expensive? am i missing something or should i be cautious about all the 445s ive seen? and also, can anyone recommend me to a site and/or supplier of diodes and related components that are reasonably priced for the novice laserist?

thanks in advance, -Luke

[hobbybob]

pm sent...............

[norty303]

445 are cheap because Casio built a video projector that uses the diodes, which means the diodes can be harvested at about $40 each. Also, 532 is a DPSS laser, which means it is much more complex for 'normal' people to build one that works well. Temperature is critical in these designs. The old 473nm blue heads were also DPSS which is why they cost a lot too.

[ZeroPoint]

im going to read up on dpss lasers. thanks for both your help