Increasing thermal efficiency?

[dave]

Aaron, indeed we did.

This time the fans are on one side blowing to the other side.

[dnar]

Here is another idea, feel free to pull it apart!

Instead of all the fiddle placing the TEC under the diodes, why not TEC cool from the other side of the base plate? At least this gets all the heat on the electronics side away from the optics.



Viewed from rear of case.

[White-Light]

I'd though of this also but wondered if cooling the base rather than the laser might create cold spots where condensation would form due to the temp difference with the surrounding area.

Potentially an interesting idea to try though.

Pity can't get a tec the same size as the base so the whole base was cooled evenly.

[dnar]

I'd though of this also but wondered if cooling the base rather than the laser might create cold spots where condensation would form due to the temp difference with the surrounding area.

Potentially an interesting idea to try though.

Pity can't get a tec the same size as the base so the whole base was cooled evenly.

Here's the thing. All the heat which is pumped + the heat put in to the TEC (V x I) is on the hot side. Think about that for a second, for every watt pumped you have 2 watts (roughly) of heat.

By cooling the base plate none of this heat is directly placed on the plate. The whole plate would be regulated to the set point rather than heated twice as much to cool localised spots...

[CDBEAM]

Dnar,

Your diagram is what I did on my RGB projector per the guidance of MechEng3 ;

Laser Head/All Dichro optics
Aluminum Plate
TE
Finned Heat Sink
Fan

Works great !!

CDBEAM/Terrawatt

[dnar]

Dnar,

Your diagram is what I did on my RGB projector per the guidance of MechEng3 ;

Laser Head/All Dichro optics
Aluminum Plate
TE
Finned Heat Sink
Fan

Works great !!

CDBEAM/Terrawatt

Cool, do you have photos?

[CDBEAM]

Dnar,

See pics here on PL under CDBEAM album !!! Also see pic of Terrawatt- Laser Wonder dog....known to attempt to bite beams in mid-air !!! That was scarry !!! Did not expect her to try to jump up 1 1/2 meter to get to beam. She could not get to the beam and was fine...
Bob

[dnar]

Dnar,

See pics here on PL under CDBEAM album !!! Also see pic of Terrawatt- Laser Wonder dog....known to attempt to bite beams in mid-air !!! That was scarry !!! Did not expect her to try to jump up 1 1/2 meter to get to beam. She could not get to the beam and was fine...
Bob

Yep, thats what I am thinking!!! Nice build, let me see if I can pull this off with just "2 layers".

The other night, my 18 month old grand daughter came upstairs while I had the 660nm Quad running at around 4ft above ground level. She kept trying to reach up and grab the beam, lol very funny. It's a worry with kids around, you really have to be prepared for them to arrive when your tinkering with beams...