Red: The new Blue

[laserLips]

With all these exciting new companies offering affordable high(ish) powered laser projectors, red(637) is really standing out as an expensive wavelength. Blue is mega cheap, green is sort of the same, but now it's red that is pulling on the purse strings if you decide you must have the 637nm.

I recently got a 3W RGB from a well know Chinese company. 1.5W of Blue, 1W of Green and a sorry arse 0.5W of Red(637)

Viewing any Que which contains red really disappoints me as I can barely see it (IF AT ALL) in beam shows unless there is TONES of smoke. Where as the blues and even more the greens stand out.
But surprisingly a white is always a nice white. Why is this? That's not the point though, I'm not overly fussed about whether a white is a nice white, I'm more bothered about not seeing any red in the air when I blast out a red Que.

So I think unless you have over 1 watt of 637, you're not going to get any wow from it. And this is pricey!

I don't understand why this red is more pricey and all the optic stuff and I don't have the brain to work it out but what about 635, is it possible to use optics to correct the divergence? Then we can forget about 637 and enjoy some beams with "OOOOOOO" instead of "OH".

I'm considering my next projector and I need lots of power, but anything with 637 is way to much for me. So I'm probably going to get one with 635 inside. Do you think I still might be disappointed with the divergence from the 635? I'll be at outside venues with beams, but with about 10% of the night doing some graphics as well and the current distance between the laser and a surface is about 40 meters. The distance may also get larger over time.

What do you think?

Cheers,
Graham

[Galvonaut]

You may find that the white only looks white as you have little reference Graham.

If you compared the white to say, an 18% grey card illuminated correctly, like when printing colour photography, you may find the white not so satisfactory.

When I come to set up my laser I am going to be aiming for a truly white white! Not sure it can be done - but if I am successful I hope that my white will stand out from the crowd

Keith

[Jem]

Have you seen this thread?

http://www.photonlexicon.com/forums/...w-445nm-Module

[Bradfo69]

Hush Jem!! I was hoping to buy it when some cash became free. LOL

[norty303]

Red has been the new blue for a few years.
Overall, owning a laser projector is cheaper, but still not 'cheap' if you want anything worthwhile.
Your problem seems to be that the company has underspecced the red compared to the other modules, or over-specced the others.
If you want to see the red more, balance down the green and blue, and then the comparative brightness of the red will be better.
My smaller projectors use ~400mW of 640nm, with ~650mW 532 and ~1W of 445nm and the red doesn't have a problem being seen, although it will never compete against the green (but it shouldn't need to)

I don't think 637 is that expensive really. A 73 diode running at 700 to 900mW through correction optics is not really that expensive, certainly it'll be less than a 1W Laserwave 532nm OEM-VS

[laserLips]

Have you seen this thread?

http://www.photonlexicon.com/forums/...w-445nm-Module

I have as it goes. But I'm worried I couldn't fit it in my projector and also what I would do with the two coming out. Guess I could just sell them.

I'm feeling confident about doing work in projectors since my last one was such a disaster.

I do have to swap out the scanners that came with my projector which is a real pain in the arse!

So what about using 635 instead of 637 or 638. Is the divergence really that bad and a show stopper?

[laserLips]

Your problem seems to be that the company has underspecced the red compared to the other modules, or over-specced the others.
If you want to see the red more, balance down the green and blue, and then the comparative brightness of the red will be better.

What I mean is that even on a red only que, just red, I still can't see it unless tones of smoke is present. It's as weak as my last set up which was the little dual maxyz set up. I was expecting it to be at least 3 times as bright. I was gutted when I saw what I was getting. I wanted a worth while projector. I nearly go it, but the red lets it down badly.

[andy_con]

your in Essex im in Essex just come round

I have as it goes. But I'm worried I couldn't fit it in my projector and also what I would do with the two coming out. Guess I could just sell them.

I'm feeling confident about doing work in projectors since my last one was such a disaster.

I do have to swap out the scanners that came with my projector which is a real pain in the arse!

So what about using 635 instead of 637 or 638. Is the divergence really that bad and a show stopper?

[laserLips]

I don't think 637 is that expensive really. A 73 diode running at 700 to 900mW through correction optics is not really that expensive, certainly it'll be less than a 1W Laserwave 532nm OEM-VS

You're kidding. It's like 3 times as expensive. Buying off the shelf anyway.

[laserLips]

your in Essex im in Essex just come round

Actually Andy I'm in Goa, India ;-) Never knew you were in Essex.

I'm here for 6 months. I sell food at a Saturday night market and then do lasers at a club on SUndays. Its wicked. But very tiring, I'm coming back in April. If you ain't sold them by then I'll have them off you!