Case choices... I should have waited!

[norty303]

rather than tec the whole base plate why not mount the lasers on a separate smaller plate and tec that?

To be honest, the lasers take up most of the baeplate space as it is, so it may not be that much difference.
I'm using 506 scanners so they're small and [maybe] the small digi amp.

And even then, the smaller plate means the hot side of the tec will be in the laser/optic deck anyway.

One thing to note, I think you said in the other thread you use a very thick (40mm was it?? or am i remembering/reading wrong?) baseplate. In my case it is a LOT thinner, so less metal mass, and so maybe easier to cool effectively.


P.S. what are you charging for the LCD/controller?

[andy_con]

finned heat sink is 40mm in total, 10mm plate 30mm fins

they have plenty of cooling power. I recon if you do a fan setup first and monitor the temp you would be surprised at the running temp

errr ive only got 2 left and I want them, I need or order some more. ill PM you when I get it sorted

[buffo]

Hey Andy,

Would you mind posting your source for those finned heat-sink plates? I might be in the market...

Adam

[andy_con]

They are very expensive in low numbers

Birmingham aluminium

[buffo]

How expensive? (no prices on the website)

Would it be worth trying to organize a group buy?

Adam

[andy_con]

??? they are like half price in orders of 10 heat sinks

[gottaluvlasers]

Sorry Adam if i kinda drag this off course but this thread brings up a point that I am a little confused about-

Do you guys really have thermal issues?? I dont understand what all of this talk is about enormous heatsinks and banks of fans over the heat sinks and all of this "overheating" issues.

I am being serious when I ask. im not being sarcastic. I have (4) well over 20+ watt RGB's (6W/637, 8W/532, 8W/445 (1 with 10W 445)) All of which are housed in LT1000 cases. For those of you not aware- LT1000 are pretty much the USA standard "PRO" case made by One Stop Laser Shop consisting of 1/4" optical breadboard for top and bottom plates. Anyway- These systems all consist of 4 fans each. 2 suck, 2 blow. Lasers mounted to bottom plates. Electronics mounted to top plates. These systems have gone through-

1) touring
2) clubs
3) indoors
4) outdoors
5) 1 hour of continuous use to over 12 hour of continuous use (literally ON for over 12 hours).

I have *NEVER* to this day, had a thermal issue. Again, i am *NOT* being sarcastic- i am *HONESTLY* asking- are you guys having overheating issues because you are using chinese (or cheapo/inferior) components?? Or are you just being pro-active and trying to attack any possible over-heating issues before they may possibly occur??

I just see some cases/lasers with some ABSURD amounts of overkill cooling. Especially relatively low power lasers with like 6+ fans and heatsinks that can cool a jet engine.

Im curious to see some reasoning.

-Marc

[norty303]

For my pursuit of cooling, the objective is to be able to run the diodes harder. Can't speak for anyone else tho.

[steve-o]

Do you guys really have thermal issues??

Yup. During an outdoor show on the 4th of July last year, the green dpss in my "slim-jim" projector shut down (overheated) leaving me with red and blue. It wasn't too bad because I had 2 other projectors running but I later had to do extensive thermal testing and redesign to the unit in order to prevent this from happening again. I now test it at full output power/RGB-all modules for 3 hours min. It used to shut down, now it runs ok. It was hot outside during that show. I did have to end up venting the optical deck (filtered air) and moved most of the heat producing electronics to the outside of the proj and added forced-air cooling. I also added a large heatsink and a blower directly under the 532 module. No more problems except it isn't quite so slim anymore

[dave]

Do you guys really have thermal issues?? I dont understand what all of this talk is about enormous heatsinks and banks of fans over the heat sinks and all of this "overheating" issues.

Just out of interest, have you felt the optics plate after one of your 20w's has been running for 12 hours?

TBH, I'm a little surprised you haven't had thermal issues if you have 6w red and 10w blue kvant modules bolted to a plate that's not heatsinked. The 10w blues diodes would be generating something like 30-40w of heat, and that's before you add the TECS into the equation and double the heat generated.. 80W is quite a bit of heat to remove... The issue here with TEC's, is they can maintain a certain temperature differential, so the hotter your baseplate gets, the less effective the TEC's will be, to a point where they simply dont work at all if the heat isnt removed from the hot side quickly enough... And that will lead to alignment issues, especially in the multi diode reds. I like lasers which don't need alignment.

All the European manufacturers.. Arctos, Kvant, Lightline, et all.. There is a very good reason to why they put great efforts into heat management..