Dimensions of Laserwave 5W oem-v, cooling req and cni vs laserwave opinions please?

[m0f]

I'm planning to upgrade my 10W projectors, aiming for 20W. As spacing is very tight, I'm wondering if anyone would know offhand what the dimensions are for the 5W Laserwave head ? And at roughly what height does the beam exit ? Are all the oem-v series the same size ?

Also, any advice as to how much heat the oem models radiate to the baseplate ? I do not have any kind of heatsink currently under the baseplate but have a feeling I would need to do that as a minimum along with perhaps active fan cooling, but the issues is I'm using a goldenstar box-g-small, so there's no really easy way to vent the air under the baseplate. So I'm a bit anxious about using an oem type laser. Anyone else using a larger laserwave oem installed in a box-g-small ? Any advice ?

Would a cni mgl-n be a better choice for my purposes ? I could likely make room for the larger size head if it'd be a much safer choice.

And lastly, I've seen some complaints about laserwave's quality lately, but also cni doesn't seem to be immune to problems at times. I'm curious how rare problems are with these, and so please anyone owning similar models of either brand, what have been your experiences with them ? Would it be worth the extra money to go with cni over laserwave at $3250 vs $2400 ?

Thanks,

Miles

[m0f]

Sorry that ended up being a mess of a thread starter. I couldn't find the dimensions anywhere until spotting the signature of Bridge's posts, so I found my answer there. Very small indeed

I'm assuming that's going to dump a massive amount of heat into the baseplate. Is it likely to be sufficient to heatsink the bottom of the baseplate directly under the laser and fan cool ? Or is it more complicated than that ?

In regard to my third question re laserwave vs cni, I've read through as many reviews and comments as I've been able to find. From what I understand the CNI 5W ktp would be heat and cool ? Anyone know if that's still the case in their current models ?

If so it'd stand to reason that it would be the most stable, but have read laserwave to be superior to CNI as far as modulation. Anyone have experiences with them ? One of my concerns is that often my shows involve hours powered on but at idle, followed by needing near instant max power for a couple of minutes followed by idle time again etc, so the closest it can be to warmed up and ready to fire, the better. On the other hand I've read some saying that their laserwave modulates many times better than their cni's.. So has left be faced with some indecision Add various reports of quality control on both sides.

Much appreciate any advice,

Miles

[norty303]

Speak to Frank at Viasho too. I believe they have some OEM heads with heat/cool tec and the prices are competitive.
Although a number of people have not been too impressed with previous generations of Viasho DPSS heads, I hear these are a step up from the older ones.
I have 2 of the LW OEM-V-SS 2W heads which may be the same form factor you are looking at. I have mine on a 6mm baseplate with a bolted heatsink and fan on the underside of the baseplate and they seem well enough heatsinked.

[Humphry]

Laserwave 5W OEM produces a moderate amount of heat, even when idle.

To give you an idea of how much cooling you need, on a 20deg celcius night I can get away with just in and out fans cooling my power supplies below the baseplate. Warmer temps you will need a nice wide finned heatsink, but I think that pretty much covers you without the need for any direct fans. Do a 100% on test on a hot day and if your baseplate still gets warm , strap a small fan on that heatsink, and then you will be bulletproof.

I really wanted to go with active cooling but it's really not worth the money, effort and associated risk for me. Peltiers seem easy and simple but delving deeper have all this thermal cycling + degrading nonsense, and to do it PROPERLY it's complicated and/or expensive. If your peltier fails, and it's not uncommon, you risk frying your heads.

By the way, it sounds like we are in fairly similar boats with projectors and upgrading. What reds were you using and what do you plan on upgrading to?

[m0f]

Thanks for the info. I've been lately leaning towards cni w/ the heating and cooling tec, but it's likely they both are similar as far as heatsinking requirements.

For red, I am using a quad of P73's, currently only running at 2800mW or so, so I'm just a bit short of balanced on a 10W RGB but it's not too bad of a white. So the plan is to seal it up and chill it aggressively to start with and see how far I can push them. If I can double the output, great, and otherwise even increased output + a shorter wavelength may be enough to work. If I need to add a couple of diodes, I have an idea for a 6x combiner which I think could work and still fit the scanners with a reasonable divergence.

For blue I'm currently using a dual combiner of 9mm 445's, but am adding 2 462nm's to each, for a quad w/ half of each wavelength. Hopefully will be enough, but if not will possibly look at the 3.5W diodes though hoping to avoid due to the larger beam.

Miles

[planters]

Something that might be fun to try if you end up with two dual blues. If you have a prism left over from any anamorphic pairs, try knife edging one of the duals into the prism at a SLIGHTLY different angle to the other. The dispersion may allow you to overlay the two beams into a single secondary beam that is no larger than each of the primary beams.

[Humphry]

Planters, while you're around, may I ask you to elaborate on your system where you had success pushing blue and red diodes to low temps? I think this would be really helpful for the poster, myself and many others who are striving to get more power out of multi builds.

1. Are you putting your peltier/s between which surfaces?.. a) the diode housings and laser module plate b) between "module plate" and projector baseplate c) underside of projector baseplate and heatsink?
2. What peltier driver are you using and are you happy with it? I wanted to go this route using a thermostat but quickly learned that you need to use PWM at a high frequency to avoid 'thermal cycling' which quickly causes pelters to fail. This scared me off to be honest.
3. Where are your temp sensor/s situated and do you have any comments on where to place? I suppose on top of the brass diode mounts would be ideal
4. Your hermetic chamber around the reds, do you have any advice on what materials to use and how to seal?

Thanks so much in advance. Looking forward to hearing about your new experiments.

Something that might be fun to try if you end up with two dual blues. If you have a prism left over from any anamorphic pairs, try knife edging one of the duals into the prism at a SLIGHTLY different angle to the other. The dispersion may allow you to overlay the two beams into a single secondary beam that is no larger than each of the primary beams.