Heres a red 750mW tease

[marconi]

Similar, But a bit different.Not much different than the Asians are doing.

And Yes, Multimode narrow stripe diodes.

No wide beams are used , tho it may appear that way..
Its precollimated..The smoke added to see the beams for alignment made it look fat.
I did try it with fat beams and output optics, results were the same.But lower power. even with using a 4x and a 20x expander, it was much lower..
I didnt like the output beam size when it was fat with the single collimator... too big for galvo's.
when this is adjusted better the the exiting beam and spotsize will look pretty
good. I'll come up with measurements later..as I need to build-in the safegards first.
But this will have to wait as I need to finish a long awaited mod to a green before I get back to this..

[aijii]

Just make sure that you test, test, test, restest, test, and test for stability of whatever mounts you decide to use in the version you sell.

Older arctos units have been known to come out of alignment easily... due to heat, or uneven baseplates etc.

[yaddatrance]

Awesome!

One of the things I wished arctos used was anamorphic prisms to compress the wide axis of the final beam. You could stick a set on yours.

[marconi]

Yeah man, the quickie mounts are a problem..
But hey, they were free, well almost..they were made to see where we would end up with.
And, I am very greatful to Mike for getting them done so quick for the test.
But we will be replacing them after we figure out some good ones.
Got some help on that..

I do have an anamorphic set here to try, but so far (after a few more hours of alignment) beam dia at 1cm from the front on the unit is 3.75x2.75mm and at 16ft spotsize is 6mm and pretty round, could be better but hard to see that far for me, eyes getting old.

With only 4.85v at 1.46amps (volts low on this supply) I measured 815mW. not bad for dirty optics.
and I still dont have the TEC connected yet..To diode sink just got a little tiny bit warm for a few hours of operation.
{Edit}:I have since changed the supply to a very stout one,.. And pushing the diodes to the max I was able to achieve
over 900mW but only for an instant..the design is for 750mW. So theres some headroom.

That other supply from yesterday was bad, it was sagging to 4.5v and had a bunch of ripple. Didnt notice till I put the scope on it while checking mod responce which BTW is flat at 50khz, pretty nice at 100 and still usable well past 200khz..
I drive each diode separately, Its the best thing todo. good for isolation.

The baseplate total thicknes is 19mm ., I only have two of these for now..
So far, I havnt bumped it out of alignment ,yet,. considering the epoxy job on all the mirrors.
But I am sure I will..Also, I do see a problem using it at different distances.
Keeping all the beams parallel everythings ok, but a bit ugly..But distance wouldnt matter much..
But if its adjusted to say 10ft it will be different at say 30ft because it would be past the intersecting of the beams after the 10ft....so adjustment at 30ft seems to be a compromise.
Of course this error is greatest closest to the laser head.
Something to think about during use.

Ah well, I smell something burning...damn , Its my couch..hehe.j/k.
Seriously.. it also burns skin too. I accidently reached across the front to grab a tool and got a surprise.
Gotta be really extra careful around this thing. Termination needs to come closer to the work area I guess.
Heres another view-

[steve-o]

hell, just 1 of your modules will start a fire
burned a hole clean thru a piece of black plastic I had sittin in a bad place no harm done tho...

[LaserLover]

That's pretty cool Chuck,

I was thinking Arctos when I saw it. I don't know If they have an Internationnal patent but likely they filed in the US and Europe.

Even If they have a patent, it's up to them to police their own market and pursue offenders. I think Lawyers make most of the easy money when it comes to patent filing , upkeep, defence and litigation.
The Chinese will likely be the first ones to infringe on that market If they already haven't done so. ( Just a matter of time ).

Rick

[marconi]

Its close , But not the same.
They are using fat beams and collimating later.
I have seen some Asian laser companies already doing this,
nothing new.
I purposely didnt do it their way.

Anyhow, Its no secret anymore.
Quite a few over at Laserfreak are making them.

With the TEC running the diodes at 15c, I find it very easy to achieve over 900mW.
At max I was able to get over a watt. But thats pushing it.

[steve-o]

Hey Chuck-
You gonna make it to SELEM?

[marconi]

Dunno Yet..
Ive been using up my sick time and vacation time with this pinched nerve deal.
I sure hope so...

[allthatwhichis]

Yea, one of these would make an awesome door prize. You do notice you have been "under the weather" ever since you started to make this beast. I can come by in a day or so and take it off your hands, you'll be healed by next week and can make it to SELEM.