PL450B Diode question

[Draco]

my Osram PL450 laser diode but it i can't get to the rated power, i am wondering if it's the driver or maby the threshold voltage is just a tad high, i this driver i have used it on the PLTB450B i have to rated power but not this diode, i hit about 85mw and that's it, i can turn the adjustment all the way up and the current does not change, no change, thats what has me wondering if i am not getting a high enough voltage, it's just odd the higher power diode i can get full power, it has the same response of other diodes, turn up the voltage the current rises till destruction if allowed to

[dkumpula]

I ran into this issue last week when testing out an inexpensive Chinese driver I purchased on Flea-bay (I'm currently doing some comparisons of ~6 different drivers trying to find what works best for my builds.)

The voltage with this particular driver http://www.ebay.com/itm/261969315148...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT will only rise to 5.4V on the driver and then stop. This results in getting a PL450B to about 85mW with a G2 lens. (The driver was hooked up to a 12V PSU.) 5.4V is sufficient for some diodes, but not enough to drive the single mode reds, blues or 120mW 520nm greens that DTR sells from what I've seen. The PLP520-B1 (520nm 120mW) won't even lase at 5.4v, the rest just stop short of their rated output.

If this is your issue as well, consider buying one of these from PL member BBE instead: http://www.ebay.com/itm/151775401277...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT They are dirt-cheap and are working well from what I've seen thus far.

-David

[Draco]

I ended up getting a flex mod p3 driver from my employer and it worked great as well, now i just need to beg for him to give it to me, he gave me a lot of them to test and they all worked great, got the laser to full power and almost set a pile of junk mail on fire, i was not paying attention to where the beam was aimed, it was aimed under a shelf and terminated on drywall but some paper junk mail fell into that spot and literally set it on fire, at about 60% power, looks like i need to dig out my graphite block that came off of a co2 laser and use that to terminate the beam. From what i know the P3 was engineered by a fine member of this forum and would recommend his stuff very highly, it;s simple to use has analog control and is cheap for what it does.
My dream as a child i think has been met, i never thought i would have a class 4 laser that i can hold in my hand and all it needs for cooling is a fan, not water cooling, needing 3 phase power and the size of a compact pickup truck, the school that has the 120 watt co2 laser to my knowledge even to date i was the only one allowed to use it, one time while interfacing a PLC to it i blew a fuse in the power console and i fixed it even after the teacher gave me all kinds of warnings on it and was the only monkey/reptile allowed inside the thing lol, if it ever came up for sale i think i woyld still try to buy it, i would make it into an unlitamte lexicon entertainment system, my tv would be on it's frame and make a enclosed beam path into another room to engrave thaings, at the time the project i used it was was to engrave smoke plexy glass game boards, or to use an new X/Y system to zap bugs lol