For Buffo...

[mccarrot]

ahhhh, uncorrected stuff.. still allot of power for the money..

[buffo]

Be interested to seeing the optic train, are those mounts on there latest price list?

Not sure about the mounts, but I will check with Mimi. I'll also post lots more pics this weekend. I plan to spend a good bit of time playing with this thing over the long weekend.

Also interested in a continuous duty test measure power at power up, come back and measure a half hour later to see the loss from heat use.

Yesterday I ran it for 2 hours at full blast. No change in output power at all.

Granted, the baseplate does get quite warm (there is a large TEC keeping the reds cool). I had it on a heavy aluminum heat sink with fins on the bottom, and after 2 hours even that heat sink was very warm, but the output power was still just north of 8 watts.

specs please, there are more people than buffo on this forum

Sorry about that! I'll post more information once I've completed my measurements. It's damned hard to get accurate beam diameter measurements because this thing is so bright! However, the power specs that Swami posted are correct. I have already verified that the total output power (after optics) is in excess of 8 watts, but I still need to verify the power of each wavelength. When I do, I'll post more pics.

Interested in how the red is build (4 x 700mw i assume?)

In brief: yes - 4 diodes with cylindrical lenses for secondary correction, then all 4 are knife-edged together. (No pbs) More pics to follow.

ahhhh, uncorrected stuff.. still allot of power for the money..

The reds have fast-axis correction. The greens and blues do not. I think it might be a good idea to add this, however, and will be speaking to Mimi about it. I doubt it would add much to the cost. (Then again, higher divergence helps reduce the very real fire hazard associated with this unit!)

Also note that the pictures Brad posted were for a different projector, not this one. That's his Lightspace Ascent X. Basically at ~33 meters, the beam on his unit is 1 inch by 2.5 inches on the wall. Right now the plate I'm working with is not that tight, but I think it could be with a little work.

That being said, I'm not entirely sure that it needs to be that tight. The beam looks very impressive as it is now, and it's clearly visible in air in broad daylight. I do need to get some more accurate measurements though to determine what size scanner mirrors you'll need.

The price point is nothing short of amazing though.

Adam

[polishedball]

Is Brads box off the scanners or raw, the beam could be tighter if the mirrors are spilling some.

[Bradfo69]

Off the scanners. (Quickshow or Beyond "Target Beam")

[Draco]

Awesome sauce! Thanks Brad!

Re: building a death star... Yeah, I've got something in the works.
With a little creativity (or is that stupidity?) and a lot of help from Mimi and the rest of the staff at GoldenStarLaser.com, I should have some interesting facts to report on very soon!

Here is a very brief preview:


That is 8 watts at 25 feet. I never liked that tree anyway...


The optical plate itself. (Ignore the telescope at bottom right - that was a brief experiment that didn't work out.)

Lots more details to come!

Adam

but , but, the Birdies in that tree!! think of the poor Birdies !! They need the tree! the poor Birdies!!!

[norty303]

Get those optic mounts square on with a 45 degree face on them. You can get the diode blocks much closer together AND/OR make them out of one piece of metal to give better heatsinking.

[buffo]

but , but, the Birdies in that tree!! think of the poor Birdies !! They need the tree! the poor Birdies!!!

Relax, the tree is still standing. (For the moment anyway!)

Although it might be nice to have that one removed. It drops huge acorns by the hundreds, which the squirrels chew into sawdust, which then litters the paths all around the tree. Looks like hell, and 5 minutes after you sweep it away there are more dropping from the tree!

Sigh - I guess I'll keep the tree though.

Get those optic mounts square on with a 45 degree face on them. You can get the diode blocks much closer together AND/OR make them out of one piece of metal to give better heatsinking.

Not sure I follow your thinking here Norty... How does putting a triangle mirror (technically a prism shape) on the mount allow you to get the mirror closer to the diode? Or get the diode blocks closer to each other? And why is that important anyway?

As for heatsinking, the issue isn't with getting the heat out of the diode blocks. That part works great! The problem is that the whole optical plate heats up, because the entire rig generates a *lot* of heat. (Which, I suppose, is to be expected, considering there are 9 diodes on the thing!)

In a projector it would be fine, so long as the underside of the baseplate was properly cooled with forced air from a few fans. However, for my tests, I set the plate on a thick, finned heat sink with no fans. (You can't really see it in the pictures, but the lower heatsink is 2 inches thick and the entire bottom is nothing but fins.)

I expected that such a large heat sink would be enough to dissipate the heat even without any air circulation, and it probably was OK, but it sure felt warm after running for 2 hours. (Warmer than I thought it would have been!)

I still have more tests to do with this plate, but I've had to take a break, because I've had yet another distraction... We've added two more kittens to the house! (Yeah, I'm officially in the "crazy cat person" category now.)

They are taking up a lot of time, so any laser work is going to have to wait a bit!

Here are a couple pics:




They are very shy, so the pictures aren't great. But they are very cute! So now we have 4 cats. Sheesh!

Adam

[norty303]

Well, if those mirror mounts were square on you wouldn't need the gaps between the diode mounts.
Why is size important...? Dunno, I like my projectors as small as possible. Even if you keep the spacing, having a single diode block with more metal in it is going to be better.

[Bradfo69]

Sheesh... 2 more. I swore I was done with pets but, between the occasional Youtube crazy dog and cat videos and, playing with yours, it's been in the back of my mind again about another cat.

[jors]

Trying to understand red section setup...

-As we see all 4 diodes (probably P73) are corrected+knife edged...and they fit on 5mm wide @<2mrad full angle?

In my experience 4 P73 knife edged ONLY could fit inside 5mm wide (llll) with NO correction at all or at least very very little correction...
We all know reds MM fast axis needs to be expanded near 5mm in order to achieve 1mrad full angle....Specs on red section are <2mrad...ok..say 2mrad...so we have to expand FA very close to 2,5mm wide for each diode to reach 2mrad....2,5mmx4knife edged is near 10mm wide NOT 5mm!!
If I'm not mistaken...it's not possible to correct for 2mrad/each diode and then knife edge all 4 diodes and don't surpass 5mm....so...two possibilities (probably combination of both):
NF beam profile array is bigger then 5mm wide or divergence is >2mrad...or I'm loosing something here ?¿

So...Bradfo, Buffo,...in order to enlighten us please...Could you share any of below specs?...or just argue why I'm wrong? (..if so..)

-Collimators used on red?
-Single diode NF beam profile before cyls (HxWmm?)
-Single diode NF beam profile after cyls (HxWmm?)...(beam profile bounced on knife mirrors)
(in order to know which expansion ratio)
-Real red divergence?
-Real NF beam array size?

Thanks so much guys