Pooo's and Weeees F@#k it !

[Pitts]

Guess what.. Having read at some length the dangers of back reflection killing diodes I was being very careful.
I had mounted the Maxy reds onto the board.

Due to the bowed (banana) shape of the Maxy base plate I needed to tighten it down while turned on. (to flatten it out a bit)

There I was smoke on, leaning around the back on the bench started to tighten. Being very careful all the time to avoid the beam.

Horror !! there was my screwdriver in slow motion falling gracefully through the air with the greatest of ease !!! it tumbled twice and hit the floor.
I grimaced... did it hit anything ?? on route ??. oh crap !

I now have a Y galvo with a 45 deg angled mirror (not broken but bent the shaft) .. possibly good for special effects. (vibration included)

The only one smiling now is Jian !!! another sale !!

As they say down here in NZ..... Buggar !!

Good news the reds are fine.

If Jian had just left the little heatsink on top like his earlier DT-40's that would have protected it. Could be worth thinking about putting a little "lid" over those mirror they are very exposed to this sort of idiotic behaviour.

Oh well these things do happen...
Cheers
Ray

[cruch]

Thats bad! Lucky for jian tho (hehe)
well..shit happends!

[allthatwhichis]

Dude, that is one hell of a screwdriver...



We need both, one of the driver and the bend shaft... Maybe you can send it back and hae the shaft replaced... You have my sympathy on the loss.

[stanwax]

Bummer Ray
Sorry to hear of your misfortune. I find sometimes being too careful promotes disastar!

Could be worth thinking about putting a little "lid" over those mirror they are very exposed to this sort of idiotic behaviour.

Do you mean like this....(see below) I did this to catch the stray light that comes out or the back of the Dielectric mirrors but it would protect against screwdrivers too.

Rob

[steve-o]

I'm thinking of painting all of my screwdrivers flat-black!!
I killed 2 D.I. lasers with back-reflection. I've heard about freq-doubled DPSS reds...if they can make cheap greens...they can't make dpss reds

[Pitts]

Hi Rob,

Exactly like that. Jian's original design did this in effect by having a heatsink on top this acts just like your "shield" . I like what you have done I think this would be a prudent step against idiots like me with screwdrivers.

Thanks for the demo--- well done.

Ray

[buffo]

I've heard about freq-doubled DPSS reds...if they can make cheap greens...they can't make dpss reds

They can (and do) make them. But they have issues:

1) They're expensive
2) They lase at 671 nm, which is really on the low end of what the human eye can see, so you need a lot more of it.

Still, they do sell them, and the beam quality is excellent. LaserShowParts.com has them listed all the way to 4.5 watts, if you've got the coin...

Adam