70% Power Loss Through Scanner Mirrors....

[sbk]

Last time I had such big loss after scanners mirrors only on one laser (it was with my green, red and blue was fine), it was just an IR issue. My green was simply outputting some IR that the scanners mirrors wasn't reflecting. Maybe you should check this

[-bart-]

Do the losses change by changing the angle of the mirrors, or are the losses consistent all over your scanfield?

How did you clean your mirrors? Maybe you have stripped some essential coating.

[Xytrell]

Have you tried turning the galvos around 180 degrees... so that the other side of the galvo mirror is used instead?

[mccarrot]

I also had Laserword mirrors, they are bad (20% loss on the mirrors in my projector) If you replace them with ither mirrors you can also reach higher scanspeeds and a cleaner image.

But still 70% is unreal so I think your 240mW blue is putting out 100mW blue and 140mW IR

Please measure your laser again with a IR filter in fron of the detector.

[ledfreak3d]

humz thats strange i have those scanners here
im only seeing loses of about 2-4 % max for all 3 colors

also my 100 mw cni also does not have a ir filter installed or a very poor one
im measuring about 210 mw after warmup and with an external ir filer about 110 mw
same for my 200 mw laserwave 340 without external filter 220 mw with

[allthatwhichis]

Have you tried turning the galvos around 180 degrees... so that the other side of the galvo mirror is used instead?

Yea, check this; make sure you are using the first surface side. I done it wong befo meself...

[300EVIL]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I did check the laser with a high quality IR filter and I only get a 30mW decrease in output power. After all, It is a Laser-Wave module and they come with IR filters installed.

I clean the scanner mirrors with 99% isopropyl so that shouldn't remove any coatings. The mirrors are definately positioned correctly, front surface pointing out. And yes, the loss is fairly consistant with different scanner mirror angles. I think I'll try changing my mirrors to the replacements provided with the LW-50K scanner kit. Maybe that will help.

[sbk]

After all, It is a Laser-Wave module and they come with IR filters installed.

Precisely not There's just some coating on the optics to prevent IR emission at maximum, but not a real IR filter. So there's still a consequent amount of IR coming out of your laser. I clearly noticed this on mine.

A thing you can do if you have access to a relatively good microscope, is looking at the mirrors under a 10-50x magnification. On my mirrors, I saw some serious oxydation or crap all the way on the mirror surface, which I didn't see to the naked eye.

[300EVIL]

Precisely not There's just some coating on the optics to prevent IR emission at maximum, but not a real IR filter. So there's still a consequent amount of IR coming out of your laser. I clearly noticed this on mine.

Okay, so it may be just a coating not a separate filter optic. But we are talking 30mW not 170mW.

[sbk]

Yep, in your case there's certainly another major problem.