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Thread: Novalux Protera Lasers

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Tampa Florida
    Posts
    502

    Laser Warning Novalux Protera Lasers

    Hi,
    Two companies are selling these doubled diode lasers on e bay. They say up to 14 mW but that is probably because they explode at 15 mW since they are 5 mW spec lasers. Even though I was wary I bought one. It is on Sam Goldwasser's test bench and although it was supposed to work properly it barley lases. I am trying to get my money back so BUYER BEWARE!

    Does anyone have any Novalux software on a CD? This was (I assume) supposed to come with the laser but mine did not even have a head cable for god's sake. Who else has bought one of these? Did any work well at all? Here is the link to information discovered to date on Sam's Laser FAQ; the ultimate laser nerd site.

    www.repairfaq.org/sam/laserdio.htm%23diopr488
    Phil Bergeron( AKA 142laser)

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Cupertino, California
    Posts
    2,130

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by 142laser View Post
    Hey Phil,

    We have about 30 of these at work all in various states. Don't bother taking them apart as we already have them taken apart, I will post some pictures tomorrow.

    We were able to get some of them working using the small flat black controller. You need to turn it onto TEC for a few minutes then very quickly turn the switch to on.
    CLICKY!!!

    Admin: In the immortal words of Captain Planet: YOU HAVE THE POWER
    Admin: (To quit being a bitch)

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    Marysville, WA
    Posts
    855

    Default

    I bought one, just got the replacement head today (first one broke in shipping). It comes on very weakly at first, once you switch it to 'on'. It takes about 30 seconds of being in the 'on' position, then it blinks on (again very weakly). after about another 30 seconds of lasing, it blinks on fully. Mine seems to be around 5mW. The beam pattern isn't perfectly round and gaussian like it should be, but it's not bad. I plan to open the cover to do some cleaning and aligning to see if I can help it out.

    I'm using the little black power supply. Inside the black power supply there are three pots. On mine, one is labeled "x", one is labeled "L" and the other is blank. I'm guessing x is crystal tec and L is laser diode tec, but I haven't fiddled with it at all.

    Did you pay full price for yours or did you send them an offer?

    I got mine a bit by mistake... I gave them a super low-ball offer and they still accepted it, so I cant really complain.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Tampa Florida
    Posts
    502

    Default

    Sam was stuck but found another pot...

    "Then I realized there were 2 other pots next to the TEC drivers. (How could I have missed them??? One is hidden by the larger orange capacitor but it's still in full view when in person! Adjusting the one in the lower left corner finally had a dramatic effect - resulting in an output power of up to 14 mW with a decent beam profile. The other pot didn't seem to do anything. The laser is still not stable. It won't hold constant output power without fiddling with the pots every few minutes regardless of the mystery switch position, but it doesn't drop suddenly to 0.01 mW anymore. And two of four pots still don't seem to have any detectable effect on anything."
    There are several possibilities including (1) the controller is broken,
    (2) the laser head is broken, (3) both are broken, (4) the two non-functioning pots adjust parameters for some other laser that uses the same controller, and (5) I still have no clue about how to set this up!

    http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/pr488c3i.jpg

    The pots in this version of the black controller just have R numbers."
    Phil Bergeron( AKA 142laser)

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    Vezon, Belgium
    Posts
    1,017

    Default

    I can't wait to start my own direct doubled diode system with my KNBO3...

    when I read this, I'm really impatient

    hope these novalux lasers will be working again! I will surely document my progress about doubling a 976nm diode with a KNBO3 and send it to sam goldwasser

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    Marysville, WA
    Posts
    855

    Default

    I got the output power to double on mine by fiddling with one pot in the head. When I turned it, the power dropped. I decided to go a little further and it blinked on quite brightly. The beam profile is much better. I only have three pots in my head, and I only had about five minutes to fiddle with it. I'll tune more this weekend.

    Mine seems to be very stable... Even when I try to heat the head by holding it in my hands, the power maintains for quite a while and then drops very suddenly. If I leave it on a little piece of aluminum it will run for hours without varying by much if at all. I took a bunch of pictures that I will post soon.

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