Viasho VA-II-N-532 1W 532nm laser1.Introduction
A while back, I was looking to buy a 1W green laser. Since I am just a poor student, and my RGB laser has set me back quite a sum of money, I decided to look on the second hand market.
I got some very interesting offers from members here on PL and I was about to make a deal when I received a PM from Frank from Viasho …
2.Viasho
I understand that Viasho has been around for quite a while. In the beginning of my days as a laserist, I already saw an advert for Viasho on the laserfx website.
I always considered Viasho to be one of the better Chinese laser manufacturers. I’ve read about many happy costumers and even Kvant seems to trust Viasho enough to use their modules.
In his PM, Frank offered me a NEW (!) laser for a price that was close to what I was about to pay second hand. Considering all that is above, I didn’t hesitate a moment to take the deal.
Frank was very helpful, and always seemed to be able to reply very quickly to my emails no matter what time of the day. The laser was shipped via DHL. It departed on a thursday (for me) morning and it arrived Monday morning … Now that’s what I call fast shipping!
3.The laser
The laser arrived well packed in a large cardboard box with more than enough foam and bubble plastic. When I removed the protective material, I was (pleasantly) surprised to find not 2, but 3 units:
·The head
·The driver (OEM style)
·A very nice switchmode PSU
The head looks even better in person than on the photos that I had seen. There is a small radial fan on top of the head that circulates air trough the fins next to it. That being said, this may cause a problem when you’re trying to seal your optics compartment. On the other hand, this can be solved by making a ‘wall’ between the laser and the optics compartment. (photos on that later …). Also the fan is very noisy, but that doesn’t bother me.
Be aware, this is a powerful laser. Take care when working with it. Use protective eyewear and terminate the beam properly or it will set something on fire.
The beam is about 3mm wide at the aperture and is 13mm after 6 meters. This comes to about 1,75mRad divergence, which is well covered by the spec of <2.0mRad.
I’ve only run the laser CW so far, but it seems very stable.
The new OEM style driver is about the size of the CNI OEM drivers. It features a button to select the kind of modulation you need (TTL+/TTL-/Analog). There is also a readout on the side which lets you monitor the current to the head or some kind of thermistor value.
The PSU that is supplied is also very nice. It supplies the driver with +5V and +12V and there is even an unused -12V line which can supply 1A. This can for example be used to power the fans of your projector.
Overall, I’m very happy with my purchase and I will not hesitate to buy from Viasho again.