First off I'd like to say 'Watsup' to all of you! and thanks for all the Awesome brain food!
This post is my opinion, experience and thoughts. No offense is intended. Your mileage may vary!
I've been building my first RGB scanner since about Feb 2009.
My goal is to be fully CDRH compliant and certify it with FDA. (WOW what a reality
check there!!) More on the Build, etc later in another post.
So here i am with 3 lasers, with very different beam profiles, sent to Scanpro20's 6mm
x 11mm mirrors. 6mm input mirror at 45 degrees = effectively 3mm tall mirror
Green 532 Labby
50mw 418ma 2mm beam, nice beam profile. divergence looks great.
Red 650 LPC-815 sled extract in Aixis housing with Aixis glass lens.
435ma 5mm beam, way to big for scanner mirrors. would like it to match the Green beam.
divergence issues.
Blue 405 SF-AW210 sled extract in Aixis housing with LSP-BluRay GLASS Lens.
225ma 6mm beam. Way to big for scanner mirrors. would like it to match the Green beam. divergence issues.
I want the beams to look similar in diameters (3mm or less) and divergence for close and far projections!
While running the forums for brain food, Jayrob has this 405-G-1 in an Aixiz lens barrel for red/bluray with good reviews. I wanted to try this lens, but the Aixiz housing/lens thread issues was just downright sloppy. (Teflon tape , springs, grommet and o-rings coupled with focusing issues, this module was a bummer.)
Another choice is a new brass hi tolerance thread lens nut with 405-G-1 installed. I
thought I would get the lens only and put it in a lens housing myself.
EBay's LASERS4U, best price 25.00 for a lens, WAIT!, whats this, the lens and complete
new style housing designed for the 405-G-1 lens, no wobble, built in O-ring to seal the
laser, brass, shorter, knurled nut and the 405-G-1 lens installed, for 40 bucks!!
That's less than a modified lens nut! I have never seen this before. Its 10.5mm diam,
while my heat sinks are drilled for 12mm housing. bummer, i'll deal with this (bushing,
new heat sink) issue later.
I ordered 1 housing with lens for 40 bucks, (later bought lens only and empty housing
for 34.00 on auction) free shipping. Shipped from Walnut Creek, Ca. to Tacoma, WA. took
only 3 days! Packaged properly. I was ready to switch housings. Pulled the diode from
the old housing, removed the new lens Assy (this felt real nice and tight), and pressed
the diode into the recessed seat on the new housing, making sure it was all the way in.
With a little work, the Aixis tail housing is/was pressed on the new brass housing then
slid back into the 12mm heat sink, locked down and reinstalled on the mounting plate.
Later removed to setup new heat sink at 2 x 10.5mm for dual diode (red/bluray) + TEC's
phase of project.
After setting up the red and focusing this module i could tell right away that the back focal length required a very precise point at which the focus was achieved!
OMG, this setup is SMOKING!! Red beam diameter is 2.6mm at module exit!! divergence at 20 feet, was the same as my green module!! bluray setup 2.8mm at exit also matched
green at 20 feet! See pics for all 3 dots/lines at 20 feet, see for yourself!!
The project took several advances from here, like Setting up the TEC layout with dual
reds and dual blues, but for now i will summarize this review.
I am sold on these, I will use these modules/lens for my project
Will at Laser66.com was great to work with. Thanks Will!
My conclusions:
PRO's
1. Awesome beam profile
2. Nice workmanship, machining, / feel
3. Diode sealed with O-ring
4. Perfect for dual diode setup, nice and small housing
5. Awesome price
Con's
1. Any wobble would screw up the focus, I mean ANY wobble! There was a small amount for which I needed to add 3 O-rings for red (2 on blue) on shoulder behind focusing ring to totally eliminate the small wobble. I do not think this is a major issue, but it was
issue that needed to be dealt with and shared with you.
I will attach photos in another post.
Later, from the quiet guy in the back row!
Pat Allen
Tacoma Washington