510nm Green Laser Pointer For Pre-Order!

Seems quite cheap actually for such a new exotic wavelength. Even 473nm pens still cost more than that and they are old news.

Possibly a representative for a distributor of CNI?

510nm sounds interesting. More specifications would be great.

Diode or DPSS?

473 is DPSS and without a mass market consumer application to drive down the price.

515 is made largely for projectors and other consumer applications. It exists already, ie, this isn't vapourware in general. There are a number of expensive lab lasers already using these diodes and commercially available.

Having said that, I would be surprised if 515s aren't available the minute the first projector uses them, for less than $300 each.

rhd said:

473 is DPSS and without a mass market consumer application to drive down the price.

515 is made largely for projectors and other consumer applications. It exists already, ie, this isn't vapourware in general. There are a number of expensive lab lasers already using these diodes and commercially available.

Having said that, I would be surprised if 515s aren't available the minute the first projector uses them, for less than $300 each.

Click to expand...

I'm looking around.

-Trevor

rhd said:

473 is DPSS and without a mass market consumer application to drive down the price.

515 is made largely for projectors and other consumer applications. It exists already, ie, this isn't vapourware in general. There are a number of expensive lab lasers already using these diodes and commercially available.

Having said that, I would be surprised if 515s aren't available the minute the first projector uses them, for less than $300 each.

Click to expand...

I know the DPSS units especially for 473nm are expensive to get any sort of decent output but they are also selling 50mW 445nm for $249.99. If thats any indicator of their normal markup I would expect a much higher price for this wavelength.

I wasnt saying its brand new but I think it will be hard to find anyone who doesnt consider it quite exotic at this current time.

If this is legit I am ECSTATIC that they are starting so cheaply!

aryntha said:

As far as sources go, that's rarely a secret. The 445s were Sanyo or Nichia, and that didn't make it any easier for hobbyists to get them. Similarly, these are going to be Kaai-Soraa, Sumitomo, Osram or Nichia. And no one manufacturer is likely to be vastly cheaper or more available than another. So really, diode manufacturer is not a "secret formula".

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Right. Except, Kaai-Soraa, Sumitomo, Osram and Nichia diodes are not created equal. Osram's were supposedly the most efficient, and powerful up to this point. Some have been multimode, and others have been strictly single mode. Now if I can get a straight answer from this poster, I can go back and dig to find out more about the diode used in his "lasers".

But for now, this is not looking very... legit.

Helios, 473nm is an exotic/finicky variety of DPSS design, whereas 510nm is just a simple LD-based design, no different from a basic red or Blu-Ray laser, other than it is using a new diode that outputs at 510nm rather than 670nm.

These are designed for mass-market applications, so I would expect the price to drop rather swiftly - particularly once they start appearing in consumer devices we can extract them from!

For example, the ShowWX Pico Projector comes with 3 lasers, including a bizarre direct-doubled greenie design - how soon before the manufacturer will want to swap that out for a smaller, simpler green LD? That projector also reportedly includes an 80mw blue laser (sweet! ), and the entire thing costs less than $200!

UPDATE: also came across this lovely find by lazeerer -

Nichia planning summer 2011 Volume Production of Direct Green Laser Diode for Pico Projectors | MVIS Message Board Posts

Which first says that Nichia was going to start mass-producing these 510's this summer, but then goes on to say...

With successful intregration testing by Microvision, that date may become more aggressive.

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Microvision is who makes that ShowWX Pico Projector, folks!

So I would say the the time-frame before we can start harvesting 510 LD's ourselves is now...imminent!

BTW, from the prelim specs on that link, it looks like we will be able to push these MUCH farther than 50mW! - I will post more about that the other thread.

seoguy said:

Helios, 473nm is an exotic/finicky variety of DPSS design, whereas 510nm is just a simple LD-based design, no different from a basic red or Blu-Ray laser, other than it is using a new diode that outputs at 510nm rather than 670nm.

Click to expand...

I know this. My use of the 473nm as an example was not a good choice in retrospect. I still however maintain that this price seems too low for literally the first green diode ever to be available to the general public in a CNI pointer.

If its legit than that would be great. I was just saying the low price makes me skeptical.

Helios said:

I know this. My use of the 473nm as an example was not a good choice in retrospect. I still however maintain that this price seems too low for literally the first green diode ever to be available to the general public in a CNI pointer.

If its legit than that would be great. I was just saying the low price makes me skeptical.

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You want it to cost more? :thinking:

Speculation will get you nowhere.
Be patient. Perhaps Mind_Ripper will return with answers to our questions.

I think there are some basic truths that are worth acknowledging now:

1) Even presently, 445 diodes are expensive to buy new. They're cheap for us, because we harvest them from projectors. Chinese gadget sites do the exact same thing. A $150 445 blue pointer from XYZ Chinese gadget site is getting its 445 diode from a harvested projector - not from Nichia directly.

2) If present day cheap chinese 445 pointer manufacturers wanted to source their diodes directly, their pointers would cost more that $150, and more than the $300 price tag of this (hypothetical & questionable) 515nm pointer on Amazon.

3) Thus, they have (or think they have) a source of harvestable consumer mass market 515 diodes on target for August. Assuming these Amazon sellers aren't complete frauds, they at least EXPECT some specific 515-containing consumer electronics item to be released around August. I guarantee that they aren't planning to buy the 515s direct from manufacturer, because that would cost much more than what could be afforded for a $300 retail laser pointer.

4) Thus, they're either right about this predication, in which case we'll ALL have access to this diode in August (or at roughly the same time), or they're wrong, and neither them nor us will. In either case it's not worth pre-ordering this laser from Amazon.

Also - regarding price:

Remember that as cool as these 515 diodes will be for us, they don't present any kind of quantum leap in terms of functionality for the pico projector itself versus 532nm dpss. They'll be a bit smaller, and a bit less power hungry, and maybe produce a smoother (I've heard less "speckly" green).

But they're NOT going to justify a price jump on the end pico projector from the present $200-ish range up to something like $600 etc. I think $400 is pushing it, but suppose that was the rice point - you're looking at $400 for 3 generally interesting diodes. Regardless of how you apportion value, that's less than $300 for the green, and potentially much less.

RA_pierce said:

You want it to cost more? :thinking:

Speculation will get you nowhere.
Be patient. Perhaps Mind_Ripper will return with answers to our questions.

Click to expand...

Apparently no one understood the intention of my post :can:

The seller has provided little to no information, the price is low enough to make people jump on the preorder but is also uncharacteristically low for CNI.

To me this hints at a scam. However as I said before if it turns out to be legit thats great.

Helios said:

However as I said before if it turns out to be legit thats great.

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And if it turns out to be legit, then by August, there will be a source of green diodes that we can ALL harvest, with far less risk, and incorporate into a host of our choosing - likely for less money, and very likely with a higher quality result.

IMO there is no appeal to this offering whatsoever - and I'm all for jumping on random/unique new diode sources!

rhd said:

And if it turns out to be legit, then by August, there will be a source of green diodes that we can ALL harvest, with far less risk, and incorporate into a host of our choosing - likely for less money, and very likely with a higher quality result.

IMO there is no appeal to this offering whatsoever - and I'm all for jumping on random/unique new diode sources!

Click to expand...

I personally have never purchased a professionally built diode laser other than a few 5mW red pointers and cheap newwish 405nm pointers. Infact even my most powerful green is a 170mW module mounted in a gutted "superbeast" host haha.

I cannot wait for these to hit the market and come into the price realm of other diodes. :drool:

(( This guy is the owner of lazershop in the UK. Dealt with him 2 times before, it was a good business experience. For the 510nm, I´ll feed you guys with more information soon ))


DON´T pre-order this right now!!


Updates follow..

rhd, I heard that the company that was manufacturing the unique direct-doubled greenie used in the ShowWX was ceasing production, in part because the new green LD's were expected to cost less! So we might get lucky on the price of the new pico's!

The usefulness of laser RGB will also mean a variety of different devices & manufacturers will incorporate this technology into their products, providing us with a wide selection of products (at various price points) from which we can chose to harvest this LD!

BTW, I found this cool design break-down animation showing the inards of the Microvision PicoP Display Engine, which may come in handy for those looking to take apart the ShoWX Pico Projector -

Microvision: How The PicoP™ Display Engine Works

Check-out that sweet 3-way RGB combiner crystal in there! -




To give you an idea of how wide-spread these LD's may become (and how expansive Microvision's plans are for this technology), note the device being shown in that animation projecting laser pictures on the wall - NOT a ShowWX Pico Projector, but a regular cell phone!