FS: Kenometer USB Firmware Upgrade / 0.1mW Precision / $30

For the past couple months, I've been doing some serious work on my Kenometer USB. I have come up with a brand new firmware version to offer the laser community!

What this new firmware has to offer is simple: high precision. It filters noise to the point that very high precision measurements can be made.

Here is a screenshot (this is Luminosity 2.0) of the standard firmware versus a very early build of my noise-reducing firmware:

http://www.safelasers.org/Luminosity/Images/Luminosity 2.0 2010.10.20.01.png

As you can see, the line is very smooth and quite accurately displays the output of the laser. I did repeated trials with my Novalasers X150, and found that each time I started it cold, it had a nearly identical 60-second graph (a longer duration would have been tedious). This tells me that the Kenometer USB is telling me exactly what is going on in the laser as the crystals initially heat up before stabilizing.

Here is a graph of the output of the latest build of the firmware:



That is a graph of lazerman121's Novalux Protera; as you can see, the reading is accurate to 0.1mW - with no physical changes to the Kenometer!

And when the scale is larger, it is easy to see the behavior of things like crystals in a DPSS system, after electrical noise is nearly eliminated! See this graph for what I mean:



What do I get?

• Luminosity CE
  • Each copy of Luminosity CE with your username.
  • It can stream both the more precise output of the new firmware and the 1mW-precision readings of the old firmware.
  • Luminosity CE finally features the ability to save a graph image.
  • It also fixes the bug that caused Luminosity to sometimes bind upon exiting.
• Luminosity FLASH
  • Stands for Firmware Loader And Serial Handler.
  • Streamlines the process of loading firmware onto your Kenometer.
• The new firmware and a copy of the original firmware so that you can roll back to it if you want.

The Pro firmware is still in the works. Please PM me for my PayPal email. The price for the upgrade is $30. Before you send a payment, tell me your PayPal email so I know who the payment came from. Please leave the "message to seller" field as the default "You've got money" / "blah blah" message.

Questions about details are welcome in either PM or in this thread. A version of the firmware that will log to any software can be arranged at a different price point.

I can provide any demos that you would like to see.

-Trevor

Glad you got this going. I will be buying this. It might be a month or so though before it happens. I need to sell some stuff first .

I'd be interested in this, can the Kenometer piles read to 0.01 ?

Depends. If you're on a USB, almost. I'd say the lowest reading it's usable for is about 0.5-0.7mW depending on how stable the thermopile is and the level of noise that my algorithm is dealing with.

I suspect the Pro's are going to be even better, since they already worked better on battery.

Are you guys running Pro or USB units?

-Trevor

Permit me to doubt about 0.01 mW resolutions, using standard thermopiles.

Not for the instrument itself, just for the structure and intrinsic properties of the open-disk thermopiles ..... 0.1 mW is the better resolution that you can obtain, with one of these units, and also this in controlled environment conditions (stabilized air temperature, airflow shields, insulating holder for the head, and at least 30 minutes of stabilization for the instrument before read) ..... other than this, anything, including breath or thermal irradiation from the body of the user, can interfer with the reading, and also, a so low value does not cause enough output from the disk (except, maybe, the more sensitive ones ..... i had variations reading of few mW using Peltier sensors just placing a hand 10 cm away from the plate, without touch it, but this cannot be considered a sure reading, only deviation).

Usually, for precise readings in microwatts ranges, you must use a photodetector (and their sensitivity is non linear against the wavelenghts), or a special sealed-type thermopile (but those thermopiles have normally sensitive areas of few square millimeters, and are in 9mm TO can, and HIGH costs) ..... but, just for curiosity, why you need a resolution of 10 microwatts ?

When I wrote the algorithm originally, the 10uW place was vaguely relevant. I can cut it off if you like.

The 0.1mW place is certainly accurate; I can accurately measure the output of my 2.6mW 543.5nm HeNe as it warms up from ~1.5mW to full power. I can post a before/after graph later.

The 0.01mW place should be at least somewhat accurate on the Pro, depending on how much line noise is present when running the thermopile off the 10440 batteries.

Let's put it this way - I've written a paper at my university about this algorithm.

-Trevor

Forgive me if i missed this in your post but will this work for the kenometer pro also?

tysonc1979 said:

Forgive me if i missed this in your post but will this work for the kenometer pro also?

Click to expand...

No. It will effectively turn your Pro into a USB, which you do not want. The Pro firmware is still under development.

Below is a screenshot of a comparison between the original firmware and the updated USB firmware (this is a non-zeroed test with no input). It effectively eliminates the noise without sacrificing the precision of the reading at all.

http://www.safelasers.org/Luminosity/Images/Luminosity 2.0 2011.02.02.01.png

-Trevor

Tyson, he has a Pro coming to him very shortly specifically for the purpose of developing the firmware for the pro. I am 100% positive that he will succeed.

twhite828 said:

No. It will effectively turn your Pro into a USB, which you do not want. The Pro firmware is still under development.

Click to expand...

Ah. Thanks for this info. I have a Pro and didn't realize this.

You should see something within a few weeks.

-Trevor

Awesome if this works out i will definitely we be buying the upgrade. Thanks for the update ken and to you too twhite828 for your great software:wave:

The Ophir heads are calibrated at 1mv/1mW
so how did you get 0.1mW precision?

netwave said:

The Ophir heads are calibrated at 1mv/1mW
so how did you get 0.1mW precision?

Click to expand...

This means simply that you get 1mV for each mW that hit the disk ..... ofcourse, also fractions of the power are calibrated in the same range (so, 0.1mW produces an output of 0.1mV, and so on).

Calibration and resolution are two different things

Hi Trevor,

I knew you could do it, this is great news. PM on its way

Update: Kenometer Pro version still under development. I'm quite pleased with the progress thus far.

Also, last bump before I let this thread die.

-Trevor