WTB: NUBM44 Build

Hello, I'm wanting to get back into the hobby and get take advantage of these new awesome diodes. (I tried this before and it didn't work out, details below). I am looking to buy a NUBM44 Build. Only requirements are at least 6W (preferably 7), and a duty cycle of at least 1 min on (preferably longer). No price restrictions however, I don't have a crap ton of money to spend so cheaper is better. PM me if you think you can do it. Thanks much :yh:






Last time I had a custom build it was by RayJay, and $500 and a few months later I figured out I was scammed and out $500, so I will only accept a reputable builder unless there is some sort of way I know for sure I am not being scammed.

If I were you I would source a custom host of your liking made to fit 12mm module and then purchase your diode module driver from DTR and install it yourself, only soldering two wires to complete the build and possibly heatsinking your driver to the host witch is very easy.

Take a look at this host, see if SurvivalLaser.com sells the host for this without the diode, then you can build it cheaper.

Survival Laser 7 445nm Laser w/Accessories & Rechargeable Batteries

So if I got this with an extended tapered copper heatsink, and heat sink aluminum driver pill. With the NUBM44 450nm Laser Diode In 12mm Copper ModuleW/SXD Driver & G-2 Lens set at 4500mA, would I need anything else (I have batteries and goggles)? Also what would I need to do to assemble it?

Thanks
https://sites.google.com/site/dtrlpf/home/diodes/6w-nubm44-445nm-laser-diode

Not sure, contact them and see what they say, I've never bought a host from them but their prices seem good.

If you go the Survival laser route I really recommend just getting your driver and host there. You can definitely get the diode cheaper from DTR or Abarnette here and you'll save a ton of money building it yourself. I do recommend getting the tapered copper heat sink because it gives more room for the cooper module to fit. If the have a driver in circular contact board Id get that but it won't allow for much heat sinking. I have their s4x host and it works very well but it has a minuscule amount of room for all the internal components. So for any bad formatting I'm in my phone heading to Canada right now and these Michigan roads are terribly bumpy :crackup:

I believe he already purchased everything. This should be a very simple build. If you can post pics of your parts we can walk you through it especially since the driver is already set. Don't know if you have any arctic alumina epoxy and arctic silver 5 thermal pate but you need those also plus the proper allen wrench to lock down the module if it didn't come with one. Can you solder?

I actually opted out of building it. If those were all I needed it would cost $271. And I got an offer for one already built for a good price. I have wanted a NUBM07E build since the diode came out and actually bought one for $500 but that's when I got scammed so maybe in the future I will build one of those. I can solder but I do not have a soldering iron. I work in an electronics lab so we have everything I could possibly need (minus an LPM) there including a soldering iron, but I don't know how they would feel about me using the equipment for personal endeavors. And soldering in my room may set off the fire alarm. Maybe in the future when I have been there longer.

Thanks for all the help

Were you correct in your thinking that those components were all you needed?

I am wanting to get myself another 445 after being out of the game for a while. Not sure how much has changed since I've been gone, but 7W seems insane considering my 1.6W used to be wild. I've been reading around trying to see what's the latest, and this NUBM44 keeps popping up. Everything you're talking about here seems pretty straightforward if it's just soldering a couple wires.

SX4 host & Diode + Driver from DTR?

Earlier I thought the NUBM44 was 445nm, but when driven at 4 amps it has been tested to be 450nm, even better in opinion. Only problem with the NUBM44 is its large amount of divergence, I thought the NDG7475 520nm multimode was bad compared to a 532nm DPSS laser, but the NUBM44 is far worse. If you just want to burn things close up the high divergence isn't so much a problem, but if trying to put a spot on a high cloud deck at night the beam spreads out very quickly into more of a wide rake than a spot. Put a beam expander on it which has a wide enough input and output lens and problem solved, but now you have a very fat beam. Fat beams don't bother me at all, not when I can put a spot on a 10,000 foot high cloud base.

Alaskan said:

Earlier I thought the NUBM44 was 445nm, but when driven at 4 amps it has been tested to be 450nm, even better in opinion. Only problem with the NUBM44 is its large amount of divergence, I thought the NDG7475 520nm multimode was bad compared to a 532nm DPSS laser, but the NUBM44 is far worse. If you just want to burn things close up the high divergence isn't so much a problem, but if trying to put a spot on a high cloud deck at night the beam spreads out very quickly into more of a wide rake than a spot. Put a beam expander on it which has a wide enough input and output lens and problem solved, but now you have a very fat beam. Fat beams don't bother me at all, not when I can put a spot on a 10,000 foot high cloud base.

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The divergence is that bad huh? This build is the closest I've found to the next handheld I want, and while fat beams don't bother me, I don't want a 3" beam nor a 3-foot dot on most objects.

Lolvo said:

The divergence is that bad huh? This build is the closest I've found to the next handheld I want, and while fat beams don't bother me, I don't want a 3" beam nor a 3-foot dot on most objects.

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Yeah ... divergence on these high power multimode diodes is terrible - there are things you can do to improve them but you have to make a trade somewhere, either for output power or beam diameter (or both!).

diachi said:

Yeah ... divergence on these high power multimode diodes is terrible - there are things you can do to improve them but you have to make a trade somewhere, either for output power or beam diameter (or both!).

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Where does the limit start? I'm more concerned with visibility and saturation than I am with being able to burn stuff...

Meaning I would rather have a 4W over a 7W if it meant having a brighter and tighter beam.

Lolvo said:

Where does the limit start? I'm more concerned with visibility and saturation than I am with being able to burn stuff...

Meaning I would rather have a 4W over a 7W if it meant having a brighter and tighter beam.

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To what limit do you refer?

Alaskan, Redcowboy or DTR would probably know best which diode/lens combination offers the best tradeoff between power/divergence/beam diameter/visibility. None of the multi-watt visible diodes have good (relative to DPSS at least...) beam specs straight out of the collimator, although some are better than others.

You're never going to beat DPSS (Counting OPSL and such here too...) or gas for beam specs though...

Edit: Good, Alaskan bet me to it!

Edit: Diachi, I deleted my last post and put it after yours, we were writing at the same time, but I was slower:

The NUBM44 has its divergence reduced enough with a 40mm/1.575 diameter output lens to be satisfactory for many, so you don't have to go to 3 inches to get reasonable divergence, about 1.5 inches is enough expansion and with so much power, even with the beam expanded that far it looks good in the night sky, if you are into that kind of thing and are not near an airport.

When using a G2 or 6mm diameter collimation lens the divergence from a NUBM44 is about 12 mRad (reported, I have not verified), if so, then doubling the beam diameter to 8mm the divergence would be reduced to about 6 mRad, at 16mm wide about 3 mRad, at 32mm wide about 1.5 mRad which is acceptable, but I think it is better to use a 2 inch/50mm diameter lens to reduce the divergence to closer to 1.2 mRad which is excellent. This last figure is basing on using 90% of the aperture of a two inch diameter collimation lens and is a ball park figure.

The difference between 1.5 and 1.2 mRad might not seem significant, but for the same beam diameter (in this comparison it won't be, but close enough for this example) and output power, the light intensity or irradiance (Output power / area of beam spot) is up to 56% greater with a divergence of 1.2mrad vs 1.5mrad.

Good info, I see what you're talking about there. Thanks for sharing. I suppose for my purposes then, this would not be the optimal build - I should be looking for a DPSS build.

Back when I still had the collection you see in my signature, matches, balloons, and burning stuff was great and all, but I was more impressed with the beam and saturated, bright color. My 1.6W Rifle lit matches and burned holes just fine, and had a decently impressive look to it.

This time around I'm primarily focused on appearance, not just raw power. I'm looking for the best beam specs I can get in the "blue" wavelengths for the wow factor...color, intensity, distance (also looking for other color builds, but we're focused on this for now). Because, correct me if I'm wrong, but essentially anything I'm looking for these days will have more than enough power to burn, pop, and light matches. You don't need anywhere close to 7W to achieve that in this wavelength - so I'd rather sacrifice being able to say I have the most powerful laser in order to get better visibility. Blue is my favorite color, and simply put, I'm looking for the most impressive to the human eye that I can find.

Edit: Didn't mean to hijack this B/S/T thread, but this is good info related to the topic and I appreciate the input.