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How "Stable" is my 473nm laser?

ZRaffleticket

ZRaffleticket

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Today I received my LPM and I devided to make a test on my 473nm labby... Short things short it was tough as hell to stop the wind from messing with the thermosensor on the power meter...
I ended up running the thing for 10 minutes straight, got myself a peak of 234mW (rated 150mW!) and an average of 228mW.
You guys should be pretty happy with the results.... ;)
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note: Wasn't from a start of 0mW, I think I cut in at a good time though.
 

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Cyparagon

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The response time of your power meter is too low to measure stability to any real degree of accuracy. It could jump to 300mW or down to 0 for a few milliseconds and it would only register as a little blip.
 
vk2fro

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Not all of us can afford "pro" grade or even "lab" grade meters.

To me it shows his 473 lab laser is quite stable around the 220-240mw power level.
 
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Meatball

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Cyparagon is dead on. For measuring stability only, he should use a photo sensor instead of a thermal one. It would not give power measurements, only relative power measurements IE power changes... and it might not be very linear in response but it would be better than using a slowly read thermal sensor.
 
Blord

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I was wondering what diode is being used in this host ? A 5 Watt IR ?
 
Cyparagon

Cyparagon

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vk2fro said:
Not all of us can afford "pro" grade or even "lab" grade meters.
Click to expand...

Yes, but that doesn't mean you can claim your meter is measuring something it's not.
It would be like me getting a ruler and measuring an amoeba to be 1mm and claiming it's accurate since I can't afford a microscope.

Pulse the laser (or other light source) and measure the "stability" with that meter. You'll see how wrong it is.
 
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E

ElektroFreak

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For hobbyist purposes that's plenty stable over the long term, which is what you want. Almost all 473nm lasers produce noise in the form of rapid fluctuations in power in the kHz range, it's just the matter of how large the amplitude of the fluctuations that interests most people.. At the hobbyist level that noise isn't usually a huge deal.
 
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bloompyle

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Am I the only one thinking "It's 200mw+ of 473, who cares if it fluctuates a few mW here and there?" Either way, still looks pretty stable, and those first few milliseconds aren't worth the hassle in my opinion, I mean after that, it's fine. I could live with that, again, it's 200mW+ of 473nm. Whether it fluctuates a bit in the beginning, it's still a monstrous unit. I'm actually dying to see pics of the unit in action and some beamshots. I've never seen anywhere close to that amount of 473.
 
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ZRaffleticket

ZRaffleticket

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(slight bump) JUST PEAKED 318mW!! Whoa!!

ej6gcm.png


Had to test if something was wrong with the LPM... all my other lasers remained "close" (give or take about 5 mW's) to what I've gotten before.

Just thought I'd share :whistle:
 
bdgreenb

bdgreenb

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i second that bloom! I assume its for personal enjoyment on your part (ie M.E.= my enjoyment). I agree it wont measure true stability as far as semi-second fluctuations, but as far as dpss go, looks stable-ish to me.
 
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