I thought my M462 2.2 Watt 462mn laser was bright in the night sky !

Man I thought my M462 2.2 Watt 462mn laser was bright in the night sky But I got the Cylindrical Lens Fast Axis Correction done on my NUBM44 7+ Watt 450nm so instead of a "fanned out" beam it's now a small square-ish beam and dang is it SOOOOO much brighter in the night sky that the M462 2.2 Watt 462mn laser looks very dim now !

You started a thread so you could have yet another venue to talk about your NUBM44 build again? I thought I was going to see some M462 beam shots. Meh.

If making a new thread about this project it really needs a beam shot, photo's of the optics too. I have seen some of the photo's of your high power 450 nm, but haven't been following closely.

paul1598419 said:

You started a thread so you could have yet another venue to talk about your NUBM44 build again? I thought I was going to see some M462 beam shots. Meh.

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Exactly Paul.

Accurtronitis:
Put up some comparison pictures, 1 would be enough, or data that other people might be able to appreciate the meaning of instead of yet another meaningless please pay attention to me me me post or thread that means nothing to anyone else. HO many posts about the same laser now??

Given same optics or even no optics, how much brighter is your 445nm than your 462nm somewhere between 2 to 3x?
If you had a laser power meter you could determine the actually the output of each but you can fill in the blanks with a guesstimate: Relative Laser Beam Brightness Calculator: (462nm 2000mw) vs. (445nm 6500mw) calculator says the 445nm is 2.46X they 462nm being only 40% as bright in this example

How about accurate beam shots seperately and side by side under the same atmospheric conditions whatever they happen to be or data readings ---some/any 3rd party anything for other to see.

Hey Accutronitis, people like to see pics, but it is cool to get a beam dialed in isn't it, I have started using NUBM06 diodes with a 3X BE for my 15-20 foot outside burning and saving my 44's with more complex optics for the longer stretches, everything wears down slowly over time so I beat on the cheapies, I may even PBS a pair of 06 diodes for the short range burning.....BTW are you running 4.5 or 5.0 amps on your 44? They last longer at 4.5 amps.


-------EDIT-------



This had a NUBM44 that was in a different host, it's been around and well used for a year or so, the driver still pulls down 2 amps from 3 x 26650 cells in the 11.9 volt range under load yet the old 44 was just losing it's ability to burn, everything wears out.

I put in a NUBM06 with the GBall intact and with the 3X BE it lights the bag where the year old 44 focused down even tighter would not, SAME DRIVER at 4.5a.

My point is everything wears out, so if you build a medium range champ take it easy on it and save the mileage, build a few beaters to hammer on or be prepared to replace diodes and realign every so often, but it sure is nice to have a strong one set aside for that stubborn cardboard box, this is why my builds have evolved to the removable top design, so I can change parts easily and re align everything.

This is an 06 with a 3xBE and it will light a paper bag full of cardboard in the pit, not bad for a 31 dollar diode I won at auction, I just scored another for 35 dollars, but these wont reach across the yard for burning unless you pop the can off, but that is not recommended, anyway I love a 30 dollar diode that starts fires, pretty cool...err hot.



Actually that GBall lens is more efficient than a 3 element.

Gentlemen, Gentlemen, Gentlemen Take it down a notch, Of course I have pixs (did you think I was just making this up so I can talk about my lasers ???) but I was having a little trouble uploading them, Here ya go....

See if you can tell which is which or if I was exaggerating in any way ??? Please feel free to judge for yourselfs......





I've got a tripod now, That helps some.......

The camera sees the right beam as brighter, but does your eye see the color of the left beam as a lighter color albeit dimmer in brightness?

RedCowboy said:

The camera sees the right beam as brighter, but does your eye see the color of the left beam as a lighter color albeit dimmer in brightness?

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The right beam really looks even brighter in person, Like I was saying the left beam looks pretty dim next to the right beam now that the right beam is actually a beam and not a fan......

Tightly collimated light is so cool to see beaming through the darkness.

That is my favorite property of laser ! It just never gets old to me !

Alaskan said:

Tightly collimated light is so cool to see beaming through the darkness.

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Hi,
As RC said they wear down if pushed to hard with current i keep my 44's at 4.5A thats good enough. And as Alaskan sail heat sinking is a must more copper the better or even a Aluminum sink with a nice copper sleeve pressed in. With all my builds you can't feel the sink getting warm with enough mass .. I love machining huge fat copper sinks for builds.

Rich

With this "lions mane" keeping it cool is no problem.......

It's good but I guarantee that if you had a LPM you could watch the output trickle down from a cold start, but that's true with all our overdriven builds without fan forced air.

I have built 3 diode units and the waste heat load is significant, I would like to do a 2 x NUBM44 with G2's and 6X pairs combined with a PBS cube and 1 wave plate to combine the 2 beams clean, then into a 3X or better BE.

That will cost a few hundred just to build myself in parts and yield 10-12 watts in a tight spot at my 75 foot goal but it will heat up in minutes, so I think I can do better with a 40 watt C02 that has a tight beam and a water cooling loop, built into a length of PVC pipe split down the center.

I still hope for a projector with 1 big diode but I see a trend, diodes are shafting towards green, 445 has given way to 455 and even light bulbs at Wal-Mart that pump phosphor with surface mount LEDS are getting more efficient, the lumes for 15 watts used to make a 100w equivalent have gone from 1400 to 1500 to 1600 and still use 15 watts.

Greens are still very inefficient but they want them and the 465 I bet will be the next shift, possible stronger diodes but less of them, we shall see.

More power in a compact package would be nice, but I think I will trade size for power and beam quality for at least a build or two just to see how it works out.

RedCowboy said:

It's good but I guarantee that if you had a LPM you could watch the output trickle down from a cold start, but that's true with all our overdriven builds without fan forced air.

I have built 3 diode units and the waste heat load is significant, I would like to do a 2 x NUBM44 with G2's and 6X pairs combined with a PBS cube and 1 wave plate to combine the 2 beams clean, then into a 3X or better BE.

That will cost a few hundred just to build myself in parts and yield 10-12 watts in a tight spot at my 75 foot goal but it will heat up in minutes, so I think I can do better with a 40 watt C02 that has a tight beam and a water cooling loop, built into a length of PVC pipe split down the center.

I still hope for a projector with 1 big diode but I see a trend, diodes are shafting towards green, 445 has given way to 455 and even light bulbs at Wal-Mart that pump phosphor with surface mount LEDS are getting more efficient, the lumes for 15 watts used to make a 100w equivalent have gone from 1400 to 1500 to 1600 and still use 15 watts.

Greens are still very inefficient but they want them and the 465 I bet will be the next shift, possible stronger diodes but less of them, we shall see.

More power in a compact package would be nice, but I think I will trade size for power and beam quality for at least a build or two just to see how it works out.

Click to expand...

High power with beam quality without correction would be nice......

High power DP$$ for beam quality without correction.

The perceived color of my direct diode greens takes a big shift to blue after seeing a 532 next to it. I'm not sure how much the blueish spectrum works this way. But brightness is different than tint (I'm in over my head here). Maybe one of the brains on the forum could explain in an intelligent way the difference.
But it looks like your project is coming along. I got my 6x lens pairs in the mail a few days ago and messed around with them briefly. Alignments are so critical down range. I'm not really ready to get serious about implementing these yet. I need a machinist that can make a host platform for this kind of setup. Bill has shown us it can be done cleanly without a second mortgage. Accu you need some green beam in your diet. Get with the program! :crackup: :beer:
:lasergun: