Hex DIY Red Laser - The ULTIMATE burner idea! :-)

Re: Hex DIY Red Laser - The ULTIMATE burner idea!

danielbriggs said:

4.) ** New Idea **
Using a parabolic mirror and a collimating lens, I think a beam could be achieved by shining an array of diodes with the central one missing (so the beam can pass out)

Click to expand...

Dan, I'm not sure how this would work. If the modules are pointing to the mirror parallel to the intended beam direction, they will be reflected to thd focal point of the parabola and then diverge. If they are at the focal point, the source image would be quite large and the exiting beam from the mirror would also be large.

Paul

Re: Hex DIY Red Laser - The ULTIMATE burner idea!

Paul,

that idea is a work in progress, and about 3 hours old!

I thought of putting a convex lens to straighten the beams up, or place a collimating lens instead.

Yey - or neigh? :-?

Re: Hex DIY Red Laser - The ULTIMATE burner idea!

danielbriggs said:

Paul,

that idea is a work in progress, and about 3 hours old!

I thought of putting a convex lens to straighten the beams up, or place a collimating lens instead.

Yey - or neigh?    :-?

Click to expand...

I don't know - "perhaps" an ashherical lens. We need an optics guru here.

Re: Hex DIY Red Laser - The ULTIMATE burner idea!

Won't a normal lens do?

Re: Hex DIY Red Laser - The ULTIMATE burner idea!

Reading this thread has been a blast. Mighty fine ideas and work getting done.

As I was reading the part about the conical center reflector, and when the facet cut idea came up, it made me think of using a gem stone. Not a "real" gem, but one from a company the likes of Diamand Essence (can't post a link yet). These are fake gems, but outstanding quality. If they, or someone like them, had a stone with the cut you need, it shouldn't be too hard to have it coated to suit you reflective needs.

Way back, I had a similar desire to combine laser beams. But my path was different (diagram ring a bell?)

Well, hang in there, I think it's going well.

Re: Hex DIY Red Laser - The ULTIMATE burner idea!

Boy, you can hear a cricket in here.

In the magazine Photonics Spectra, you can often get a free (but limited) sample of optical programs from vendor advertisements. With these programs you can select lenses, reflective surfaces and a lot more, to test optical ideas. The full programs cost thousands of dollars (and no, I haven’t bought any of the full version(s)), but even the sample versions can be of service to those who are interested in somewhat limited experimentation, as many of these programs offer “specialized” optics (like, for lasers!).

If you want to, you can “pretend” to be in a business that would use the type of services the magazine advertises for and receive a free subscription (Pssst... it's not hard).

On that note, you could do the same for a magazine put out by NASA, called NASA Tech Briefs. In NASA Tech Briefs, you’ll be up-to-date in MANY technical areas, but of interest here is – they all to often cover advancements in laser technology (Okay, it's often geared to military applications - but a good read all the same).

Just… FYI

Re: Hex DIY Red Laser - The ULTIMATE burner idea!

On this forum, you saw this , right ?

Re: Hex DIY Red Laser - The ULTIMATE burner idea!

I soo want to build something like that someday. just to say i've got a 1-2W solid state laser.

Re: Hex DIY Red Laser - The ULTIMATE burner idea!

Lol, that's more or less why I started this project!. But my thought was more "what colour flame will that thing burn with... : " ;D ;D ;D


I know this project has been dragging on a bit, but I'd just like to clarify a few things here:

I WILL finish this project, I've already bought the 6 diodes and started on getting in the metal. I've got the centre piece, I just need loads of bar and tube etc. So progress is being made, albeit slowly, but progress nonetheless.

Hey, when it's made, I'm probably going to auction this off (providing it's a success) as I'd need some cash to kick-start paying for some my 'to be' university fees.

WHEN this beast is finished, I'm sure I'd make a new one with 2x the power! But that's a long way off....


The reason for this delay, is my exams and uni applications. Over the past few weeks I've been up and down the country for interviews, open days and what not, so my 'spare' time at weekends has been non-existent. And now I'm starting revising for exams that start as soon as I go back in Jan. So I'll be quiet on this project (as most laser bits and bobs, and reducing the amount of time I spend here on LPF ) until the end of Jan (around the 24th onwards)

I'm amazed how far this project has come since it started by reading back through this thread.


Just one thing though: Any advice on the circuit side of things?
Should I have 6 separate regulators or should I think of something more clever?
I'd like to have control over which lasers are on, should the need arise to individually tune them.

And the power source - what can provide more than 10 mins of power ;-) for 6 LD's burning away at 200mW (I'd guess about 360mA then :-/ )

So thanks for all the advice and help, I'll be back!

Have a great Christmas,


Dan

Re: Hex DIY Red Laser - The ULTIMATE burner idea!

Me too Dan, plus I have a stupid number of Jan exams due to cramming (A-level) maths in just one year.
What are you applying for & at which universities?(If you don't mind me asking)

Re: Hex DIY Red Laser - The ULTIMATE burner idea!

At the last count, I'm taking 13 modules!!!

I'm in Year 13, and I too did the full A-Level maths in 1 Year, now we're doing the Further Maths (2 Years) in one year! 4 Years of maths reduced to 2! Plus we have no extra lessons, so we have to work twice as quick. :-/

On the uni side, I'm applying to:
Oxford, Durham, Bath, Nottingham & Liverpool (all for Mechanical Engineering (4 Years))
I had the Oxford interview last week on my b-day - But I'm still waiting to hear from them, but got 4 offers from the others.

How about you?


Dan

Re: Hex DIY Red Laser - The ULTIMATE burner idea!

Physics(MPhys) at:
-Oxford (Rejection ;D)
-Durham (offer) AAA/AAB + distinction in AEA Physics
-University of Birmingham - AAB (I love this place!)
-Edinburgh, BBB, lol.
-Imperial - pending

I got aaabc at AS but neglected to take maths due to my (crap) school's misinformation.
So this year I'm doing Maths(AS+A2 in 1 year), Physics, Chemistry, Biology & (lol)General studies
Pretty pissed about oxford but my GCSE's are dire so I wasn't supprised, I really really liked Birmingham (Class 4 lasers ;D) and I'm waiting to hear off Imperial. I think Imperial will be my firm if they accept me, otherwise Durham.
Which Durham & Oxford colleges did you apply for?
Alternatively I might take Further maths and a language next year then re-apply :

Re: Hex DIY Red Laser - The ULTIMATE burner idea!

I guess we're doing similar things then!
Where about's in the UK are you? Us UK folks need to stick together, there's only a handful (I know of) on here! ;D

All my offers have been AAB (apart from Bath which asked for AAA and considering it's my 3rd choice - no chance ;-) )

Further maths is the way forward! ;D Drop Biology ;D
Even if you don't do the exams have a look through the text books, as I'm sure it will help you loads @ University.

When did you go down for your interview @ Ox?
I applied to Keble @ Oxford, and Josephine Bulter @ Durham - and you?
I really like Durham, cold, but a nice place!

Re: Hex DIY Red Laser - The ULTIMATE burner idea!

Tell me about it, I hate Biology. The problem is I got 273 at AS so I can't bring myself to drop it; Might as well get a high C this year for an A overall right? And it will help if I re-apply next year.

I diddn't go down to Ox, I REALLY messed up the (compulsory) tests - I felt so stupid afterwards, just made loads of silly mistakes. There was a 'Mathematics for Physics' component with 50% weighting hence, having studied maths for about a month beforehand, I wasn't up to the standard of someone who had spent the last year doing Maths and FM. (That's why I might leave it a year)

Mansfield for Oxford, St Aidens for Durham.

PS: I'm from staffordshire. :-/

Re: Hex DIY Red Laser - The ULTIMATE burner idea!

Back to combining beams for a moment...

Qbit wrote (end of page 9 of this thread):

On this forum, you saw this , right ?
P9293255_001.JPG

Click to expand...

That looks like a 24 element combined array.... Where did you find that pic? I searched the image filename but got nothing... am I missing something somewhere?

That is a NICE array. Imagine if they were all putting out 200mW min? That would be 4.8 WATTS (minus optics losses)!

Nice that it shows how they're doing it with cubes & mirrors.

Re: Hex DIY Red Laser - The ULTIMATE burner idea!

Ok...... *fires up old thread*

I've got some more thoughts that I better jot down quick:

I've been doing some research and looking at buying some lenses I need to do this, and to conclude, it's possible, but to make it possible *handheld* style, just adds to the headache. Due to to large changes in focal lengths needed.

Allow me to explain (please correct me if I'm wrong)

The 6 modules will sit in a tessellated array with a hole in the centre. They will be as close together as possible, but separated by the width of an aixiz module + 2mm of aluminium. And the light from all 6 will be collimated using individual aixiz lenses mounted into the aluminium block. The diodes will sit in the aluminium block properly heatsinked and NOT in the aixiz module. All I'm using the module for is the top lens thread assembly.

Therefore 'edge to edge' of the beams emitted from the array will be 31mm assuming a huge beam diameter of 2.5mm just to make sure.



This means I need the first lens to be a minimum of at least 31mm. So 40mm would be great.


For the following diagrams I use a web optics simulator to picture the idea. So take it with a pinch of salt, e.g. the lens diameters, but the rays are quite accurate. Also the focal lengths and distances are relative, not real-world values. BUT everything is in proportion to as I would build it.


The first lens will be a bi-convex lens with a focal point of 60mm, 40mm diameter (as that is the closest match on edmundoptics.co.uk, as with all the lenses I suggest below)



Then if I place a bi-concave lens with 10x the power i.e. a focal point of -6mm, diameter 6mm, and place this lens 10% before the original focal point i.e. 54mm, then I should have a beam of 10% of it's starting diameter. So, 3.1mm right???



This is quite a thick beam, and I can't find a more powerful concave lens to match what I need, so I thought about repeating the whole assembly again:





Thus in the end, providing 100x smaller beam, so I should have a ~1.0-1.2W beam with a 0.31mm beam diameter (excluding optical losses).


Well, that's the plan! PLEASE let me know if I'm barking up the wrong tree!!!


Dan