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

I was thinking the other day...

"Would it be possible if I could get 6 SenKat laser diodes, arrange them a hexagon shape cluster thing, power them all from a nice circuit, and have them all pointing to a super lens that collected all of the beams into 1 MEGA-ULTRA-SUPER-DUPER laser beam? - and fit all that into a D Cell Maglite?!? "

Then I thought "pfft..."
But next I actually started to think on how to acomplish it:

I could figure out the practical side of fitting them in, i.e. the logistics of the whole project. And I recon with a bit of help from DDL , I could get a good circuit that can pump out 6x the norm for all LD's in the cluster. But with the whole optics side (the combining of the beams into one powerful one) I'm totally lost, and wouldn't like to start without knowing all the details of the lenses etc.

IF it's possible, I may do it - but I really can't afford it right now. Perhaps I'll start off with a TRI one, then move on up to QUAD's or HEX's.

How about going crazy with an OCTO!!!!


The power (theoretically) should be 200mW (being slightly modest for the LD's - to get some kind of good expected life) x 6 = 1.2Watts of power!!!! ;D
But I guess it won't even come close to 1W in practice. + I'd have to get it checked on a meter to be sure.


So, what do you guys think?
Has it been done before?
Where do I start?


Dan

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

It has been done before....I did it actually....I had a team of scientists working on it - the lead was Dr Alan Parson....I called it my "Death Star, and it was made by the Alan PArson's Project....Muahahahahaahahahaha !

Naw - as far as I know, it has not been done YET... it is an agressive idea - I think the collimating super lense would be tough to set up - you may have better luck simply angling each laser module so it all converges on one point.....IF you decide to do this project, I want pictures, and LOTS of them !

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

Lol - Dr. Evil! But it would cost *places finger at side of mouth* 1 Million Dollars!

I could start selling them if they are a success!
I've got the product names already sorted: Basically, the DUO, the TRI, the QUAD, then PENT, the HEX, ... you get the idea...., the CENTUM!!! I'm sure if I did go ahead, I would speed up the GB's alot!  

I am *NOT* taking orders yet!  

SenKat - is the combined power theory correct? or would there be some losses? Or some strange formula with a 'squared" in it, meaning that I would have to have 4 LD's to 2x the power???

I need more info guys!

I'll do some more "thinking" on it tonight.
Remember, you heard it from me first  


Dan

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

Well, you are not alone with that idea

Thing is, I would recommend using one driver for each diode. As they are all slightly different, if you hook them all together (no matter which way), one might get more power than the other one etc., which is maybe not so good. Still might work.

For "collimation", what would probably be easiest is to use seven of them and arrange them in a hexagon (one in the middle), like this
O O
O O O
O O
because like that you can just tapo them together, no need for a special case (except the maglite of course )

now, there should be seven parallel beams, and you can treat them like one big laser beam - use a big lens to focus them on one spot and a small one in the focal point for a nice beam.

Still, you would have seven ismall individually coherent beams, not one big one, which might give you some issues...but power is power!!!
You't have to hope that interference won't spoil your fun.


Besides that, a 6D-Maglite, and you could have a long time of FUN!!! with 1.4W (or better 1400!!! mW!!! Handheld!!!

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

Here is a design I have been working on, it only shows 2 LD's but you could fit more .
Middle bit is a highly polished cone that can be adjusted in height, you focus the LD's on the very tip and deflect the beam through the lens at the top.....

Regards rog8811

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

Rog - can you expand on your idea a bit more please? I don't understand how this will focus the light.
I'm currently looking for lens that will hopefully do the same thing.

Tell me more!

Thanks,

Dan

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

rog8811 said:

Here is a design I have been working on, it only shows 2 LD's but you could fit more .
Middle bit is a highly polished cone that can be adjusted in height, you focus the LD's on the very tip and deflect the beam through the lens at the top.....

Regards rog8811

Click to expand...

great idea Rog. You could put diodes around the entire circumfrence of the cone and all of the beams would bounce directly up toward the center optic. Although once the beams are sent out enmass they should already be colimated so you wouldn't need any additional optics up top. Or you could shoot the uncolimated light into a mirrored chamber and the only exit point being through your optics. (this is the basic theory behind a tube laser)

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

Is this a possible solution?



I think it's a plano Convex Lens. Is this all I would need? Providing that the light from the cluster is collimated?


Would I be better placing the modules parallel to each other, or should I angle them to a point, then focus?
I could make (with some help on the calculations) a holder that secures all the modules at the right angle accuratly, but I need to know if it's just easier to do them all parallel!

Dan

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

Yep, that would work. Use a second lens and you have a beam with variable diameter.

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

I think it's a plano Convex Lens. Is this all I would need? Providing that the light from the cluster is collimated

Click to expand...

As long as the individual lasers are collimated that should do it.

Regards rog8811

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

Ok, cheers.

What type of lens should I put after that lens to get the variable diameter?
Sorry for all the optic q's but I'm not clued up on all that type of stuff yet.

Does anyone know where I can get some decent lens' to do the job I need from a good UK seller?

This might actually be possible....!!!
I'll have to wait for a few weeks for the latest GB diodes to arrive.

I will keep you all posted!


Dan

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

rog8811 said:

I think it's a plano Convex Lens. Is this all I would need? Providing that the light from the cluster is collimated

Click to expand...

As long as the individual lasers are collimated that should do it.

Regards rog8811

Click to expand...

Would just a aixis module do to propperly collimate?
What kind of focal length should I be looking at for it?

Can anyone confirm the direction proportionality of increasing the no. of lasers, as to the power output ratio?

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

I guess it would work if you combine beams with a lens like that. Obviously this only works for a single focal distance, and the beams just separate beyond the focal point. Good for burning, but not for any other purpose.

Mind you that you cannot make a single paralel beam using this method. The easiest way to visualise this, is to remember that optics always work the same both ways. No lens system would divide a single beam into six seperate beams like displayed above, so it's not possible to make an optic that does the reverse of that (i.e. combine them).

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

The idea already exists and has been implemented many times. BluRay diodes go up into the multi-Watt range, but the single diodes are only 200mW and are not commercially available yet...

The same thing is also used in the HUGE multi-watt (100-ish) 808nm lasers. They all use 100+ small diodes and collimate them to a single point. The problem is that the beam specs are crappy, and the beams are usually square.

Also, they use an optic that reflects the individual beams into a 90 degree angle... thus the individual diodes are stacked side by side and collimated to a single point at the other end of the cluster

I've looked into it, but the only reliable and useful method to combine beams is to use a prism cube

GL;
DDL

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

See here:

http://members.misty.com/don/ldabmsh1.gif

and

http://www.simm-tec.com/product.html



--DDL

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

I started on a similar "death star" project a few weeks ago. My problem is finding the right lens which will gather all the odd outputs from 7 diodes. Powering them will require a few tricks to balance the current draw.
I have not found a lens yet but there's a GB on Photonlexicon selling beam combiners.

Mike