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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

How strict? Adherence to duty cycles.

Joined
Nov 4, 2014
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As the title suggest I was wanting to know more about the ins and outs of manufactures assigned duty cycles to laser pointers.
Here are some questions and inquires I have.

How strictly do you adhere to the duty cycle of your lasers? IE. do you estimate how long its been on or actually time your use.
What is the realistic result of running over the duty cycles by factors of say 1.5x, 2x and 3x?
Are there some nm lasers that are more affected by over use than others?

Thanks for your help. Im sure these are very stupid questions to experienced laser hobbyist so excuse my ignorance.
 
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Sep 5, 2013
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For all my lasers which have a duty cycle I estimate how long they have been on, whenever I take pictures & I see more then a min has gone by I always turn off my DPSS before my diode lasers just to be on the safe side.

If you go over a laser's duty cycle it can lead to instability, heat build-up & can in the long run destroy your laser.

-Alex
 
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Joined
Feb 18, 2013
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Going over the duty cycle will shorten diode life, unless you really push it, then it just dies. This goes for dpss pump diodes too, but the Nd crystal can also be affected.

Since every diode is different, even within the same "model", you can't really say how running it 2x duty cycle will affect it. Manufacturers also may not list correct/appropriate duty cycle. Especially chinese manufacturs.

One way to ascertain the duty cycle for a given laser is to lpm it. Meter it until the power drops, note how long it ran, don't run it longer than that time.
 




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