I payed $214 to DL and got this? Holy F***!

ElectricPlasma said:

If I can weigh in, I've got a class IV 520nm diode (multimode) with a 3E lens and all of my 532nm lasers have better divergence. My 520nm diode's divergence isn't that great at all, I haven't measured it but it's probably right around the same as my 3W 445nm Sanwu laser

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Thank you both for clearing that up for me.
I forgot to mention that I recently moved to the high desert (Reno nevada) so it gets pretty cold here.
Perhaps a diode would withstand the cold better than a DPSS..

LaserNinja said:

Thank you both for clearing that up for me.
I forgot to mention that I recently moved to the high desert (Reno nevada) so it gets pretty cold here.
Perhaps a diode would withstand the cold better than a DPSS..

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Indeed. A diode would be much better at low temperatures -- in fact, green diodes typically work significantly better in the cold. My 1.4W 520 can get 100-200mW of extra power when it's chilled.

ElectricPlasma said:

If I can weigh in, I've got a class IV 520nm diode (multimode) with a 3E lens and all of my 532nm lasers have better divergence. My 520nm diode's divergence isn't that great at all, I haven't measured it but it's probably right around the same as my 3W 445nm Sanwu laser

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^ this If you want a good sky pointer, I'd go with a 200 mW 532nm DPSSL. I have one of these and it works perfectly.

My 800mw 520nm 1.5 mrad with 3 element.

LaserNinja said:

Thank you both for clearing that up for me.
I forgot to mention that I recently moved to the high desert (Reno nevada) so it gets pretty cold here.
Perhaps a diode would withstand the cold better than a DPSS..

Click to expand...

Sta said:

Indeed. A diode would be much better at low temperatures -- in fact, green diodes typically work significantly better in the cold. My 1.4W 520 can get 100-200mW of extra power when it's chilled.

Click to expand...

Yes, diodes cope with temperature considerably better than DPSS's. KTP in greens likes to be warm. This is why, power spikes when you warm them up on a cold day. The temperature can also mode shift some less stable DPSS's like 589/594.

Just a FYI for the OP incase anyone is wondering...
I got this laser from Hap, and yes it is way over spec. But I noticed that it is a fixed focus unit. Now I had heard that if you unscrew the laser host "head" on these DL Hulk 532nm units you can twist wires off.
Well, I tried it anyways. And it looks like DL has changed the design of these, and now the only thing mounted in the head is the lens! The entire module is in the host body. So now I can partially unscrew the head to effectively control beam focus! This thing is now a crazy burner too!

Does that mean that the diode isn't heat sinked? If so, I'd be very careful with the duty cycle. Huh? What is the purpose of the heat sink at the head?

The module is somewhat recessed into the body, and the head threads over the entire body width (if that makes sense). So I guess the head pulls the heat from the body? The longest I've ran it for was about 2 mins. and it still felt fine.