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How to measure the power of Laser Show?

M

marcelf

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Hi Guys,

I bought a 1W RGB laser from China and I wanna discovery if the mw of green, red and blue lasers are trully real.

So how can I measure that ?

Thanks
Marcel
 





Bionic-Badger

Bionic-Badger

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Buy or rent a meter and check what the combined power of all the color channels output is. Usually it's pretty much on target, if not a little more powerful than the rating. Remember that the projector's power rating is the combined output of all the lasers, not the individual channels.
 
M

marcelf

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Bionic-Badger said:
Buy or rent a meter and check what the combined power of all the color channels output is. Usually it's pretty much on target, if not a little more powerful than the rating. Remember that the projector's power rating is the combined output of all the lasers, not the individual channels.
Click to expand...

Hi Bionic,
but how kind meter I must buy ? It has to work with a specific spectrum or model ? And sould I buy in a eletronic store? Im eletronic engineer but never saw this kind of light instrument (only multimeter, oscilocope, etc).
 
J

joeyss

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You need a Laser power meter which is usually a thermophile sensor calibrated for a certain range of lasers, such as all the ones you have. They can give highly accurate measurements.
 
weeba2kv

weeba2kv

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You can give us links and pictures of the unit , we do often revieuws of produckts here , might give a little help
 
M

marcelf

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Hi,
research in these forums I discovered that:

I have two options:

1. Buy one (laser meter or photometer)


Of couse, its a expensive alternative.

2. Home made one:

Catalogue of options:
http://laserpointerforums.com/f70/laserbee-i-thermopile-based-laser-power-meter-40116.html

Types:


Issues:
- calibration the measurement is a critical point. Its need find a reference laser power.
- spectrum sensibility (nm) is other point to consider

In my opinion the led/diode sensor is a better aproach than thermal sensor
because in fact we wanna mesuare photons beam intensity not heat.

So for resume, anyone knows a reference source laser with a guarantee power ? For example 100 mw.

In fact we should need at least 3 reference sources to interpolate the sensor responsive curve that will be translated in volts shown by multimeter.

Thanks
Marcel
 
Addonex

Addonex

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marcelf said:
Hi,
research in these forums I discovered that:

I have two options:

1. Buy one (laser meter or photometer)


Of couse, its a expensive alternative.

2. Home made one:

Catalogue of options:
http://laserpointerforums.com/f70/laserbee-i-thermopile-based-laser-power-meter-40116.html

Types:


Issues:
- calibration the measurement is a critical point. Its need find a reference laser power.
- spectrum sensibility (nm) is other point to consider

In my opinion the led/diode sensor is a better aproach than thermal sensor
because in fact we wanna mesuare photons beam intensity not heat.

So for resume, anyone knows a reference source laser with a guarantee power ? For example 100 mw.

In fact we should need at least 3 reference sources to interpolate the sensor responsive curve that will be translated in volts shown by multimeter.

Thanks
Marcel
Click to expand...

The Thermopile options are going to be much more reliaible and accurate for measuring power. Many good meters will come per-calibrated to adjust for variances between wavelengths (either automatically or with a simple equation). There are also a few users on this board that sell their own LPMs which are very well made and calibrated.
 
Bionic-Badger

Bionic-Badger

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Yeah, a thermopile (TEC) sensor-based meter will be the type you'll want, not photodiodes/LEDs, etc. The thermopile sensors measure heat from an absorptive surface, so it isn't wavelength dependent (for a good surface). The photodiode/LED-based sensors measure the photonic response of the diode, and that can vary with wavelength.

You can buy a meter from one of the members in the forum, or eBay or other places, for example the Laserbee. They're useful for metering all your lasers and can be helpful when selling lasers so that you can cite measured power output.
 
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