So Today I am reviewing my 1.5W Viasho Laser I got directly from Viasho through a guy named Frank. Plus Scan pro 40’s from Dave at Lasershow Parts And the FB3 from Pangolin Laser Systems

My scanner is not done this is just a mock up done with stick tape : ) just so I could make sure all my parts work

1.5W Laser
Action Shot

Ya its got Beef.
The transaction itself was great way better then the CNI group by as Glenn can only do so much and after a while it just seemed that CNI didn’t care about us any more so I asked for a refund and Glenn delivered in good time….. Let me say this Glenn is an awesome guy to deal with….. Anyway so after getting the refund and taking with frank I paid him a 100$ more than I did in the CNI group buy for a 1.5W laser from 1.2W nice upgrade for 100$ : )….. Even after paying frank he kept up the communication just as fast as before ( responding in about 12 hours) and my laser shipped 2 days after I had paid them 2 whole days …. CNI take note this was not 45+ days it was 2……

Anyway moving on the laser its self
After a few measurements it has about a 2.8mm beam out of the apparatus and then ~1.2mRad divergence….. This is really tight for a lab style laser: ) and I am loving it, it’s very clean to as there’s not much speckle around the dot

The power test
Now I must say I am disappointed here as I received a laser that did 1.78W and not 1.5 as I had ordered can you believe this guy sending me an over speck laser who does he think I am : ) but all joking aside that’s almost 300mw enough to make up for optical loss : ) and the power test was done before the galvos when I had it on my bench seen here



I got about 1.7% stability over 21 min between 1750-1780…. As I had to cut the beam in half so I had about 875mw to play with while the other was sent to the meter and let me tell you that’s got to be the funest metering I have ever done : ) lol this thing burned everything including me when I sat to look the laserbee and saw smoke coming from my shirt : ) but anyway this was done after about a 5 min warm up and one thing I have noticed about this laser is its pretty much full power the moment you crank it all the way up to 6.5A

Now for the pictures



Front of power supply



Back of driver



The cool thing is the laser never really turns off in use this enables faster modulation and no current spikes



Dim red glow can be seen here this is when it’s “idling” and 0.65A




Laser Head Sticker



Side of laser



Scanner assembly



Real action shot



Full power : )



All of the pic were taken in side with my lights on 4 x 60W florescent light bulbs nothing is in the air this is just normal country air : ) no fog no smoke no nothing it’s that bright.



Camera is on auto also



Auto setting makes it dark for some reason….






That is the 2% loss from the galvos you see their that’s not spill that is actually going through the mirror.






Good beam profile



Scanned with nothing in the air lights are now off though







Scan pro 40’s
These things are quiet and fast unless you make them angry and you know when you have made them angry as they start to make weird noises when you push them to far but when you don’t their perfect and do really good scans. Plus Dave had the galvos pre tuned for 30kpps since that is what the “standard” is for most shows and is the max the FB3 will transmit. So all pictures were taken at 30kpps

This is done at 30% of the FB3 scan angle this is what I use for all my graphics



Different test patter at 30%



Kind of odd with the FB3 is it’s not receive full power when doing that scan but close



Pushed a little too hard at 50% of the FB3 scan angle can see 2 lines in the upper right diagonal.



Does this one fine though at 50%
http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-[IMG]snc3/hs092.snc3/15935_105330789481866_100000148376370_142167_81291 94_n.jpg[/IMG]


One of the more complex patters in think and pushing the scanners a little hard at 50% you can see a little miss match at the top and sides.



But at 30% it’s got no problem doing it



100% scan angle I normal use about 70% for beam shows and the galvos don’t make angry sounds unless it’s a complex beam or has a lot of dots.



So as you can see these scanners are the stuff and they were great for the price I would recommend them and now on to the FB3

Possible the best controller I could imaged as this is my only laser DAC I have ever used and the software that came with it was amazing the La Studios package and Quick show are freaking awesome and are a must have for anybody that wants to get into lasers though there is ********* to for the cheaper side but I think it’s worth the extra 400$ just for capable software and hard ware.

The user interface on quick show is really easy to use just click and it’s done



Some of the pre patters it has and being scanned at 30%






I like this one the best so far



And that concludes my review of these 3 items ….. Hopefully your ISP doesn’t kill you and your computers don’t die from all the pictures : )
Tell me if there is any other information you want to know
The price for all these items brand new was about 3k but I got a good deal on all 3 of them and like I said these were all new from the 3 links I set above….. I won’t give the prices though as that’s for you to negate : ) if you chose to go this route……

Also sorry for the messy room I normally don’t live here as I am in college and am back for thanksgiving ….. my parents are in the middle making me pack every thing so they can make my room into a weight room …..

Michael

want .

May i please borrow your laser for a few year long test cycle? the only cost will be that you will NEVER get it back! May i ask the TOTAL price of just the laser?

Hey Michael....

you know me...and what I'm going to ask....
What did you use to cut the power of your ~1.8 Watt Laser in half
to be able to use your 1Watt LaserBee I LPM...

(No... I'm not trying to make a sale...)

Jerry

No lol i have my own test to do with in my my garage with a small paper fire : ) hopefully get some good beam shots
well the last paragraph says i wont give out the $ figures but we can safely say the laser was about 2/3 the cost : )

I used a precision 50/50 beam splitting optic that I also got from Dave ..... Measured both sides I believe one was about 860 on the laser bee side and about 890 on the burning side that I also measured with the laser bee in the test set up before I shot that graph. But that graph was done with the 860 side and a 2 offset in the software.
Going to get with a friend that has a coherent meter to see how accurate the laser bee and beam splitter is compared to it.

But ya I like my laserbee and would recommend any body that doesn’t have an lpm and who doesn’t have a few $k to buy one : )

That is soo much power but so well controlled. I'm surprised the camera didn't puke!
You have super controll of that much power and still didn't require help with the burned shirt. I thought my first BR was hot.
Thanks for the pix and info.

HMike

very nice equipment - I love scanners but they just take so much money

my SP20s have been sitting for quite a while collecting dust

Very nice f22.. You'll love that laser. Viasho is very good..

I like how the warning label info is written in permanent marker.

Those scanner amp heat sinks look... out of place :S

^ they look wicked cool if you ask me

ya the camera seemed to be auto dimming though but man it’s such a nice camera should be posting some beam shots here shortly of when I took it out to the garage and lit 2 pieces of paper on fire since my fog machine broke : ( but ya cant believe I burnt my good shirt :P

do you have an i7 processor also : ) those came with the LGA 1366 socket : ) but upgraded all of the ones I built for me and work with an aftermarket cooler so we could over clock from 2.8 to 3.6 stable : )

Just temporary I think : ) idk if I will leave them even though they are doing a great job .... copper core with all the aluminum fins : ) only bad thing is theirs a fine layer of stick tack keeping them in place not even thermal past but they never even get warm : ) the amps that is

Thank you for all the nice comments so far though it’s been a fun project and even funner when I get the CDRH involved : )

So took a few more pictures today. And got some ok beam shots….. smoke was from just 2 sheets of paper lit on fire in my garage : ) fog machine broke : (

I'd say you don't need any more smoke than that =P Beams look great

Bloody nice pics, nice ^^!

Very nice beam shotZ!

wow!

Sorry for the thread revival... but can you easily mount optics (beam expander, anyone?) directly to the head or is optical breadboard needed for additional (simple) optics?

-Trevor

If you look at the very first picture you will see a circle thing with 4 dimples in it had a hole for the beam to come out of that is acutely a cover that is threaded into the main laser body so you can remove it to clean the optic but it’s their to keep dust out.... I guess you could have somebody measure the threads of that and then make you an adapter

Very nice. I just ordered a 500mW Viasho labby! I'm so excited!

Hmm, okay, thanks. I'll take a look at the drawings on their website (I think they're out there). I may just get an external lens from Optotronics or something, unless someone has a better idea.

EDIT: ...and I'm assuming that dim red glow is IR?

Nice. I just ordered a 1W rated unit and can't wait.

-Trevor

99% sure it is, yes It shows up because the camera is more sensitive to IR than our eyes.

And let us know when you recieve your 1W monster!

ohhhh. You're who Glenn was talking about. That's gonna be sweet!

Interesting... I guess it's not IR filtered? Or are the crystals not lasing when the pump is at such a low level, and the IR filter just isn't filtering 100% of it?

Uh-oh...

-Trevor

I believe it is IR filtered, I will ask. I also think well under 10mW of residual IR will easily show in such a picture. -Glenn