Daguin custom 445

davidgdg said:

This is a brief review of my recently arrived Daguin 445 custom built.

This is the spec as described by Daguin:

"Up for sale, my first 445nm laser.
This one has the 445nm diode harvested from a Casio projector. It has a Micro Boost driver. It comes with a 405-G-1 lens. It is housed on a Jayrob 18650 kit.
The driver is set at 650mA for good burning AND a very long life. It is putting out 540mW with the 405-G-1 lens.
It comes with one battery. It is focusable and will ship (priority) the day after payment is received.
It is offered here for $275 (international buyers add $5 for additional shipping)."




Output
Slightly over-spec. Putting out 559mw rock steady over 30 seconds.

Brightness
I have compared the apparent brightness to three other wavelengths/powers. As expected, it is far brighter visually than 390mw of 405. It is also significantly brighter than 145mw of 657. It is distinctly less bright than 83mw of 532. I guess the closest comparable will be 40-50mw of 532.

Colour
The colour is somewhere between bright and deep blue. There is no indigo or violet tinge (except where there is fluorescence). It’s a real true blue, albeit at the shorter end.A very striking and beautiful colour. Annoyingly my 473 is under repair so I can’t compare with the longer blue, but I’ll edit this review when the 473 comes back.

No beamshots as my camera does not capture the colours properly. I'll re-edit and post shots this evening with a different camera.

EDIT: Added beamshot (6th July):

Taken along the line of the beam. Visually the beam is less thick and more violet-like. But this isn't a bad likeness.

Burning
Burning is good but definitely not as good as 390mw of 405. I think this is almost certainly attributable to the bar-shaped output of the diode (see below), rather than the wavelength difference.

Lens/beam spot
The lens produces a very clean bar-shaped profile with no ghosting or artifacts. You can actually see the diode sections.

Divergence
Divergence is somewhere between 2 and 3 mrad (spot is 6*1mm at the aperture and 20*2 at 5 metres)

Host
The host is a Cree. Neat, black and sturdy looking.

The one defect with this host is that it is not ideal for focusing. The ring has to be set slightly inset at the front which makes it difficult to adjust the focus in operation without fingers getting close to the beam. I’ve had one burn already ;-(

I've since ordered one of Jayrob's focusing adapters (fantastic value!) which should solve this issue.

Overall a remarkable laser with a beautiful strong and steady output.

Click to expand...