Krypton 1 Watt

I received my Krypton laser this weekend. This review will be made over time as I gather data. YES, I DID PAY FOR THIS LASER.

It came well packaged with laser, lens set, nylon holster, 18650 cell and single station charger.



Since we know what a cell and charger look like, I omitted them to concentrate on the goodies. Instead of a normal box, this laser comes with a holster and belt loop. While the Arctic laser measures 9.1" long, the Krypton is 10.15" long adding room for processor and heatsinking. The lens set appears to be the same as the Arctic set since they fit.

You need to read the book included to understand the "code" to turn it on. The smart switch does everything once the tail switch powers it up. Press the switch several times to activate the laser then the smart switch controls about 8 modes including SOS, strobe, beacon and CW plus a hibernation mode.
The laser appears to be shipped with the "training" lens installed which limits the output to ~ 225 mW. I advise leaving it in place until you understand the power up and smart switch. The laser has a battery protector built in. When the cell drops to one LED on the condition monitor, the laser will shut off to protect the cell -- nice feature.

I have had time to run only one power graph which for now tells a bunch. It seems to heat up over 20 seconds and then watch out!!!! It topped out my chart recorder and I should make a couple more runs.



OOPS --- That's 80 Seconds total run time ... Sorry for the confusion.

Update -- I was asked to make a 5 minute run into the LPM. Here it is:



Note that the power peaks over 1 Watt several times but also has dips which can be seen going into the power head. The cell held up well during the test and there was little heat on the laser head. I don't know if internal heating and mode hopping is the issue here. This test was run over a 350 second period.


A question was raised previously about mode hopping/stability. I used one of the expanding lenses provided to get these pix.
This pix is at full power at cold start. I noticed the (I believe) TEM01 profile .



But as it ran, the beam danced a bit and after ~ 25 seconds became this:



This looks much better.

IR EMITTION TEST: I have been asked for an IR test. My first try is made with an IR Pass filter. Using my 808nM pointer, I pass 50% at 808. With the Krypton, I read 3 mW of IR which computes ---- 3mW / 0.5 = 6 mW IR output at full power. I need to try other filters when I find them!

Divergence: I made a target from a piece of 1/4" steel plate smoked with my torch -- a carbon lamp black target. Tonight is cold and dark so I made these tests at 30' within my back yard.

Low power 30' Beam Dia: 9.42 mm
High power 30' Beam Dia: 14.9 mm

The beam is slightly oval and I measured the wide dimension. I'll try to get my 200' reading tomorrow night.
The increase in observed diameter may be due in part to scatter at high power. YES, I had my goggles on - for damn sure!
Jayrob reported that he focused his laser and I will try that after my distant readings.

As I said in a later post, A beam expander would be NICE. Hand held lenses tempted me so I built a prototype expander which utilizes one of Steve's diverging lenses. This mounts in front of it and makes it an ~ 3x expander. This is my first effort, I'm not happy with it but plastic pipe threads are a PITA !!!! It does work however!!!!!




Here it is finished and mounted on the laser. I plan to get a better output lens for better function. This also works well on the old arctic!!! You guys need to build an expander instead of complaining! What a tool



More later.



HMike

WOW that is a nice laser.

UH --- I have several Scientech power meters ---
That's how I made that chart.
HMike

Dang man that is nice! I wish they were more affordable. Looking forward to more test results :beer:!!

Hope to see some more details soon. Thanks for the mini review:beer:

I'm amazed this laser actually seems up to spec.

@blakegriffin - That's an lpm graph up there in that post, should be a good hint as to whether HM has an LPM.

Lol, HM beat me to it

This is.....surprising. 1W after all....

How's the mode?

-Trevor

Trevor ---
So far, I haven't noticed any mode problems but I haven't been looking for that yet. The beam is so bright and most of the time it's pointed into an LPM head. Thanks for the reminder -- I'll look.

HMike

If you wouldn't mind expanding the beam onto a white wall with a lens and posting a photo of it, I'd love to poke around for hotspots photoshop.

...or a verbal description if the above is too much to ask.

-Trevor

Are the readings with or without an IR filter?

I have not tried using an IR filter yet. Understand that when a company is pushing for Max green output, efficient usage of the IR available is necessary. I will try to measure that but I'll have to calibrate my filters again with my 808 pointer.
Trevor ---
I was just going to ask about using the expander lens. I will try it but likely at low power (~70 mW) so the camera can see anything.

HMike

Me--I cant wait I hope you have an LPM

Hemlock_Mike--UH --- I have several Scientech power meters ---
That's how I made that chart.
HMike

I made that post when the thread only said I just bought a 1 watt artic will post pics soon and that is why I said that

The only problem is that looking for gross transverse modes while running in low power sort of defeats the purpose of the exercise - we want to know if/how it's misbehaving when it's running at it's rated power.

If your camera has a shutterspeed priority mode that's what you'll want to use.

-Trevor

Trevor --
With the beam expanded, The camera was OK. Look above.
On another try, (full power) the beam does appear to continue to dance a bit but remains round as in the second picture.
HMike

How long was shipping?

About 2 weeks
HM