REVIEW: Basic LPM (Bluefan.nl)

Hi guys,
I am very new here, as you might notice. I am only a few months into the laser hobby world. So I was looking for a basic entry-level LPM. I got in touch with Johan from Bluefan.nl a couple weeks ago, wondering what the prices were on there basic LPMs. Johan responded very quickly and we started working out a deal. The LPM he made for me was a little different than the ones he usually builds/sells. It still measures from 1mW-2W! though. He had to put a 40mmx40mm surface on mine, in return the price would be cheaper he said. (49 euros) I think it came to 90$ shipped. below is a quote from Johan regarding the large surface.

I also made a measurement of the risetime, it's 24 second 0-90%, actually faster than the 34 sec of a normal basic lpm. The attached measurement was done around 1050mW, I didn't actually check that but it gives an idea of the voltage output of the sensor.

Click to expand...

So I got it today and fired it up with a 9v and wow! Much brighter screen than I expected, BRIGHT blue readout. As for the response time, Johan was basically right on the money. I got my laser up to 90%+ within 30 seconds or less. As for the functionality, I don't know much compared to all of you vets, but if I can figure it out, anyone can! I finally have a nice little LPM thats been calibrated, so now I can review some of my lasers! :wave:

Thanks to Bluefan.nl for this LPM! Thumbs up to Johan. and thanks to everyone on this forum for their helpfulness! :thanks:

heres a link to there page and LPMs
Bluefan.nl

The pictures:
532nm: 400mW O-like from Cajunlasers.com (thanks clif)
445nm: Arctic S3 G2 (meh )

Reserved for updates

May I be the first to congratulate you with your new LPM

Bluefan said:

May I be the first to congratulate you with your new LPM

Click to expand...

Haha! Thank you kind sir! Yeah my mom calls me at work today and in a very suspicious voice asked me if I ordered something from the Netherlands. So I told her what it was and she was relieved it wasn't something devious.

BTW Thumbs up for bluefan, I was in a bit of a rush the week I ordered it and ended up sending them the money before the LPM was ready, It took 4 or 5 days for the paypal money to send. Very trustworthy company +1 and absolutely would recommend!

Thanks again.

That's a cool little LPM.

What are these calibrated against BlueFan? 90$ shipped is a great price for an LPM.

Here's a Certificate I got by email

I've build the LPM but it's not completely comparable to a normal Basic LPM. It has a slightly larger drift (~1.5% @1000mW) and offset (drifting between 0 and 7mW). Also the sensor is not exactly in the center of the heatsink

Click to expand...

Also The Price I got it for was 49 euros not 70

edit: just got 763 on the LPM for the Arctic!

Joe Mo said:

I am very new here, as you might notice. I am only a few months into the laser hobby world. So I was looking for a basic entry-level LPM. I got in touch with Johan from Bluefan.nl a couple weeks ago, wondering what the prices were on there basic LPMs. Johan responded very quickly and we started working out a deal. The LPM he made for me was a little different than the ones he usually builds/sells. It still measures from 1mW-2W! though. He had to put a 40mmx40mm surface on mine, in return the price would be cheaper he said. (49 euros) I think it came to 90$ shipped. below is a quote from Johan regarding the large surface.

I also made a measurement of the risetime, it's 24 second 0-90%, actually faster than the 34 sec of a normal basic lpm. The attached measurement was done around 1050mW, I didn't actually check that but it gives an idea of the voltage output of the sensor.

Click to expand...

So I got it today and fired it up with a 9v and wow! Much brighter screen than I expected, BRIGHT blue readout. As for the response time, Johan was basically right on the money. I got my laser up to 90%+ within 30 seconds or less. As for the functionality, I don't know much compared to all of you vets, but if I can figure it out, anyone can! I finally have a nice little LPM thats been calibrated, so now I can review some of my lasers! :wave:
Thanks to Bluefan.nl for this LPM! Thumbs up to Johan. and thanks to everyone on this forum for their helpfulness! :thanks:
The pictures:
532nm: 400mW O-like from Cajunlasers.com (thanks clif)
445nm: Arctic S3 G2 (meh )

Click to expand...

Nice review of your new LPM....:gj:

I'm not quite sure of what the seller meant by that quote.. or
which basic LPMs he was referring to that have a 90% response
time of 34 seconds...:thinking:
I haven't seen any of those yet... That would assume a stable
response time of over 70 seconds...:thinking:

Even our slowest response time basic budget LaserBee A and
LaserBee USB have a 90% response time of about 14-15 seconds
and that translates to a stable response time of 40-50 seconds.

Either way you now have a way of checking the power of your
Lasers..:beer:


Jerry

That last 10% does make a difference though, and brings it basically into the same exact 30 second range

Link.

InfinitusEquitas said:

That last 10% does make a difference though, and brings it basically into the same exact 30 second range

Link.

Click to expand...

What do you mean exactly? I'm a little bit of a noob when it comes to these things :thanks: sorry for the learning curve

Thank you much my friends!

InfinitusEquitas said:

That last 10% does make a difference though, and brings it basically into the same exact 30 second range

Link.

Click to expand...

Yeah at 50% it would even be faster... but it is still not the time it
actually takes to get a usable stable Max reading...

The problem is that the rise time power is not linear. When 90%
rise time is quoted at 34 seconds one would assume that a 100%
rise time should be 37.77 seconds when in reality the stable response
time will be closer to 80-90 seconds


Jerry

lasersbee said:

Nice review of your new LPM....:gj:

I'm not quite sure of what the seller meant by that quote.. or
which basic LPMs he was referring to that have a 90% response
time of 34 bseconds...:thinking:
I haven't seen any of those yet... That would assume a stable
response time of over 70 seconds...:thinking:

Click to expand...

Not many have been sold yet This one's a one off with a different sensor, and it's actually faster.

lasersbee said:

Even our slowest response time basic budget LaserBee A and
LaserBee USB nhave a 90% response time of about 14-15 seconds
and that translates to a stable response time of 40-50 seconds.

Either way you now have a way of checking the power of your
Lasers..:beer:


Jerry

Click to expand...

Each lpm has it's advantages. Of course you want to sell your lpm's, no surprise here

lasersbee said:

Yeah at 50% it would even be faster... but it is still not the time it
actually takes to get a usable stable Max reading...

The problem is that the rise time power is not linear. When 90%
rise time is quoted at 34 seconds one would assume that a 100%
rise time should be 37.77 seconds when in reality the stable response
time will be closer to 80-90 seconds


Jerry

Click to expand...

It's the typical exponential converging curve most budget LPM's have, the last count to the actual power takes quite long

Yeah the curve is usually exponentially stabilizing. Does that seem correct? Meaning there is usually an exponential quality to the leveling out of the power graph. The graph looking like a quarter pipe, pardon the adolescent reference.

@Jerry

That's absolutely true...

Basically I just wanted to point out that the response time here, at least imo, is not that bad.

blue fan incoming pm about sensors.