1.4W Laser not 1.4W?

I just "built" (if you can even call it that) a 445 laser using a Mohrenberg Guidesman host, an A140 from DTR and a flexdrive set to 1.5A from DTR. DTR connected everything for me: all the diode pins to the flexdrive and pressed the diode into an aixiz module. All I had to do was solder the positive input wire to the switch contact. I have an Aixiz 405 glass lens on it and am powering it with a protected 18650 (I have also tried using 3 eneloop AAA batteries and it seems to be the same power). It works and it is powerful, but it's not nearly as powerful as I thought it would be. It takes a second to light matches: my 360mW blu-ray lights them instantly. My blu-ray also burns white paper faster. I've watched videos of people burning through thin cd cases with 1W ones and it takes a few seconds. Mine takes 5-10 seconds. I don't have an lpm but I feel like it is very underpowered.
Does anyone else think it is less than 1.4W? I will try to upload some pictures if anyone wants me to post some.
Also, the dot is definitely blue but the beam looks like a blue-violet color. Is this normal?

EDIT: I uploaded a video of what it does. See post #11.

for fast burning you will need to unfocuse the laser slightly. Check this picture. Where the hour glass is the thinnest is where you can burn the best.



Also the color you see will vary from person to person.:beer:

DTR said:

for fast burning you will need to unfocuse the laser slightly. Check this picture. Where the hour glass is the thinnest is where you can burn the best.

Also the color you see will vary from person to person.:beer:

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I've focused it past infinity and I put whatever I am trying to burn in the thinnest point in the beam.
EDIT: Maybe I'm just crazy and everything only seems like it's taking longer to burn than it actually is. lol idk

david1235102 said:

I've focused it past infinity and I put whatever I am trying to burn in the thinnest point in the beam.
EDIT: Maybe I'm just crazy and everything only seems like it's taking longer to burn than it actually is. lol idk

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As you see in the diagram if you overfocus it past infinity it spreads like a flashlight and will not burn very well. Try turning it counter clockwise from infinity.

Anyway if you want you can send it to me and I can test its output for you.

Wearing good eye protection, focus the dot to the smallest point possible on a white sheet of paper about 6 inches from the lens. That's the distance you should hold your target.

Thanks DTR, I may decide to do that at some point.
I have focused it to its smallest point against paper. It burns but seems to do so slowly.
I have a cold at the moment so I haven't been using it a lot. I'll test it much more when I am feeling better.

With the AixiZ lens it is probably NOT putting out 1.4W. It might with a 405-G-1 lens, but the beam profile suffers.

In any event, it should be >1W. At that output it should still burn just fine.

Peace,
dave

daguin said:

With the AixiZ lens it is probably NOT putting out 1.4W. It might with a 405-G-1 lens, but the beam profile suffers.

In any event, it should be >1W. At that output it should still burn just fine.

Peace,
dave

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I have uploaded a video of the problem in my most recent post.

People have been posting over 2W results with 405 lenses. I am curious about the diminishing returns / reduced efficiency and higher heat of the diodes after 1.1A

Does anyone here know the ratios for power to the diode versus output, assuming an average 445 diode? Sorry about being slightly off topic but I saw daguin was commenting in this thread and others with 445 diode knowledge.

Thanks

There is several plots in this thread:

http://laserpointerforums.com/f65/post-your-ma-mw-51432.html

DTR said:

As you see in the diagram if you overfocus it past infinity it spreads like a flashlight and will not burn very well. Try turning it counter clockwise from infinity.

Anyway if you want you can send it to me and I can test its output for you.

Click to expand...

This is what I meant in the pm I sent you: watch the video attachment; P1000686.MOV.MOV.

Before this video:
The battery was fully charged and then I let it sit for 15 minutes off the charger.
The laser had not been used since before I ate dinner; so it had been off around 30 minutes or more.

During the video:
I turned it on and off 3 times. It only did what I was talking about the first time I had it on. You can see it remains at the lower power level most of the time. I also had it focused to infinity.

I tested how many amps it was pulling by turning it on then touching the positive wire of my DMM to the battery (3 AAA battery holder with 3 charged eneloops in it) contact and the negative (com) wire to the host body. It was in its lower power state and the DMM said it was pulling around .5A from the batteries??? I will try this again with the 18650 and see if I can get a reading with it in its higher power state. If I can, I will update this post.

Well with a .5A draw it most likely is doing around 300mW. I have not seen a flexdrive go into a lower power mode. Normally they just start pulsating very fast if they are being underpowered. I would not hazard a guess without doing some tests on it first. You could always try bypassing the host altogether by hooking an 18650 directly to the driver.

Also in my experience the average diode will give 1.4W/1.6W Aixiz/G-1 when running with a maxed flexdrive. I just had one of the individuals that got one of my hotlight coin modded kits tell me his metered with a 1.5W peak using the Aixiz lens.

DTR said:

Well with a .5A draw it most likely is doing around 300mW. I have not seen a flexdrive go into a lower power mode. Normally they just start pulsating very fast if they are being underpowered. I would not hazard a guess without doing some tests on it first. You could always try bypassing the host altogether by hooking an 18650 directly to the driver.

Also in my experience the average diode will give 1.4W/1.6W Aixiz/G-1 when running with a maxed flexdrive. I just had one of the individuals that got one of my hotlight coin modded kits tell me his metered with a 1.5W peak using the Aixiz lens.

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If I sent it the laser to you do you think you could fix it?
EDIT: That's why I had trouble explaining what was wrong with it. I did research on here about it and couldn't find anything on my specific problem.
Before I checked how much it was pulling, I wasn't very impressed on its power compared to how much everyone elses' >1W lasers could do; when it's in its higher power state I am more than impressed with its power.

If anyone was wondering what the power actually was after being fixed here is the LPM test.

DTR said:

If anyone was wondering what the power actually was after being fixed here is the LPM test.

Click to expand...

:drool: I like that lol. I'm working on pictures and videos to post I'm going to take some outdoor beamshots tonight before I post everything though. I'll edit this post later with the link to the thread.