Post your mA and mW

Jay can you see if it lights a candle??

I just tried and couldn't get it to light...

It smoked the wick pretty fast but it kept getting shorter and shorter.

I wouldn't be surprised if given the right technique, it would light...

But remember that if you did this, nobody could be watching unless they had proper eye protection...

Very nice Jay! I still think it will light it though, it's just hard to get ignition sometimes. Try rolling/rotating the match in your fingers if you want, here is my approach. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gYwCRIfpQE This is not a 445nm diode in the video, just to reiterate it's 405nm LG 10x but I want to know the burning comparison at similar power levels.

That's awesome...

The match stick is not pre-soaked in any kind of combustible?

Right now I'm almost done making the lab host for my diode so it will be ready to go when it gets here. Its got a 25 ohm pot and resistors to give it a max current of 500mA's and a minimum of around 45mA's. So I should be able to read the current and output in real time. I'll try and make a video if I'm not to lazy or tired.

--Hydro15

jayrob said:

That's awesome...

The match stick is not pre-soaked in any kind of combustible?

Click to expand...

No sir, just a regular diamond brand strike on box match stick! Fun stuff!

jayrob said:

I would think you could adjust one down to 10mW's or even less.

Click to expand...

I've read that any lower than 15mW or so is no longer coherent. The light is more akin to an LED.

Hello all, First post.

OK, first. The thor labs pic that ranged units posted is mine. It is from this thread.
445 experiments

Because he just stole the pic and didn't bother to give credit or at least reprint the accompanying information It has caused confusion on what it represents.

The graph Is power in Y and time in x. I was just logging the power while i was turning up the current. I did this in case if it poped i would know at what power and could work backwards about what current.

The one watt was reached at about 1 amp. It is In a dead coherent cube head. It has a small tec and I was holding the diode at 72f at this power level. I do not know what lens this unit has. It is a nice ar coated short focal length lens.

In the future when using the graph please provide a link to the original thread so the context of the graph will be apparent.

I've read that any lower than 15mW or so is no longer coherent. The light is more akin to an LED.

Click to expand...

That is also mine. It is a real fast test, and the extra information is, at that power level temperature plays a BIG role in how the diode behaves at that low level. These diodes are very temp sensitive.

Second.

Someone posted about the thor meter that i was using and that it is rated for 500mw and that it is a silicon one. Totally true. However I have compared it to a coherent field max thermal head and the power was within 25mw at a watt. Close enough for me. I suspect that thor rates it to stay within the published specs, and it probably is not real great for the head just because of thermal considerations. At some point the light entering the photodiode will saturate the trans impedance amplifier and the gain stage will clip. At one watt this does not happen. I don't know at what point this happens but I feel confident that my measurements are pretty close.

Third, These are not toys. This is coming from someone with 20+ years worth of laser experience both hobby and professional. PLEASE be careful! As others have said just the diffuse light can do irreparable damage. I have friends who have had laser accidents while taking precautions and miss having full eye sight.
I am not going to get into the futility of having a watt in something hand held. It must be treated like a weapon, don't point it at anything that you don't intend to destroy.

Any way I hope that clears up a few things.

chad

So...I may be ordering a driver soon hopefully by next week. I had plans to get a flexdriver instead of a microboost (no real reason) with a 18650, 2800mAh SoShine battery.

What do you recommend I should do as a set current? I see people running these are 300mA, even 1A. Seeing this thread has 4 pages, Has anyone concluded a decent rate to run these for a prity long life? I understand testing is still undeclared on these lasers ability, But I was THINKING maybe 700mA...Unless its been safe to run higher.

I have also recently read today by ff-studio was it..? That the driver tends to get hot...So he made it a little heatsink.

Cyparagon said:

I've read that any lower than 15mW or so is no longer coherent. The light is more akin to an LED.

Click to expand...

Oh ok... Well 20mW's is still a pretty low power if you want to adjust one down...

If I wanted one to last a long time i would set it between 500-600ma... That's just a guess though.

Kryton Groove

Micro Boost driver

405-G-2 lens

Current = 700mA

Output = 705mW

Peace,
dave

daguin said:

Kryton Groove

Micro Boost driver

405-G-2 lens

Current = 700mA

Output = 705mW

Peace,
dave

Click to expand...

what's the difference between teh 405-G-1 and 405-G-2? I'm guessing the G-2 lets even more light through? and if so how much?

mikeeey said:

what's the difference between teh 405-G-1 and 405-G-2? I'm guessing the G-2 lets even more light through? and if so how much?

Click to expand...

The G-2 has a different AR coating from the G-1. They appear to be the same lens with a different AR coating. As far as output and beam shape goes, I saw no difference. I posted my comparison here

http://laserpointerforums.com/f65/445nm-a130-lens-comparisons-51456-5.html#post713425

Peace,
dave

daguin said:

Kryton Groove

Micro Boost driver

405-G-2 lens

Current = 700mA

Output = 705mW

Peace,
dave

Click to expand...

Hey Dave,

I notice you have yours running on a Micro Boost. I received my 1st batch of these today from, "The Other", forum and was intending to use a 3.6V LiPo rechargeable when it struck me these are boost only drivers. I know that on rare occasions they can kick out a shade more then 4.2V full charge voltage but should I be worried about this with these LDs? I mean, quoting one source, (DiachI), he has 4.4V @ somewhere very close to 1.03A but if I want to run at say 500mA the voltage required will be less. Less than 4.2V?

Probably worrying about nothing but the numbers are just too close for me to say WTH and do it anyway.

Thanks in advance.

M

Morgan said:

Hey Dave,

I notice you have yours running on a Micro Boost. I received my 1st batch of these today from, "The Other", forum and was intending to use a 3.6V LiPo rechargeable when it struck me these are boost only drivers. I know that on rare occasions they can kick out a shade more then 4.2V full charge voltage but should I be worried about this with these LDs? I mean, quoting one source, (DiachI), he has 4.4V @ somewhere very close to 1.03A but if I want to run at say 500mA the voltage required will be less. Less than 4.2V?
Probably worrying about nothing but the numbers are just too close for me to say WTH and do it anyway.
Thanks in advance.
M

Click to expand...

I may be misunderstanding your question here. Did you get a "manual" with the drivers? If not, it can be found here
http://hacylon.case.edu/ebay/laser_diode/Micro Boost Drive V1 manual.pdf

The boost can take an input of 2.7V-5.5V.

Peace,
dave