KES-400A ... Great Beginner LD

I have just started experimenting with lasers about a month ago, and was immediately captured by the incredible "Blu-Ray" Laser! This is so far my favorite kind of laser I have played with (out of green, red, and bluray).

To start my experience with taking apart sleds, I got a couple of broken CD drives from a PC repair store... this served as my training for a blu-ray sled. I took these apart and extracted the useless IR diodes without damaging any of them... success! now i was ready for blu-ray...

To start off, I ordered a pack of 6 "dysfunctional" KES-400A sleds (for $20 no shipping... what an incredible bargain!), and a PHR-803T sled. Then I cleared out the ENTIRE sled for all 6 of the KES-400A’s... except for the splitter cubes (I will explain this later). Only things left… metal, and cubes. For each sled, I saved all of the optics, the diode of course, and the 2 rare earth magnets (which were tricky to extract.. a lot of force required). Then I sorted the optics out into containers, but the almost-bare sleds back into their boxes, and removes the diodes from the PCB and metal holder that they were contained in. I broke one...

Then I built a driver on a breadboard (if anyone wants me to post it just ask and I will try… I am new to this and haven’t figured out how to yet) and installed the LD in a Aixiz module. Time to test the diode!

According to charts and other people’s experimentations, the KES-400A diode is supposed to die a short while after 38mA of current… I find that it will still run at around 70-80mA! (well… one does, the other four died at around 60 : P ). Of course, I only run it for around 30 seconds at a time max, so it doesn’t get overworked. The thing I love about the LD is that it also has a red-wavelength-producing cathode… I just switch the positive current to run through that cathode and the dot changes to red. The only problem with this is that it will only focus on one color at a time.

I have future plans for the KES-400A diode… possibly to make a red and violet pointer… as for the almost-bare sleds I mentioned earlier, I plan to make a modified version of Rog’s 7 color laser device… using the KES-400A sled the same way that he does(the splitter cubes combining a 405nm LD, a 532nm LD, and a 660nm LD) . Since I have 6 sleds, I am probably going to try to make 6 of the devices, keep the best one, and sell the others on eBay or something.

And I have a PHR-803T coming in the mail… it should arrive tomorrow… I am excited about that since it runs about 3 times as strong as the KES-400A diode and supposedly has a visible beam and can BURN. The KES-400A diode is already pretty cool… very bright, but I can’t imagine having one THREE TIMES BRIGHTER AND MORE POWERFUL!!! I will update everyone on how that and my 7 color laser device goes. I will also be posting a crapload of data on the KES-400A that I scavenged up. And what I am almost definetly sure is a datasheet for the PHR-803T diode.

As for now, though, peace…

im planning on building PHR-803T Pointer, in fact i have a post above yours atm. what's this 7-color laser you talk of? keep us posted with the PHR-803T!

welcome aboard!

yes, even though the kes is outdated, from a raw output power view, it is really outstanding! and yes, the sled is great fun, i didnt ever find a pbs cube that "huge" again in any sled!

its nice to see new members like you, who do their "homework" (i.e. read before asking), post informative things, know proper english (and i'm not talking about non-native-speakers here!), in short, try to contribute and help (i like how you practised on other sleds first, compare this to most of the posts in "help"!). so again, feel very welcome!

..and keep posting your findings! i think there cant be anything "outdated" about any 405nm diode, people here just tend to be a bit ahead of time

oh, wait, what do you mean with "a datasheet for the 803t"? i guess you know what it would mean if *the* real datasheet would show up? the actual manufacturers datasheet? [/dreams]

manuel

GAFFNEYYY said:

im planning on building PHR-803T Pointer, in fact i have a post above yours atm. what's this 7-color laser you talk of? keep us posted with the PHR-803T!

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I will keep you posted about the PHR-803T… I should even be getting it today!!! The impossible and extremely expensive sounding 7 base color laser that I am talking about is a design by the member “rog8811”. The concept is to use the 2 KES-400A beamsplitters and three already drilled holes to combine the beams of a 405nm (violet) laser, 532 nm (green) laser, and 660 nm (red) laser. Acting as almost the 3 primary colors (but violet instead of blue), the three lasers, when turned on in different combinations, will make 7 different colors! (including violet, red and green of course). I have even come up with this idea for it…

- i will remove the already-supplied driver from the green diode and its focusing device (since I can find no green diodes without a driver, I will have to buy a normal one and remove the driver).

- i am going to make a driver for each laser diode (including the green) with a POT (maybe 150 ohm or so).

- i will change up the typical 1 ohm resistor at the end of each driver (leading to the positive lead of the LD) to another one that will, with the POT on minimum resistance, give me the max mA flow i can use for each LD (ex. one that will give me ~110-115mA for the blu-ray driver, one that will give me about 400mA for the red diode driver, etc.)

- then the POT in each driver will only be used to dim the LD away from its maximum power.

- adjusting the POT's, i will even out the colors to have equivalent brightness to the human eye, leaving the blu-ray on about 8/10 of its full power. first i will match the red to the blu-ray, and then the green.

- then i will attach the already-adjusted POT's to a panel (amplifier dial style) and mark where they are pointing.

- i will adjust the POT to the marked spots when using the laser device to combine 2 of the beams or all 3 of them, so that the intensity of all of the colors are even.

- when i am not using them for that, i will be able to control an individual beam to how bright i want it, so it can be more powerful when using one color.

- this will also allow me to adjust the shades of the combined colors by having the POT's mounted right in front of me when i am operating the laser. (ex. If I were to have the violet and red diode operating, I could turn up the red, or turn down the violet, to give me a darker shade of purple)

- this setup will give me EVEN MORE than 7 colors if you count the different shades of each one. The possibilities will be endless.

Krutz said:

welcome aboard!

yes, even though the kes is outdated, from a raw output power view, it is really outstanding! and yes, the sled is great fun, i didnt ever find a pbs cube that "huge" again in any sled!

its nice to see new members like you, who do their "homework" (i.e. read before asking), post informative things, know proper english (and i'm not talking about non-native-speakers here!), in short, try to contribute and help (i like how you practised on other sleds first, compare this to most of the posts in "help"!). so again, feel very welcome!

..and keep posting your findings! i think there cant be anything "outdated" about any 405nm diode, people here just tend to be a bit ahead of time

oh, wait, what do you mean with "a datasheet for the 803t"? i guess you know what it would mean if *the* real datasheet would show up? the actual manufacturers datasheet? [/dreams]

manuel

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About the datasheet... the company that made it is "Sharp" and it seems to be the same diode as the PHR-803T. I do not know how to post Adobe documents and I don’t remember exactly where I found it, but I will try to save it as a couple of pictures (using Print Screen and the pasting it in paint) and post those. And yes, I do know how wonderful it would be if the real datasheet showed up.

I plan to keep posting about my Blu-ray experimentations, and I will be getting the PHR-803T diode probably today. The bad news is, I already burned out the 3 working PHR-400A anodes (the other three didn’t even emit Blu-Ray light in the first place, but I did order “dysfunctional sleds so that’s what I get…), so now they will only emit a red and IR laser… how boring haha.

I am flattered by such a grand welcoming, I like the park about doing my “homework” as I actually skip doing my homework to experiment with laser haha. I do feel very welcome now, thank you. And I love reading up about lasers, so if there are any links you could give me, that would be great. And practicing on those sleds probably saved me 2-4 of the Blu-ray laser diodes that I might have destroyed while extraction.

You’re right, The KES-400A beamsplitter cubes are extremely large, and I would love to extract them, but am thinking in the future… If I could make 6 different laser devices that each have 7 base colors and adjustable blue, green, and violet shades, keeping the best one of course, I could probably sell each unit for a minor fortune, especially if I put them in a nice housing. How much do you estimate I should price them when I am done building them?

I did find out how weak the KES-400A diodes were the hard way (as most laser enthusiasts discover information), but if I were ever do buy more, I might just keep them on low power and make them into a weak red/violet laser pointer.

Thanks for the welcome!

Jakob

Nice to see you here pianoman, your horizons are about to expand exponentially.

Regards rog8811

rog8811 said:

Nice to see you here pianoman, your horizons are about to expand exponentially.

Regards rog8811

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haha thanks rog. i took a look at this site and couldnt pass up the opportunity. i have learned so much here already just by viewing forums!

pianoman2011 said:

To start off, I ordered a pack of 6 "dysfunctional" KES-400A sleds (for $20 no shipping... what an incredible bargain!)

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I ordered the same thing, and i got 5 KES 400s and 1 KES410aca( Sled has 2 lenses and 2 diodes), did you get the same thing?
If you did thats probably the one that can run at 80mA.

Reaver789 said:

I ordered the same thing, and i got 5 KES 400s and 1 KES410aca( Sled has 2 lenses and 2 diodes), did you get the same thing?
If you did thats probably the one that can run at 80mA.

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No... Did you order from a computer repair guy in California, because that’s where I got mine from. But all the sleds were identical other than the product numbers on the side. You're lucky to have gotten that diode though...

Mine just blew yesterday at around 60-70mA because a connection came undone and redone and overpowered the diode. And I still haven’t gotten my PHR-803T yet…

pianoman2011 said:

No... Did you order from a computer repair guy in California, because that’s where I got mine from. But all the sleds were identical other than the product numbers on the side. You're lucky to have gotten that diode though...

Mine just blew yesterday at around 60-70mA because a connection came undone and redone and overpowered the diode. And I still haven’t gotten my PHR-803T yet…

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ahh that sucks, yeah i got the diodes from the same guy, fuzionelectronics, he has like 50 packs, i bought a bulk of like 20 to assemble some lasers for my friends, yeah idk why i got a 410, lucky tough, those are wayy more expensive.

Reaver789 said:

ahh that sucks, yeah i got the diodes from the same guy, fuzionelectronics, he has like 50 packs, i bought a bulk of like 20 to assemble some lasers for my friends, yeah idk why i got a 410, lucky tough, those are wayy more expensive.

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Oh wow! This guy is a great resource for sleds... I am about to favorite him on eBay and see if I can get some more deals, because even though only 3 out of 6 of the diodes I extracted worked for Blu-Ray (all the others still worked for 660nm), it was no doubt worth the $20 I payed. I would've been happy with one functional diode at that price! Even though I burned them all out already. I find that the Blu-Ray anodes in the KES-100A diodes commonly burn out at about 50mA (other than the mutant diode I ran at 70mA for a total of about 20 minutes) or when a connections are broken and reattached extremely quickly (which was what killled my mutant diode. RIP.)

But my dad is about to drop off the package for the PHR-803T he got in the mail today! I am so excited.

I am also about to buy one of those AR coated glass lenses that are designed for 405nm and fit into Aixiz modules. If anyone out there has bought one, do you have any feedback?

pianoman2011 said:

Oh wow! This guy is a great resource for sleds... I am about to favorite him on eBay and see if I can get some more deals

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But then let me a pack over, hmkay? ;D
(Seriosly, i had bad luck, missed as he sold 10 packs again this week - i should check mails more often ^^)

3 of 6 worked? Well, this is at least 50/50. But i would be happy with one working Br too, cuz have one broken leadlight i want to mod. And the other Sleds? White Lasers White Lasers White Lasers

Xer0 said:

But then let me a pack over, hmkay? ;D
(Seriosly, i had bad luck, missed as he sold 10 packs again this week - i should check mails more often ^^)

3 of 6 worked? Well, this is at least 50/50. But i would be happy with one working Br too, cuz have one broken leadlight i want to mod. And the other Sleds? White Lasers White Lasers White Lasers

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Alright I’ll post up when he has some more in as soon as I buy myself a pack or two… I checked today and there aren’t any at the moment. But I wouldn’t suggest buying them just for the laser if you want power… In that case, get the PHR-803T. But the ability to switch to red and violet on the KES diode is nice, but they burn out very easily. And by the way, the main reason I ordered them was for the sleds (with 2 beamsplitters) to make a white/many-other-color laser.

For combining several beams the KES sled is convenient however it is pretty bulky and inefficient.  In the beam path given by ROG you are likely to lose 50% of the green and 50% or more of the blue assuming they are both polarizing beamsplitters (I have a few I played around with, and I believe the small one is dichroic and transmits red but I'm not sure).

Since you have a bunch of sleds I would suggest popping the cubes out of one just to get a feeling of how they work.  The PHR cube seems to be dichroic and will transmit red and reflect blue/green with incredible efficiency.  In my experience, different colors/polarizations reflect/transmit differently in each type of cube/filter.

You are likely to lose 50% of the green no matter what you do since it is unpolarized (and I have yet to come across a useful dichroic for combining blue/green) but if polarize both the red and blue horizontally, combine them in the PHR cube and combine the purple with the green in the large PS3 cube you should be able to keep the majority of the red/blue.

For combining several beams the KES sled is convenient however it is pretty bulky and inefficient.  In the beam path given by ROG you are likely to lose 50% of the green and 50% or more of the blue assuming they are both polarizing beamsplitters (I have a few I played around with, and I believe the small one is dichroic and transmits red but I'm not sure).

I beg to differ, the cubes in the KES400 work very well for the red and blu-ray as long as you polorise them (easy to do just rotate the module for best output)Yes the green looses 50% of its output but as it is far more visible to the eye you can easily afford to loose that power.

Since you have a bunch of sleds I would suggest popping the cubes out of one just to get a feeling of how they work.  The PHR cube seems to be dichroic and will transmit red and reflect blue/green with incredible efficiency.  In my experience, different colors/polarizations reflect/transmit differently in each type of cube/filter.

You are likely to lose 50% of the green no matter what you do since it is unpolarized (and I have yet to come across a useful dichroic for combining blue/green) but if polarize both the red and blue horizontally, combine them in the PHR cube and combine the purple with the green in the large PS3 cube you should be able to keep the majority of the red/blue.

The problem with the PHR optics is you need to use the dichro, as well as the cube, to combine 3 colours. It makes the build smaller but more fiddly to do as you need to swap the dichro out for something else. The whole idea of using the KES400 is that the optics are all set up for you making a 7 colour laser a breeze to set up.

Regards rog8811

rog8811 said:

For combining several beams the KES sled is convenient however it is pretty bulky and inefficient.  In the beam path given by ROG you are likely to lose 50% of the green and 50% or more of the blue assuming they are both polarizing beamsplitters (I have a few I played around with, and I believe the small one is dichroic and transmits red but I'm not sure).

I beg to differ, the cubes in the KES400 work very well for the red and blu-ray as long as you polorise them (easy to do just rotate the module for best output)Yes the green looses 50% of its output but as it is far more visible to the eye you can easily afford to loose that power.

Since you have a bunch of sleds I would suggest popping the cubes out of one just to get a feeling of how they work.  The PHR cube seems to be dichroic and will transmit red and reflect blue/green with incredible efficiency.  In my experience, different colors/polarizations reflect/transmit differently in each type of cube/filter.

You are likely to lose 50% of the green no matter what you do since it is unpolarized (and I have yet to come across a useful dichroic for combining blue/green) but if polarize both the red and blue horizontally, combine them in the PHR cube and combine the purple with the green in the large PS3 cube you should be able to keep the majority of the red/blue.

The problem with the PHR optics is you need to use the dichro, as well as the cube, to combine 3 colours. It makes the build smaller but more fiddly to do as you need to swap the dichro out  for something else. The whole idea of using the KES400 is that the optics are all set up for you making a 7 colour laser a breeze to set up.

Regards rog8811

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Yeah, rog knows his stuff ;D