Aixiz Glass Lenses-- How much better?

Hello All!

I have 3 Aixiz glass lenses on the way, hoping to get better results than the acrylic... Right now I am running a Dorcy Jr red burner from Jake21(unknown power but burns QUITE well). I have 3 acrylic lenses from the modules i bought, plus the one that came with my Dorcy.. ALL these seem to have bubbles in the lens when lit! .

How much better are the Aixiz glass lenses? I am hoping they do not have this "bubble" problem.

Here are my Questions..

1) How much of a power gain have you guys seen with these? And do they need to have the aperture cut out of them such as the acrylic ones?
2) Do they focus as tight/put out the same beam size as the acrylic?

I ask because I am hoping to build an open-can laser soon, and would like to get away with using the Aixiz glass lens, instead of shelling out $30-$50 for a Meredith module.

1) In a MXDL I have heard of with an acrylic lens, the output was about 250mw. With the glass lens, it had 300mw output power, so the power does increase pretty much.
2) I have heard that it is a bit more tricky to get good focus with a glass lens than with an acrylic, but I have no personal experience on this one and I may be wrong.

And about those bubbles in the lens, you have probably so much power in your Dorcy so that the laser beam has melted the acrylic! A glass lens will not melt even due to extreme power, so it won't have those "bubbles".

Aixiz glass lens = ~8mW gain
Meredith glass lens = ~50mW gain

you choose which is better

Hello,
I have sent my latest laser to LarryQ for power testing. I included two Aixis plastic lenses; one with the rear apeture opened up and one "stock". I also sent a Aixis glass lens. Larry is very thorough and reliable so I should have some credible results to post here soon.
The laser is an open can Sony 20x running at 350MAs. CMD

lazerguy said:

1) In a MXDL I have heard of with an acrylic lens, the output was about 250mw. With the glass lens, it had 300mw output power, so the power does increase pretty much.
2) I have heard that it is a bit more tricky to get good focus with a glass lens than with an acrylic, but I have no personal experience on this one and I may be wrong.

And about those bubbles in the lens, you have probably so much power in your Dorcy so that the laser beam has melted the acrylic! A glass lens will not melt even due to extreme power, so it won't have those "bubbles".

Click to expand...

The power from a long open can being driven at 420mA is around 240 - 250mW using an acrylic lens (either aixiz or meredith) and around 280mW when using a meredith glass lens. The power won't increase that much with an aixiz glass lens, the most I've heard off has been 9mW. Amk has claimed an increase of 50mW but he hasn't said if the acrylic lens which he tested the laser with had the plastic on the back cut away.

The bubbles are just imperfections on the lens, it isn't possible to melt it unless you use a couple of WATTS.


EDIT: Here's a graph Dr. Lava made of a short open can diode I sent for testing a while ago. Notice the difference between the aixiz acrylic and the glass lens isn't that great.

Hey,
Heres a link to Hemlock Mikes open can graph.
http://www.laserpointerforums.com/forums/YaBB.pl?num=1190584864
Good stuff here from a very reliable source. CMD

Catmandoo said:

Hello,
I have sent my latest laser to LarryQ for power testing. I included two Aixis plastic lenses; one with the rear apeture opened up and one "stock". I also sent a Aixis glass lens. Larry is very thorough and reliable so I should have some credible results to post here soon.
The laser is an open can Sony 20x running at 350MAs.  CMD

Click to expand...

Hey lets see how close my guesses are:

Long open can @ 350mA's

AxiZ glass - 213mW's
AixiZ acrylic with plastic cut away - 208mW's
AxiZ acrylic without plastic cut away - 187mW's

Please post results! Just want to see how close I got... :
Jay

Catmandoo said:

Hey,
Heres a link to Hemlock Mikes open can graph.
http://www.laserpointerforums.com/forums/YaBB.pl?num=1190584864
Good stuff here from a very reliable source. CMD

Click to expand...

So what does that have to do with the aixiz glass lenses? : ;D

Chido,
This is a preface to the results that I will be posting of an open can tested with plastic lenses both opened and "stock" as well as a glass lens fron Aixis. Just trying to show that the results are more influenced by the lenses and are not some freak high or low diode. CMD.
Sorry I should have explained what I was getting at.

Oh ok, here's more info. A graph Dr. Lava made of a long open can diode:

Ok, LarryQ did a quick test to verify that the postal service didn't kill it in shipment and it put out 195 mW, at least it still lights up. When I took it to the post office the "postal" person tossed it over his left shoulder, banked it off the wall and into the shipping cart. More tests asap. CMD

So with which lens was that measurement taken with?

Larry didn't specify which lens but I sent it with the Aixis glass installed, so likely that one.

Ok...sorry for the delay, but here are the results!

First, I need to say that I really like this dorcy host!
Very similar to the MXDL's I use, and actually seem to be of higher quality!

The laser did indeed arrive in good form.
I installed batteries and quickly checked to make sure the laser survived the postal system.
It did indeed have the glass lens installed.


Today I completed testing, and got the following readings.

Test#1 glass lens = 198mW peak.



Test#2 Acrylic lens with opened back =189mW peak


Test#3 Acrylic lenc with closed back = 174mW




Finally, I did a control test with the glass lens again to make sure any change in power was not due to battery sag
Test#4 Control glass lens = 195mW peak




Looks like there is a definate advantage to the glass lens at least in red lasers.
If there is one negative to the glass lens, it would have to be that it fits the threads in the AixiZ body loosely.
This should be easily compensated for by very carefully flatten a few threads in the brass lens holder.

Hope this info helps!!!

LarryQ

Good job with those graphs Larry!

Looks like I guessed about 15mW's too high.

The long open can's like more current than that!

At that current (350mA's), the Sony/Senkat diodes will put out more power with less current. (over 200mW's @ 294mA's - AixiZ acrylic)

It's when you get up over 380mA's or so, that the open cans go way up on the graph. (better use a thick heatsink)
Jay

Mikes graph (open can vs Senkat):

Well this just keeps proving the point, aixiz glass lenses are no where near as good as the meredith glass lenses.