680nm builds

I've finished fiddling around with my test module, and moved on to get a finished laser. :tinfoil:

My old C6 style test module was running on 7.4V-9V input @ 108mA to get around 30-40mW of output from these 680nm diodes. Due to these diodes being case positive however, I had trouble getting them to operate the way I wanted. finally managed to make a case positive style laser without having to isolate the casing using a salvaged driver from a dead laserglow Libra/Anser pointer. (they use the same driver)

I havn't yet tested its exact current draw, but running it side by side with the original gives me a very similar look, so power-wise they can't be too far apart. Voltage input needed has been dropped from the whopping 7-9Vin down to a mere 3-3.7Vin with better regulation by taking advantage of the APC and the onboard feedback loops for monitoring output.

This outright looks almost the same as 671nm on the wall, It is a very deep red color...However, upon shining it into something to diffuse it, the difference is hugely apparent, betraying the darker color. the 660 looks like a McDonalds standard brick red, and the 671 is slightly darker, more of a fire-engine/blood red, and the 680nm is like dark ruby color. Sadly the camera can't show the color accurately, but it is really quite something to see in person.

Pics!

Completed in a red anodized 501B host by MrCrouse:


natural beamshot off my work desk:


Natural shot in the dark!:


Hope you enjoyed! :beer:

That focus adapter looks sweet!

Indeed it does! I really like it a lot, it looks amazing on the trustfire A8 hosts! I need to PM MrCrouse and have him make me some of his custom hosts. I want to make my first 445 High powered laser in the future. I also need another 501B as well.

He does awesome work on hosts. I had him duplicate a clutxh alignmwnt tool into a laser host. Lol

If I called the 650-660nm a bloody red wavelength, what name shall I come up for 680nm? Obviously it's another laser colour I have to see in person yet.
You, ultimatekaiser, not only named it well - dark ruby - but also delivered a decent looking (agreed with Speedy78's comment about the great matching focus adapter) host design, a classic you can't go wrong with.

Congrats on this carmine build:beer: & +rep.

Thanks very much! Thinking I'll make a 9V labbie of sorts out of the test module, and I still have another diode if anyone is interested in it. I'll happily press it and sell it if someone wants one, or take a commission to build another :beer: I also would like to point out it is single mode and has excellent divergence, it rivals my HeNe lasers with the red AR 3-element lens. It also is very thermally stable, it gives off almost no heat at all.

Ah! THAT is the diode I forgot about! I knew there was some diode I wanted to get, but couldn't remember what it was lol! Nice build too--am I correct in assuming this is pretty dim looking?

Certainly less brilliant than 660, but just as lustrous. As I said, it looks like a brilliant ruby. If you uncollimate it or diffuse it, anything that lowers the power density, it's a dim dark dark red. It's in a way, a true red, as opposed to 635 or possibly 650. It's hard to describe without seeing it. Dark ruby is the only way to relate the color I can think of.

680/685/690 to me just looks like a "dry" red. It really doesn't make much sense until you compare an uncollimated spot, to an uncollimated spot of 660. It's like all the life was sucked out of it, and it's just a dry, deep, pure red.

I know of some $500 1W C-mounts needing 20C to run, though I don't have the money for that. Though I wish I could have high powered 680 to play with, this wavelength is wonderful

It's so close to the edge of your vision I imagine everyone sees it slightly differently. Collimated they're really similar, but at the same power level, in collimated they're successively darker and darker, and less vibrant at about this point. It's also one of the few reds I've seen that is micro-corrected, giving a good round spot if set up correctly, as opposed to a bar/ellipse.