New red laser bought locally in South Korea

I still have this embarassing laser. It is one of my worst builds where I should have just stayed in bed that day ... Everything went wrong from the word go. I forgot to leave a small space for the driver when I machined the brass host. The lens nut came out too long. When I got this disaster home, then I discover that I forgot to machine the pocket in the tailcap for a clicky switch, so, back to the machine shop. Well, the comedy of errors doesn't end there ... At home in my electronics shop, I go to make an 1117 driver, now as small as possible because I forgot the space for it. Well, instead of an adjustable 1117, I reach into the wrong bin and grab an 1117 3.3 by mistake. I never look at the chip, just in it goes. So, I finish the laser and pop in two CR2 3.6V. Well I hadn't drilled and threaded for a setscrew to hold the tailcap in ...
Go back, do that, now the batteries stay in. I turn on the laser and it's WTF time. Why is this thing so bright? What is wrong here? (Everything ...) I measured it on my Coherent Lasercheck and got 510mW. The laser still works to this day, but running off two little CR2's, the power sags quickly down to 400mW. Let the batteries recover for a moment, and it comes right back. I just measured it at 455mW on iffy batteries, measured with the Scientech 365. I'll charge the batteries and take another power reading, take some photos of the laser, and post them here. I like freak diodes.

Here is the old thread ...

http://laserpointerforums.com/f50/freak-lpc-815-laser-43546.html

laserboystuart said:

no you are actually the one who is talking mA instead of mW, if you read back im sure you will find it...

you clearly stated 'i want to make a phaser build with that 510mW diode!' when clearly in his youtube video that it is 510mA not mW, no LOC/LCC will reach 510mW.

stuart

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Ok, then my fault for not reading mA.. I assumed mW instead.

how many mWs then. ???

over 1W ? (?vdc) x .510A = ?mW

To measure laser power, you need an LPM. There is no formula or substitute. Diodes of the same type and even from the same run vary significantly from each other.

billg519 said:

To measure laser power, you need an LPM. There is no formula or substitute. Diodes of the same type and even from the same run vary significantly from each other.

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yes I know that. I am trying to get mr.mA to tell me about mr.mW.
he claims 510mA... but I want to know mW... mA means nothing here,

Ham549 said:

Uh doesn't WL offer a 500mW red?

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Yes but as a 671nm DPSS system, not direct 650nm diode system.
There is a difference.

@Bill, wow damn. When you are having a bad day, your lasers become super powerful. When I am having a bad day, they just die

When we actually find out the power of the laser I'll be happy.
Tried the CD case today with a make shift heatsink with air blowing in from a 7500RPM cooler fan 12v. I also gave the laser a full 3.7v. Ahah! CD case punctured in under 2secs!
Still waiting on the DPSS laser specs in the video.

...

Great surprise package you got! :san: Hope it holds up at whatever power its pushing. Video?

Seoul_lasers said:

When we actually find out the power of the laser I'll be happy.
Tried the CD case today with a make shift heatsink with air blowing in from a 7500RPM cooler fan 12v. I also gave the laser a full 3.7v. Ahah! CD case punctured in under 2secs!
Still waiting on the DPSS laser specs in the video.

...

Click to expand...

Sorry for the long time to reply.(I turned off e-mail notifications)
First, this is not a DPSS laser.
This is a LCC diode laser.
Outputs close to 400mW using 650-G-1 lens.

HaloBlu said:

Great surprise package you got! :san: Hope it holds up at whatever power its pushing. Video?

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It didn't hold and I think the driver is toast. LD is fine, driver smoked. Angry!

Seoul_lasers said:

It didn't hold and I think the driver is toast. LD is fine, driver smoked. Angry!

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Sorry!!
I was expecting that to happen. Either your laser was overdriven to begin with or somebody messed around with the driver. To produce this kind of power for very long you need good heat-sinks on both the LD and the driver.
Now go build yourself one that will last.

Turns out that the driver is toast but the LD was unharmed. I too was expecting everything to be lost. turns out it isn't so.

Good ..