JetLasers 10X RCB

[RedCowboy]

A lot of us upload to YT, I pulled these from YT to show the difference between a G2 and 3 element.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP2LAXkZj8TyoJXvYyROxeQ

 

[Accutronitis]

My J/L Beam Expander will be here today ! Cool !

Update from Jetlasers !

Hello Steve,
It is 25x0.5mm.

The Beam expander adapter was machined in decent precision. And there is always some tolerance in regard of machining but it is 25x0.5mm, metric system instead of British system.

In the pic you attached, the pitch didnot fit the threads. I highlighted it in the pic attached.
Feel free to message me if you have any questions,
thanks,

Gray

Cool, I was worried for a second there ! So my BE will be here today and my tap will be here in two days, Now if I could just get that dang aluminum tube out of customs where it's been sitting for two weeks + I'd be able to get Thor's Hammer done..........

 

[BowtieGuy]

Accutronitis, all I can say is that my particular B.E. is not 0.5mm, that pic with the 0.75 was taken trying to balance the gauge on a box top while I photographed it. I know it doesn't look perfect, but it's damn close, you also saw the other photo with the 0.5mm lens barrel next to it, and you can see that those two threads aren't anywhere close to the same.

Now, that is not saying that they are not 0.5mm now, they may very well be!

Please be sure and let us know what yours turns out to be when you get it today; if you don't have your tap yet, just hold a 9 x 0.5mm lens holder up next to it to compare pitches.

Good luck with your B.E. adapter! :beer:

 

[Accutronitis]

Accutronitis, all I can say is that my particular B.E. is not 0.5mm, that pic with the 0.75 was taken trying to balance the gauge on a box top while I photographed it. I know it doesn't look perfect, but it's damn close, you also saw the other photo with the 0.5mm lens barrel next to it, and you can see that those two threads aren't anywhere close to the same.

Now, that is not saying that they are not 0.5mm now, they may very well be!

Please be sure and let us know what yours turns out to be when you get it today; if you don't have your tap yet, just hold a 9 x 0.5mm lens holder up next to it to compare pitches.

Good luck with your B.E. adapter! :beer:

As it turns out the aluminum tube that I'm pressing into the heat sink has a ID of 25mm so I can thread the end of that tube and screw the beam expander directly in to the tube and the laser module will be right behind it as close or as far away from the beam expander as I like !

I have a M25 x 0.50 tap coming and it will be here on the 16th, BE will be here today, And the aluminum tube has left customs and is moving again so I'm thinking a day or two for that.

It's all coming together !

 

[BobMc]

This is just to funny, that got a smile ( a rubber band )


Very informative thread, thanks, I've got a 10x coming with a mini that I bought, looking forward to seeing what it can do. Thanks again for the chuckles.

 

[RedCowboy]

Ah, you caught that. :beer:
p.s. You just have to appreciate rubber bands and hot glue, that Gorilla brand super strength is good and it's an insulator too.

 

[Accutronitis]

Hey RedCowboy lets talk redesigning something that already exists, The JL x 10, I got mine and despite JL's best efforts to prevent it I removed the input len on my BE and right off the bat I'm not happy, It's not the fact that the lens is just epoxied onto the input lens plug, It's that the input lens is not centered on the input plug ! (I don't know if that can be seen in these pixs but trust me it's not centered)...






Sorry Jetlasers but that is not very good quality control in my opinion.......

RC you were saying we need a larger input hole and lens to prevent clipping of the beam, couldn't we just modify the input lens plug by enlarging the input hole and mounting a lager lens to suit our purposes ?

The input lens is a plano-concave lens with the flat side facing out, After that input lens plug and lens it's wide open spaces inside the beam expander all the way to the output lens.....




How about changing the size of the input lens and input hole size to prevent clipping of our rectangular shaped MM beams ?

 

[Accutronitis]

I'm making a second post because this is a parallel line of questioning....

For correction of the fast axes couldn't a Anamorphic Prism Pair work as well as Cylindrical Lenses before the beam enters a beam expander ?

https://www.thorlabs.com/NewGroupPage9.cfm?ObjectGroup_ID=149

 

[diachi]

I'm making a second post because this is a parallel line of questioning....

For correction of the fast axes couldn't a Anamorphic Prism Pair work as well as Cylindrical Lenses before the beam enters a beam expander ?

https://www.thorlabs.com/NewGroupPage9.cfm?ObjectGroup_ID=149

Sure can, those are used frequently as well. :beer: The 2W 445nm labby I sold to Alaskan uses a prism pair instead of cylindrical lenses. There's pictures of that around somewhere. Many others have also used a prism pair.

The prism pairs are easier to adjust but are typically less efficient than cylinder pairs, especially at a higher magnifications due to the higher angle of incidence.

 

[Accutronitis]

"higher angle of incidence" Dang ! There is a lot to learn about light ! lol

 

[RedCowboy]

If we could replace the input lens with a slightly wider opening in the retainer ( Just drill it out a tad ) and a lower power ratio of maybe 5X, then that would be great, we just need someone who can calculate the right lens....maybe JET could offer us one to modify our expanders, a lens and retainer package for our MM blue diode beams.

 

[Accutronitis]

If we could replace the input lens with a slightly wider opening in the retainer ( Just drill it out a tad ) and a lower power ratio of maybe 5X, then that would be great, we just need someone who can calculate the right lens....maybe JET could offer us one to modify our expanders, a lens and retainer package for our MM blue diode beams.

Man that would be great ! There is so much power in a 44 it would be great keep as much as possible by not clipping the beam and at the same time focus all that's left after the all the lens down to as small a point as possible at a distance ! :drool:

 

[RedCowboy]

I wonder what a sanwu 3X input lens would do, I have unscrewed the output of a 3X and it diverges less than natural but still fills the output lens with that bar, but that's with a 3 element primary, I would like to use a G2 in the 10X but reduce it to 5X with a different input designed to work with the G2 as the G2 lets all the power through.

Now as you twist the focus on your 10X you can see the output lens sink in, with it zoomed out being it is a wider lens and sits further away where the beam would be wider it may work with the 3X input, but that's after a 3 element primary. I wonder if sauwu has any BE input lenses for sale loose?

We really need a redesigned input lens, likely a wider and longer expander in the end as well, although the G2 will expand faster and in shorter distance.

I wonder if you left your input lens out and fiddled with the adjustment of your G2 so that it's bar shaped output would fill the output lens of the 10X be when screwed all the way out what we would get?

We may can just take out the 10X input lens and tune the G2 to work with the output lens, or we may need a very low expansion rate input lens and a wider hole, I want to use it on a 6X corrected beam.

I might just make a mount and set my convex cyl lens so that it fills the expander output at fully extended, or less depending on how short you want a tight spot.

It's going to take some trial and error, an adjustable cyl mount like cdbeam777 makes would be good.

 

[Accutronitis]

We really need a redesigned input lens

That's what I was thinking, the fast axis diverges so wide so fast coming out of the diode that when you collimate it with the collimating lens the beam ends up all the way from one side of the lens to the other and the way I see it is you really don't want to have to narrow the now parallel light just to try to keep it from clipping as it enters the BE, if the input lens was larger that might do the trick ???

likely a wider and longer expander in the end as well

I'm thinking if the BE input lens was larger to prevent clipping AND it had the right shape to only expand the beam no larger that the BE output lens and at the right focal length so the output lens can focus the now expanded beam back down to a small point at a longer distance, If that makes any sense ???

although the G2 will expand faster and in shorter distance.

I can't help but wonder if there might be some clipping taking place even before entering the collimating lens but this is all very new to me and I really haven't had enough time to do very much testing to get a handle on how that laser stuff does what it does yet ??? I've been spending so much time getting my "Thor's Hammer" host ready for the 44 diode (I've had to do everything by hand mostly) that it's taken a lot of time to build this host the way I've wanted that at the moment I'm pretty worn down, But the aluminum tube I've been waiting for has finally shown up and i'm fitting it to the heat sink as I'm typing this, So I should have first light by tonight....

I wonder if you left your input lens out and fiddled with the adjustment of your G2 so that it's bar shaped output would fill the output lens of the 10X be when screwed all the way out what we would get?

I don't have a G2 lens yet but I ordered one from DTR that should be here in a few day......

 

[RedCowboy]

When you use Cyl correction and unfocus a little so it expands on 1 axix but otherwise both axis are fairly evenly diverging, now you can refocus from that wider point, and you get your best long range performance.

If you just use a wider lens at a longet FL from the diode where one axis is very aggressive you wont get as tight of spot nearly as far.

But for now if we can just use a longer FL primary and a biggr expander we can cheat out a pretty decent result.

Like I was saying, if any of those NUBM06 diodes from Techhood have the good GBall that makes a 5mm x 25mm bar at 5 meters then just a sanwu 3X will be fun to 25-45 feet, will have to test it and see, it is a longer FL single element.

But I am getting off track here, if we use a G2 and 6X pair but rather than set for infinity set the beam where it spreads a little so that the 10X with the input removed can manipulate a focused spot over 1 to 100 feet.

But if we do this with just the raw output them because it's uncorrected and constantly expanding in relation to it's other axis it wont reach near as far.

Plus it's ratio from point source to widest is shorter than when corrected.

For future use and use with other diodes a wider and longer expander would be good to have, 10X is too much for the width of the JET for our MM diode, a 7mm input opening and 4x maybe 5x max would work for it's output lens width.

By far the easiest thing to get you started burning is just use a 3 element and a sanwu 3X, the adaptor is plenty strong.

--------------------------EDIT---------------------------

The other thing you can do is go ahead and make a mount for your JET 10X and use a G2 primary in your 12mm and focus it past or short of infinity, you don't want to clip your beam, but you also don't want to burn your lenses from what I have read.
The G2 does sit close to the diode so you get a tighter beam that diverges fast, I have used the G2 with the 3X and it takes it just fine, but useable burning power at 20 feet is better with the 3 element because of the more gradual divergence, even with the 20% power loss.

You could try a G7 with the 10X but non of them will work focused to infinity without clipping a log, you will get more power defocusing but still it's a big compromise, I would like to see a LPM reading with the 10X and any off the shelf lens at 10 meters.

 

[Accutronitis]

I just had first light with Thor's Hammer, The raw power of the NUBM44 is insane !

Anything I point it at bursts into flames !