Recent content by pseudonomen137

If you're going to be doing a lot of projects like this, a good starter investment would be an adjustable power supply. You can normally find a cheapo 0-30V 0-5A one for just over $100. With that you could hook the diode up to the PSU and test it out at whatever current or voltage limit you...

Yeah, I'm sorry but if $300 surprises you you're gunna have a hard time. Even the $1000 grizzly lathe I use often can't pull off basic tasks. For small diameter things that aren't too long you can stick them in the drill chuck to turn them (your limitation is probably a 3/8" diam chuck, 1/2" if...

Thanks. Sorry for being a pain in the butt... I just get irked by how divergence and diameter are commonly treated as independent properties on laser forums. Then many end up expecting you can optimize each one separately, which then leads to complaints when their laser X has higher divergence...

Wow, did you draw that plot by hand or do you somehow use the laser power to proportionally disturb fault lines and then seismograph the result? I grew up in a world where lines and plots only exist on computers...

That's their reputation at least! Haha. Honestly, I bought a Coherent for testing what I sold because the name commanded the most respect. Coherent is a pain in the a** though! heh. Sure they price their meters like the crown jewels, but I've gotten better customer service from people selling...

As asked above, can you clarify what exactly you want your final outcome to be? There was some interesting stuff where many red diode lasers were taken, and with accurately aimed mirrors they were directed to just about overlap - so you had a large beam that was actually made of several small...

Sorry, my disagreements were with the statement "With DPSS lasers, the divergence tends to be higher than other kinds of lasers", and the general treatment of 'divergence'. It must be stressed that divergence, by itself, does not give you any benchmark by which to compare lasers. It is only by...

Yeah good question f22. What type of power/wavelength are we talking about in general? I'm assuming you need power, not energy testing? My primary meter is Coherent Fieldmax II TO with their PM3 sensor - good for logging charts for some of the lasers I used to sell. That one is relatively...

It's always a trade-off. As said above, for a beam in the sky it doesn't really matter. For burning though, the problem is that you can either have low divergence at the expense of having a larger initial beam, or a small initial beam at the expense of large divergence - never both (sorry!). So...

What, you don't like having your working current be spec'd in terms of a constant by which its inversely proportional to the square root of your resistance? So lazy.... =P

Yeah, those 593.5nms sure are a pain! Its amazing to me that they could even make a pointer like that, the DPSS process for 593.5nm is much more tricky than any of the relatively straightforward ways to get 532nm or 473nm from 808nm, and we know how poor a 473nm can be in bad weather. When I...

I'm over nearby f22 also. Not quite 150miles, google maps says ~200miles if you wanna stop by here (you know, just in case you're on your way to the Wal Mart in Dallas or something and wanted to visit along the way =P).

Sorry, no idea about customs. "Operating Voltage 2.9V to 3V " - that's a pair of AAA's for you right there. Assuming its regulated in some way, you should be good to go. I'm guessing that board provides some shoddy excuse for regulation for your batts, but probably good enough for you to get a...

No I'm not, stop asking! jkjk, Ben told me to stop by this post. I don't really have the spare time to keep up on the latest consumer laser stuffs, sorry (or you're welcome, for the many I've probably pissed off at one point or another)! If you're interested in getting in touch, probably the...

Wow! Sure looks like one hell of an adventure with an awesome reward to boot. ...and I see you've already set to work on developing a cheddar-flavored swiss cheese!