i'v been reading here for 2 weeks since i found you, and left with a few questions that got too many search results, atm my questions are scattered across my mind over a period of 1 week so their relative order is random.
1:
what happened to the market, in 2006 there was a huge hype around wicked lasers, they charged for pen sized 100mw 300$ +, they had their green spyder I and II 200mw for 1600$, now overall prices fell 3 times and i don't see any remnants of green spyders except the arctic 3 blue and dirt cheap relative to their past prices.
while other companies like optotronics, nova lasers and dragon lasers barely budged.
component prices: after i dissected my viper 95, then watched a bunch of youtube vids and red a lot info here, i got confused about actual parts prices.
like fore example i paid 200$ for my 95mw while rayfoss and O-like sells same "advertised" power for 3 times less and 200mw for a bit over 100$.
i go check bare module prices for 100mw and it's even lower, then i check KTP crystal prices on O-like for 200mw green 2x2x5 14$, i look at my viper crystal which looks 1.5x1.5.cant measure depth, and think "something is wrong here".
even if i calculate by end user prices, driver 15$, 808nm 500mw diode 10-20$, KTP crystal less than 14$ because it's smaller for pumping 100mw green out of it the than the intended crystal for 200mw, glass lenses 10-15$, module 10$, total 70$-ish, is that about it ?
surely for a company it's even cheaper by the quantity they buy.
2: so when i see a green 150mw-200mw module diode with driver and lenses in the area of 100$, what chance it'll have powerful enough diode and appropriate crystal for the advertised rating and not overpowered wimpy parts that'll die faster ?
3: what shape of KTP crystal is better, short cavity 3x3x2 or prolonged cavity 3x3x5 ? (when the 3x3 is the entrance perpendicular to the beam)
4: lasers that have focusable lens for burning, when set back to normal infinite beam, do they stop influencing the beam and go back to same divergence as that module would be without the focusable lens ?
5: i noticed some new life span for diodes with 3500 working hours popping on eBay, what the heck is that ? (few weeks ago those same sellers wrote 5000-6000h)
6: is most of the heat produced coming from the tiny itsy bitsy diode or KTP as well ?
7: when continuing to run a laser in hoped mode (split beam) does the diode or KTP get damaged ?
my viper after doing the 1st hop mode ever because it was a bit cold, around 16c, later on just got more frequent hops even when temps were above 20c, i couldn't conclude anything final from this. (it happened with all 3 vipers, and with more use got worser and worser, 1st vipers beam held the longest)
8: why green lasers considered very sensible to shock ? (i do see the 3 thin wires connected to the diode that look like potentially the weakest link, but the way they sit on the mount wont make them rip or budge on drops, maybe the mount itself can twist a bit around the screw but no short circuits or so)
9: why 445nm starts with such a fat beam diameter of 5mm, is that some physical property ? (that's the info i stumbled upon around here, but in 2-3 words)
10: i saw on eBay some drivers have the LM358 regulator, is that boost ? probably not a buk otherwise my viper wouldn't burn from a 3.2v bat, or buk are considered even when stated 3-4.2v can be used, so even the little drop from 4.2v to 3.5 or what ever 808nm diode eats needs a buk ?
11: is there really any big difference in quality of the parts sold by O-like rayfoss and others i wont mention that sell 2.5-3 times more, except the quality control filtering the under spec ones ?
the big picture i get is that company A will have a constant % of units sold within advertised spec while company B will have more under spec, but the ones that are good from company B are equal to companies A units, or there's more ? (without considering consumer support and good communication).
and i aint talking about something dragon lasers do, taking 20mw laser and sell it as 50mw because it can output so, that is just despicable. (at least their honest)
damn it, i was clicking for few hours all of this from my phone yesterday and the memory got full and i couldn't post it.
i probably forgot something along the way,
thanks for any answers ! :yh:
1:
what happened to the market, in 2006 there was a huge hype around wicked lasers, they charged for pen sized 100mw 300$ +, they had their green spyder I and II 200mw for 1600$, now overall prices fell 3 times and i don't see any remnants of green spyders except the arctic 3 blue and dirt cheap relative to their past prices.
while other companies like optotronics, nova lasers and dragon lasers barely budged.
component prices: after i dissected my viper 95, then watched a bunch of youtube vids and red a lot info here, i got confused about actual parts prices.
like fore example i paid 200$ for my 95mw while rayfoss and O-like sells same "advertised" power for 3 times less and 200mw for a bit over 100$.
i go check bare module prices for 100mw and it's even lower, then i check KTP crystal prices on O-like for 200mw green 2x2x5 14$, i look at my viper crystal which looks 1.5x1.5.cant measure depth, and think "something is wrong here".
even if i calculate by end user prices, driver 15$, 808nm 500mw diode 10-20$, KTP crystal less than 14$ because it's smaller for pumping 100mw green out of it the than the intended crystal for 200mw, glass lenses 10-15$, module 10$, total 70$-ish, is that about it ?
surely for a company it's even cheaper by the quantity they buy.
2: so when i see a green 150mw-200mw module diode with driver and lenses in the area of 100$, what chance it'll have powerful enough diode and appropriate crystal for the advertised rating and not overpowered wimpy parts that'll die faster ?
3: what shape of KTP crystal is better, short cavity 3x3x2 or prolonged cavity 3x3x5 ? (when the 3x3 is the entrance perpendicular to the beam)
4: lasers that have focusable lens for burning, when set back to normal infinite beam, do they stop influencing the beam and go back to same divergence as that module would be without the focusable lens ?
5: i noticed some new life span for diodes with 3500 working hours popping on eBay, what the heck is that ? (few weeks ago those same sellers wrote 5000-6000h)
6: is most of the heat produced coming from the tiny itsy bitsy diode or KTP as well ?
7: when continuing to run a laser in hoped mode (split beam) does the diode or KTP get damaged ?
my viper after doing the 1st hop mode ever because it was a bit cold, around 16c, later on just got more frequent hops even when temps were above 20c, i couldn't conclude anything final from this. (it happened with all 3 vipers, and with more use got worser and worser, 1st vipers beam held the longest)
8: why green lasers considered very sensible to shock ? (i do see the 3 thin wires connected to the diode that look like potentially the weakest link, but the way they sit on the mount wont make them rip or budge on drops, maybe the mount itself can twist a bit around the screw but no short circuits or so)
9: why 445nm starts with such a fat beam diameter of 5mm, is that some physical property ? (that's the info i stumbled upon around here, but in 2-3 words)
10: i saw on eBay some drivers have the LM358 regulator, is that boost ? probably not a buk otherwise my viper wouldn't burn from a 3.2v bat, or buk are considered even when stated 3-4.2v can be used, so even the little drop from 4.2v to 3.5 or what ever 808nm diode eats needs a buk ?
11: is there really any big difference in quality of the parts sold by O-like rayfoss and others i wont mention that sell 2.5-3 times more, except the quality control filtering the under spec ones ?
the big picture i get is that company A will have a constant % of units sold within advertised spec while company B will have more under spec, but the ones that are good from company B are equal to companies A units, or there's more ? (without considering consumer support and good communication).
and i aint talking about something dragon lasers do, taking 20mw laser and sell it as 50mw because it can output so, that is just despicable. (at least their honest)
damn it, i was clicking for few hours all of this from my phone yesterday and the memory got full and i couldn't post it.
i probably forgot something along the way,
thanks for any answers ! :yh:
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But luckily I can probably fix that whenever I get around to ordering a new pump.