A140 Arrived. 24 Watt outdoor pics

[LazyBeam]

sorry to be a spoilsport but you should never shine any laser into the sky even if you check for "no planes first". the reason is that pilots can see the beam when viewed from the side from a good distance and many of the reports from pilots being distracted from lasers has also included those just being shot into the sky.

It is distracting to pilots and highly dangerous and there is rarely a good reason for doing so.

Please do not shine any laser into the sky regardless of the presence of aircraft from your perspective.

IMO the distraction meme, unless the distraction has malicious intent, is bullcrap.
Unless the light is pointed AT the actual plane/pilots (or attempts to) then there's not much distraction.
Modern planes pretty much cruise on thier own... the only real danger is takeoff/landing.
IMO, as long as you're not aiming the laser at or around any aircraft at any altitude there's no harm there.

Pilot: Hey what's that blue ray of light a few hundred yards off to the left there.
Copilot: Oh shit...a laser!! Look away so you are not distracted.
Naked Stewardess: What?!? Should I leave the cockpit so I'm not distracted as well?
Pilot & Copilot: NO!

 

[oic0]

sorry to be a spoilsport but you should never shine any laser into the sky even if you check for "no planes first". the reason is that pilots can see the beam when viewed from the side from a good distance and many of the reports from pilots being distracted from lasers has also included those just being shot into the sky.

It is distracting to pilots and highly dangerous and there is rarely a good reason for doing so.

Please do not shine any laser into the sky regardless of the presence of aircraft from your perspective.

Squirrel!!!!!!!!

Any pilot who can not focus because he sees a little blue beam should probably never drive a car, especially at night. Even if they do get distracted though, whats going to happen? they run in to a cloud before noticing it?

The references to distracting a pilot usually refer to shining on to the cockpit window during takeoff or landing which can block out their vision.

 

[blrock]

This morning was time to test a single diode. I couldn't find a suitable housing so I did something a little unorthodox. I drilled a hole into a heatsink then used Artic Thermal Adhesive and "glued" the diode down in the hole.Thought it'll do well in heat transfer.

First testing at 1.1A was dreadful. The divergence was worst than my 500mw c-mount red. I must admit, using putty to hold the lense is not the brightess idea. Just as I was about to give up for the day I found the sweat-spot. OMG!!
The tight beam is most definitely on par with my 1 watt green.
Even so there is a fine line finding that perfect focus. It's analogous in finding that E note on a guitar. You'll know when you hit it.

The inside pics were taken with smoke.

 

[Limecat]

You still intend to make 24 diodes all fire down the same beam path right?

 

[HaloBlu]

Great beamshots

 

[blrock]

You still intend to make 24 diodes all fire down the same beam path right?

I've just asked for pricing for a PBS and mount from CNI laser. I'll first try combined just two beams. Run them at 1.4amps each. Hopefully I can achieve about 2.5 watts.

It's strange to speak watts now days. Only a little while ago we spoke milliwatts

 

[DJNY]

I can´t see the magnifying lense
You should buy one like Pontiacg5 did!
I like your 3rd picture most

 

[Flaminpyro]

This gives me an idea, I'm going to have to order 24 405 glass lenses from Aixiz and put them in one of these projector heatsinks with all the diodes behind them
Now to figure out how to focus all 24 lenses at once......

 

[LazyBeam]

Just make a lens plate with 24X M9x0.5 holes... then you can screw aixiz lenses directly into the diode array.
Aluminum should work well and the tap and drill would cost <$30

 

[blrock]

Just an update. I ran my A140 diode @ 1.3 Amps for 1.5 hours tonight. The diode was only slighty warm. That thermal adhesive seems to do the job well. I'm tempted to run it continuously the whole night.

 

[Gryphon]

These diodes are proving to be rather robust

 

[jbtm]

If you still have the projector..Do us a fav. Run the projector for some time (maybe a hour or so) like you watched a movie. Take a temp reading of the diodes. I'm very wanting of the max temp these can run. I was told by someone at 4HV they got 43C to 60C in the projector, but I cant beleive it until I see more than one confirmation.

It was hot and very muggy outside, so I ran my laser for only a peak of 20 seconds, with 30 second rests, maybe 5 times, came inside to read it at 98F, so...I'd like to know...43C = 109F

 

[millirad]

Good news. Once we can get the beam divergence optimal then we will have even more to enjoy.