Blu-Ray 6x plus UVA LEDs fluorescense

[Pirateo40]

And here's what it does to rocks... This one is a piece of wernerite. Under longwave Uv it is fluorescent a birght yellow. The laser penetrates the mineral and causes it to "glow" from within....

 

[Pirateo40]

And this is how the beam looks on a rock at high noon outside. The pic on the left is sodalite which is glowing a bright orange. On the right is a non-fluorescent area of the rock; all you see is a faint violet dot. My camera is sensitive to this bright dot and shows it much brighter than it really is.... But the orange glows like a birght ember.

More pics can be seen at: http://geo-adventure08.blogspot.com/

 

[jayrob]

That is a sweet build! These silicone tailcaps make great little dust caps for the lens:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.5742
You just have to cut the little 'nub' off inside. The only thing is, it's easy to forget that the cap is in place. Where did you get the host?
Jay

 

[Pirateo40]

Thanks Jay!

The host is a laser/led light sold on Ebay - $10 incl shipping. Ledwholesalers is the seller. It has a red LD and 15 LED in the head, but I just stripped them out and replaced with my own components. The black glass surrounding the LD is a special filter glass which passes UV and blocks visible - used to filter out the visible light from the UV LEDs.

Mark

 

[jayrob]

Thanks Jay!

The host is a laser/led light sold on Ebay - $10 incl shipping.  Ledwholesalers is the seller.  It has a red LD and 15 LED in the head, but I just stripped them out and replaced with my own components.  The black glass surrounding the LD is a special filter glass which passes UV and blocks visible - used to filter out the visible light from the UV LEDs.

Mark

I believe I found the host you referred me to:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Red-Laser-385-n...photoQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1742.m153.l1262
If you don't mind, I have a couple of quick questions for you about that host. Does the top 'silver' piece unscrew separately? And, that looks like a switch that is not just ON/OFF. Did you rig, or change the switch to make it just turn on, or off?
Thanks,
Jay

 

[Pirateo40]

Hi Jay

The silver piece unsrews, as does the wider diameter neck from the "body" - you end up with three pieces (plus the end cap for the batteries.  It has a "3 AAA" battery carrier inside.  The switch is actually a four position rotary pushbutton.  Each push acitvates one of three poles (the 4th being "off").  I simply wired it as [LED on], [OFF], [LD on], [OFF].

To unscrew the assembly you have to heat the threads with a heat gun - they are glued together, but with a little heat come apart nicely.  There's a PCB carrier for the LEDs which I just toss and mount the LEDs in the aluminum plate directly.  As with most of these things from China it is shoddily built, no current protection for the LEDs and lousy LEDs - b ut the housing is good.  Be careful soldering to the switch - too much heat will melt the connector tabs where they mount in the plastic housing.  I replace the LEDs with my own.... (UV) - or one could put white light LEDs...  The various laser housings Axis(?) and Merdith are too big so the inner circle of LEDs get drilled out....  That leaves the outer circle (10 LEDs)

(BTW - there's a lot of room inside the head to mount a driver, especially if you remove the LED PCB and mount LEDs directly to the aluminum)

Mark

 

[Hemlock_Mike]

Mark --

Nice job on that laser -- I told you that you'd be an asset here ;D

Thanks from all of us.

Mike

 

[Pirateo40]

Jay - this is the cheaper one: http://cgi.ebay.com/Red-Laser-395-n...228601448QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item320228601448 The UV LEDs are 395nm, but you should be able to get it for $10 shipped....

Mike - thanks!

Mark

 

[jayrob]

Jay - this is the cheaper one: http://cgi.ebay.com/Red-Laser-395-n...228601448QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item320228601448  The UV LEDs are 395nm, but you should be able to get it for $10 shipped....

Mike - thanks!

Mark

Thanks for all of those details Mark. I found a nice host for blu-ray builds that I like very much. But yours definitely looks better! I like the side button as well. I've got my next driver ready to go. And I have a 6 X drive on the way. Time to join the 6 X club...
Jay

 

[Hemlock_Mike]

Jayrob --

The 6x club is a pretty exclusive group ;D

Mike

 

[jayrob]

Jayrob --

The 6x club is a pretty exclusive group  ;D

Mike

It is indeed! I have high hopes though. Hey mike, check out this latest picture I just took:

It's a beam comparison between my two blu-rays. Smoke machine, so you can see the beams...even with sunlight beaming through the garage door windows! One is 16.7mW's (PS3), and the other is my 2 X writer build. (43mW's) I have my 6 X drive on the way...
Jay

 

[Hemlock_Mike]

Nice -- I can see the difference. 16 mW from a PS3 is a push for the diode. I keep mine at about 10 to 12 mW. You won't believe the 6x

Mike

 

[jayrob]

Nice -- I can see the difference.  16 mW from a PS3 is a push for the diode.  I keep mine at about 10 to 12 mW.  You won't believe the 6x  

Mike

You know, I only have the PS3 at 38mA's. I think I'm getting a 16mW reading because of the Meredith glass lens. My 2 X build, has a Meredith acrylic lens. I would expect that the 6 X will be about twice as bright as my 2 X build...
Jay

 

[Switch]

WOW, that an amazingly-awesome laser Very, very nicely built!!
Just one question though, about the LEDs: Aren't they single wavelength? Or do they emit UV aswell as violet? Does the filter make stuff fluoresce without the purple glow? Cause I pretty much would want to get my hands on that glass if that's the case

 

[Pirateo40]

I just had an afterthought.... (this means "after" I completed my builds).

The Blu-Ray diode, either the low power PS3 or even the high-power 6x produces a beam which is very hard to see when focused at distant objects which are dark (non-fluorescent).  Probably does not matter for most folks on this board, but for my application I am finding it difficult to "point" at distant (non-fluorescent) objects - simply cannot trace the movement of the beam (daytime).  The violet color is at the low-end of our visible spectrum, almost beyond the reach of our eyeballs.

It would've been neat to do a couple of things.  With the PS3 diode a circuit could've been designed to switch on either the red LD or the blue LD (the PS3 diode has three LD in one can - red, IR, and violet) - (DO NOT try to switch the power output between the diodes - that'll zap the diode; you would have to switch the driver input - probably have two drivers).  This way the red LD could provide beam positioning feedback.  Then the violet LD turned on to detect fluorescence (I know - not a general application for you guys, but an interesting thought perhaps for someone else who is playing with these things).  

On the bigger 100mw LD since there's only one LD in the can a 2nd one (probably green) would have to be mounted.  My case would work well for this.  But then you have the problem of converging the beams, and at what distance.  Interesting 3rd project - maybe I'm not done yet!
Mark

 

[FireMyLaser]

LEDs have a peak wavelength. The filter blocks the rest.
Purple on the other hand is a mix of blue and red wavelengths.