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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

Cheap Heatsink for scanner projects etc

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Nov 8, 2006
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@laserlands
I've seen you posting on other threads about your products too, nothing of talking about other companies etc.
Eg, aixiz sell a smaller heatsink for half the price, but they ship from USA.

Beware with the advertising; it may sound annoying to some members.
Hi Leodahsan,
Like rff3rd mentioned about "self-serving", I think this is what he's talking about.
Laserland seems very self-serving, jumping in with a link to their site in any post on topic or not if they sell something similar.

It seems laserland is also resurrecting many long dead threads where they were mentioned or not to just refresh the link and add another link to themselves....NOW that's what I call self-serving rff3rd!
 
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Joined
Aug 7, 2010
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@bootleg2go
who is rff3rd ?

Anyways, I don't like the 'self-serving' attitude. it sounds like the company/poster don't even care about the thread, and only wants to sell. Look at you, you are responsible by Optotronics, aren't you? I've never seen you posting recommending your company on topics like "Optotronics Or Laserglow" eg.
I appreciate your attitude (and many other companies) better than Laserlands' attitude. Just look at his sig :beer: it is a catalog!
 
Joined
Dec 22, 2010
Messages
227
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18
I can't say i disagree... anyways - below you can see the brackets actually being used in a RGV setup. My green laser is from a crappy alligned chinese pointer so the beam is not as wide as the red and violet. The green beam is not shooting straight out of its module so a large part of the beam is "eaten" by the module on the inside cavity. I will buy my next green from O-like, cbb with anymore low quality pointers.

EDIT: If the images below this "edit" comment do not show up automatic, you have to log in (member images).

4881-rgv-setup-made-black-piece-mdf-homemade-mirrormounts-dichroics-o-like-15mm.jpg


4882-rgv-setup-made-black-piece-mdf-homemade-mirrormounts-dichroics-o-like-15mm-green-beam-not-shooting-straight-out-module-because-crystal-poorly-alligned-cheap-chinese-pointer-large-part-green-beam-eaten-cavity-inside-module-results-thinner-green-beam-compared-red-violet.jpg
 
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Joined
Jan 13, 2011
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Hey! great project! I wanted to make one of these. Where did you buy the board its all mounted on and the mirrors and mirror mounts?
 
Joined
Dec 22, 2010
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It really was a fun project to do :) I bought the dichroic mirrors from O-Like: Welcome to O-Like.com, Your source for laser products

The board its mounted on is just a black piece of MDF. I drilled 4mm holes for all the components and then expanded the backside of the hole with a 10mm drill going 2/3rds of the 4mm hole - hope that made sense. I will take a few pictures of the boards backside when I get home from work.

The mirror mounts I made myself from a piece of aluminum angle. I drilled 14mm hole for the mirror, and 4mm holes for the adjustment bolts. I will take a few closeup pictures of them so you can see the details a bit better.

The drivers I also made myself from a schematic I found on C4R0s website: ..:: c4r0 homepage ::... Its the one that has the label: [ ADDED ON 12.12.2009 ]

Good luck with it :)
 
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Oh wow. I think this is a little over my head. Im very lost. But those pics will help a lot thanks!
It really was a fun project to do :) I bought the dichroic mirrors from O-Like: Welcome to O-Like.com, Your source for laser products

The board its mounted on is just a black piece of MDF. I drilled 4mm holes for all the components and then expanded the backside of the hole with a 10mm drill going 2/3rds of the 4mm hole - hope that made sense. I will take a few pictures of the boards backside when I get home from work.

The mirror mounts I made myself from a piece of aluminum angle. I drilled 14mm hole for the mirror, and 4mm holes for the adjustment bolts. I will take a few closeup pictures of them so you can see the details a bit better.

The drivers I also made myself from a schematic I found on C4R0s website: ..:: c4r0 homepage ::... Its the one that has the label: [ ADDED ON 12.12.2009 ]

Good luck with it :)
 
Joined
Dec 22, 2010
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Thanks :)

The first picture shows the aluminum profile that i used. The second picture describes the mounting board, and the rest are of the mirror mounts. Hope you can use this for something. If you need any help feel free to send me a PM.

img0897g.jpg


img0887dx.jpg


img0889d.jpg


img0890n.jpg


img0892fn.jpg
 
Joined
Jan 13, 2011
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Thanks for your help! I shall start my project soon! :san:
Thanks :)

The first picture shows the aluminum profile that i used. The second picture describes the mounting board, and the rest are of the mirror mounts. Hope you can use this for something. If you need any help feel free to send me a PM.

img0897g.jpg


img0887dx.jpg


img0889d.jpg


img0890n.jpg


img0892fn.jpg
 

NME

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Mar 21, 2011
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Very impressed by your build LaserAdct! It seems simple and fool proof. I especially like the sunken mounting bolts.

Would you mind taking the time to outline any pit-falls in your construction, or any setbacks you encountered? Im in the process of building an RGB scanner system and I think I just about have all the parts, excepting mirror mounts. I'd be particularly interested in any care that needed to be taken during the dichro mount construction, or technique you used to correctly mount all components onto the mdf (compensating for drilled hole missalignments?)
It all seems fairly straight-forward, however I just hope I dont overlook something stupid that could easily have been avoided.
From your experience, would you have preferred a metal base to give better heat disspitation? Or did the ease of machining and electric insulation (I know those cheap green laser usually bias the heatsink positive) of mdf win out? Have you had any drift or alignment issues to date with a wooden base?
Also, at these powers, how long can you run each beam/beam combination without significant heating or intensity loss (Or is the heatsinking ample!)?

Sorry for all the questions, I dont expect you to answer all of them in great detail, but I'd be most interested in any errors you made/problems you faced (if any), and how you overcame them.
Cheers!
 
Joined
Dec 22, 2010
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Hi NME, thanks for your kind words.

I will try my best to answer all your questions, but if I miss something just counter post my reply ;-)

First of let me outline my experiences with mounting on an MDF. One of the reasons I choose this medium as base is that this is purely a diy hobby for me, and all components and elements I have to make myself in my kitchen :) Yeh I know its not the best "workshop", but I am rather limited when it comes to workplaces.

I would have loved an aluminum base but as you stated that exposes further complications which have to be conquered. I looked at various mounting solutions and found that MDF would suit my needs pretty well. There are several things to consider. Its cheap so drilling a few holes wrong or something like that does not cost a lot to remedy even if I had to buy a new piece of MDF. I payed 5USD for the piece I mounted it on. Common ground and isulating each source is another headache I dont have to worry about, which id probably the biggest advantages with this solution.

Until now it has not moved out of alignment at all. Everything is still mounted as it should be and I have only adjusted the dichros once, and that was when I put it all together! As for heat buildup I am currently lacking a IR termometer to measure things correct. The longest I have run the white combo (all lasers on) is close to 20 mins without anything really heating up (as far as I can feel) except for the drivers, but that is because I am pushing more voiltage than needed, optimal with the drivers I use is around 7.5V, but I am feeding it 12V :p The heatsinks I use to hold my Aixiz modules dont even feel warm after 20 min, but ofc I would like to measure things correctly.

When it was time to mount the brackets that holds the lasers, I used an angle to make the alignment easy. Once the lasers and drivers where in place, I switched them on and determined the position of the mirrormounts in two steps: Green + red, and green + violet. I held the mirrormounts in place and marked where to drill the hole. All holes etc could have been calculated before even drilling the first hole, but this seemed to be the easiest way for me to do it. I had to finetune the adjustment after I mounted them with the adjustment screws on each mount.

Regarding the mirrormounts I made, I was surprised how well they worked :) As earlier mentioned I have only adjusted them once, at installement, and they are working perfect for a hobby project like this.

I have to say it all went pretty much painlessly. But that could be due to the fact that I did a lot of preliminary testing with the drivers I made and some rather dirty mirrormounts made from a plastic angle instead of aluminum.

I think the mirrormounts in this thread were the 3rd try. First two I messed up due to shitty tools :) After I bought new metal drills and a vice to hold the angle while working at it everything was a lot easier.

One of the hurdles I had to overcome was the fact that the focus part of the Aixiz modules dont have a tight fit, which means that the beam can move quite a bit in all directions. I was encouraged to try some teflon tape to remedy this, and after a few wraps, and rewraps I got it right. The best result will be if a even layer of tape is applied, and that took some trial and error :)

I might have missed something in this reply so ask away if there is anything else you would like to know. You can also PM me if you like.

Best regards
Nicki
 
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Xer0

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Dec 2, 2008
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Awesome, absolutely awesome!

Who needs commercial heatsinks and expensive mounts...

How long did you build on it, what was your total cost?
 
Joined
Dec 22, 2010
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Hi Xero.

It didnt take long tbh but at first I build a 3 channel driver but that caused me some problems due to isolating the diodes so went for 3 x single channel instead which i messed around with for quite some time. I did the same with the mirrormounts, first i made them using a plastic angle and found that i had drilled to small holes leaving to little room for the beam when turning the mounts 45 degrees. If you dont consider the time i used for "testing" it must be a few days in actual build time and who knows how many hours in preparation reading god knows how many posts in here :)

When it comes to cost its actually quite cheap. I bought the sleds for the red and "blue", aixiz housings and diode press tool from modwerx. The dichros cost 25usd (you can find a link earlier in this thread). The green is a 25usd pointer i disasembled. Including the diy drivers I used the cost is probably close to 125usd. If I had to make it all over again I would probably go with premade drivers but this was a learning build so to say and it was great fun. DIY gives alot of satisfaction as well :)

Best regards
Nicki
 

Benm

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Aug 16, 2007
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Thats pretty cool stuff - i made similar dichro and mirror mount fromt he same materials. One thing that would improve it is to use bolts and nuts with a finer pitch, so that you can adjust them more accurately.
 




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