CNI 473nm DPSS: Alignment help needed

[Encap]

I’ll take another look today and see if I missed something that I could do and then I’ll get some feedback.

:thanks:

Can you move the entire assembly base plate over at the front of the housing enough to allow the beam to not be clipped by the aperture if that is what is happening?

yeah its within a margin of error within a few thousandths of a degree. its not an easy thing to do by hand. I offer realignment for people.

Have you had any luck realigning GLP-473nm pens?
If so maybe you can get Hap's 473nm pen sorted and back up to 5mW instead of the 2mW it is doing now?

 

[NightExplorer96]

Have you had any luck realigning GLP-473nm pens?
If so maybe you can get Hap's 473nm pen sorted and back up to 5mW instead of the 2mW it is doing now?

I've spoken to him Encap, and he said he'd have a look at it. I decided to just sell it to someone who's in need of a 473 more then I do. I picked up a CNI GLP-532 pen instead. In fact, I think CNI is producing it right now!

-Alex

 

[Encap]

I've spoken to him Encap, and he said he'd have a look at it. I decided to just sell it to someone who's in need of a 473 more then I do. I picked up a CNI GLP-532 pen instead. In fact, I think CNI is producing it right now!

-Alex

OK --you don't want a 473nm GLP pen for whatever reasons. Got it

 

[ultimatekaiser]

Can you move the entire assembly base plate over at the front of the housing enough to allow the beam to not be clipped by the aperture if that is what is happening?

This ^ may well be your issue based on what im seeing.

Have you had any luck realigning GLP-473nm pens?
If so maybe you can get Hap's 473nm pen sorted and back up to 5mW instead of the 2mW it is doing now?

There's little alignment to be done in those. the damage in hap's case sounds electrical, such as diode or pcb damage based on the info he gave me, misalignment is pretty rare in those. Power loss in those is usually from diode failure, or partial failure in this case.

 

[styropyro]

Good to know the output was decreasing apparently from clipping rather than some other damage to the unit. I never opened this head, but I have opened up a ton of BW Tek units over the years. Without reading through the thread I am going to recommend against messing with the alignment on this one. With the BW units I had about a 50/50 success rate between fixing them up and making paper weights. I recommend either putting a little prism in there behind the aperture to direct the beam through the opening, or simply drill out the aperture so the beam can escape, and seal it off with a window of some sort. So you know, the nonlinear crystal is hygroscopic and will absorb water, so keep it in very low humidity while it is open and make sure it is sealed when you are done with it. Good luck!! :beer:

 

[CurtisOliver]

Thanks Styropyro. Even with the clipping it’s still a great laser to own. Anyway, through use of everyone’s advice I’m definitely not going to consider realigning the module. Too risky. I like your ideas on stopping the clipping. I will look into a prism first before I go drilling holes.
It’s always good to see you post Styropyro! :beer:

 

[ultimatekaiser]

many of mine had a small metal plate glued on the inside with a pinhole poked into it as an aperture alignment, and then an IR filter affixed to the outside before the fiber coupler or output lenses. The base may have shifted. you can rotate the baseplate, and thus the whole assembly by loosening the screws that hold it, as it is seperate from the enclosure (walls and lid) without touching the alignment at all.

 

[CurtisOliver]

I'll take a look at that today and see if I can spot anything else.

 

[Encap]

I'll take a look at that today and see if I can spot anything else.

Did you get a chance to see if you can move the whole assembly silver base pate on the floor of the housing so the beam clears the black housing aperture?

 

[CurtisOliver]

I did take a brief look, but it doesn't appear like I can just shift the plate.
I'm currently thinking about using a prism or mirror to redirect the beam.