DIY Laser Power Meter Projects...

[benmwv]

How much did you pay for that Tom? Really what I want to know is if the ones I see on eBay for $200 are a rip-off. If I wait around a bit can I find better prices than that?

 

[tsteele93]

He was asking $200 + shipping and he came down to $200 total and he threw in the two new-in-the-box 12v wall warts free. I usually see them at $200 plus some shipping fee.

I'm sure if you search long enough you might find a better deal, but ~$200 seems to be the going rate. I'll check eBay and make sure that is what I paid.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/160761764193#ht_504wt_922

 

[Kizdawg]

Yeah mine was 200 used then 45$ for shipping then I got hit with taxes at the border of 29$ so mine ended up being arround 275$ I dont know what the heatsink on it is worth it is supposed to be a ZnSe Diffuser I have no idea... hehe

 

[lasersbee]

There is no need for that Heat sink if you measure under 5W..
The 150C heads can measure 5 Watts with no additional cooling
similar to the 20C heads that can measure to 4 Watts without
additional cooling.


Jerry

You can contact us at any time on our Website: J.BAUER Electronics

 

[Kizdawg]

yep The ophir manual say's 6W without heatsink. And well I just had to throw 4 445's at it last night too.. hehe It was nice to see 5.5W :drool: Nice thing I like is the 2.5Sec response time. I dont have to run them that long to get a good read. And well I kinda like the DIY stuff.. Get a feeling of having acomplished something...

I actually talked to one of the guy's at a calibration center yesterday and he also sent me the spec sheet on my particular unit.


It reads like this:

150C-A-.1-C/ERB

Specifications

Conduction Cooled OEM Head with Integral
Amplifier and Response Time Improvement Circuit

Ophir P/N 171004


1. Connections to head

Use Molex connector type 6471 as provided.
PVC wires: 24 AWG. Type W-102 (Belden 9984)
Pin 1 - Negative voltage supply Black
Pin 2 - Ground Brown
Pin 3 - Positive voltage supply Red
Pin 4 - Signal Output Orange


2. Specifications

Supply Voltage: 12V to 24V
Supply Current (no load): 24 mA max
Output signal calibration: 100mV/W 3%
Output signal adjustment range: 25% minimum
Output Offset: 10mV
Response Time (0-95%): 2.5 sec typical
Entrance Aperture Diameter:  18 mm
Max Laser Power: 50W but see note 1 below.
Max Power Density: 20kW/cm2
Max Energy Density (for 0.4msec pulse width): 6J/cm2
Max Head Temperature: 55C
Dimensions of Head (mm): 500.1W x 500.1H x 380.2D
Special holes: 2 thread holes M3x5 on each of four sides
Calibration: Calibrated for 2.9um. Sensitivity at 10.6m is 4% 4% higher than at 2.9m
PCB: HA-9



Note 1
This unit has a voltage regulator of 8 Volts installed. The supply voltage must exceed the regulator voltage by at least 3 Volts and the maximum output is 2 Volts less than the regulator voltage. Thus the output will be accurate only up to 6 Volts. Supply voltages need not be symmetrical, but should contain less than 1 Volt of ripple.

 

[Kizdawg]

Anyone understand note 1 in that? The way we hook these up with the 9V is that like 9V paralelled so 18V were providing? or is it something else ?

 

[tsteele93]

I don't know about the note, but your best bet is comparing to the known to be accurate LaserBee and if they compare pretty well across the usable range of the LaserBee then you are probably accurate enough for our purposes all the way up.

Also, you can take two or three lasers and measure them and then beam them all at once (as you are doing) and see if the total adds up the same.

 

[tsteele93]

I have been looking for an easy solution to building a simple voltmeter to box this all up.

Here is one that I have found. I'd like to find a simple arduino version.

Make Your Own PIC12F683 Development Board: 0-20V Digital Voltmeter (DVM) using PIC12F683

I'm also wondering if this would work with a resistor to get the right conversion?

3.5 12V Red LED 20V DC Voltage Digital Panel Meters

 

[Kizdawg]

That looks neet.. If you are going to try that I'll do what I can to try to help out. I still think I may just wait till that arduino board comes out. I was thinking this multi meter I baught was only 20$ so I may just buy another for now and put it in a box with the sensor. Untill somehting better comes along.. I really was surprised that it worked. I was totally expecting to have to shell out a couple hun for a multi meter.

 

[tsteele93]

Yeah, that might be easier than anything else. I see some meters that are pretty cheap. I suspect most voltmeters are pretty good. That doesn't seem to be a hard thing to do, I suspect that it is some of the more advanced functions that make the expensive ones cost so much.

 

[Kizdawg]

It's the USB I want from the arduino's more than anything I dont really care about the lcd display as much. but it is nice to be able to data log.

 

[lasersbee]

It's the USB I want from the arduino's more than anything I dont really care about the lcd display as much. but it is nice to be able to data log.

Why not get a Voltmeter that already has an RS232 output...


Jerry

You can contact us at any time on our Website: J.BAUER Electronics

 

[Kizdawg]

Nice Thanks Jerry havent seen those b4!

 

[lasersbee]

Something similar to this...

ET2230 Auto Ranging Digital Multimeter PC connect RS232 | eBay

There are many more models out there...


Jerry

You can contact us at any time on our Website: J.BAUER Electronics

 

[bmd19]

I have one of this ET2230 Auto Ranging Digital Multimeter PC connect RS232 they are very good.

 

[tsteele93]

I have a nice craftsman that has neat features. It has a very good capacitor measurement. It has a short circuit detector. But my beef is with the ohm-meter. I don't get good measurements on smt 0805 resistors of known values with +- 1% and even my 1 ohm test load is very wandery and inexact.

Is this typical?

Because it is very precise on the capacitance, so I find it odd that the resistance is so loosely goosey.