rog8811 said:I have just spent an hour reading through the whole thread, at some point I placed an order ....I am pretty new to laserism and would like to pick some brains here.
I am engineering a tri colour projector using a 10 mw green and, as of this thread, a higher powered red, I am not looking to burn (unless one of the ones I have ordered ends up as a spare )
My projector has to be portable and my power source will be a 12v car battery (to run the motors/servos/etc. I have purchased from ebay a couple of 12v to 1.5/3.0/4.5/6 @1500ma regulated supplies) I realise I will need to do a bit of curcuitary but it does not need to be small enough to fit a poiner.
I am a mechanical engineer not too well versed in electronics, though I can follow a circuit diagram and design and solder a vero board. When some of you whizz kids have done some experiments would you please pass on your findings to lesser mortals like me?
An aside, I have probably spent more on parts than it would have cost to buy a laser show on ebay...but where would the fun be in that .
Regards to you all Rog8811
Hey Rog8811,
These diodes should be perfect for mixing with 10mW of green. From what I've read, 650nm red is about 4 times less visible than red, and 660nm (what these diodes lase at) is slightly less visible than 650nm. I think that you would be golden with about 50-60mW of red to 10mW green, so you wouldn't have to overdrive these diodes at all. Then again, I've heard of people mixing 5mW of green with 100mW of red, so I guess it depends on how green/yellow or orange/red you want the color to be.
I can't help you with any electronics knowledge, sorry, but Daedal's guide should be pretty good.