Hello to all and thank you for the Forum.
I have been playing with low power lasers since I was young. The Early 1mw 670nm Red lasers were not much to look at, But wow, It was a Laser !
Then the 635nm Red came out and it was much brighter for the same 1mw Power.
Green lasers came much later. Took many years for the price to become reasonable. My First was a 5mw Pointer. Green is amazing. Next was a Potted 15mw Green.
Things went quiet for a couple of years. Then higher power became more affordable.
My first Higher power was a 25mw 635 nm.
Now I have some new ones recently.
Several 50mw 532nm removed from Disco Light shows. 100mw 635nm also from Disco light shows.
Because of the laws in Australia it has made it difficult to source higher power lasers.
Recently I was able to remove the 405nm Diode from a Bluray Player. Only a toy but my first view of this wavelength laser. Very close to Ultra Violet and it does make some nice fluorescence. Even at 20 mw it's nice.
I made my first LPM from a Silicon Photo diode and calibrated it from the 25mw Red which came with a calibration certificate. It works from .01 to 30mw.
I am now starting to build a higher power meter based on temperature rise of a small aluminium plate painted with flat black. Loosly based on the design that uses Diodes to measure temperature. But I am using LM335 Temp IC's.
I am amazed at the Power now available in 445nm Diodes. That is my next project.
I destroyed the 808nm Diode in one of my Green ones and was able to buy a new 300mw 808nm Diode and got it working again. That was a thrill to replace the diode in a DPSS laser and fix it. Even managed to tune the optics and got a good beam back.
Better stop now and start reading.
Charles
I have been playing with low power lasers since I was young. The Early 1mw 670nm Red lasers were not much to look at, But wow, It was a Laser !
Then the 635nm Red came out and it was much brighter for the same 1mw Power.
Green lasers came much later. Took many years for the price to become reasonable. My First was a 5mw Pointer. Green is amazing. Next was a Potted 15mw Green.
Things went quiet for a couple of years. Then higher power became more affordable.
My first Higher power was a 25mw 635 nm.
Now I have some new ones recently.
Several 50mw 532nm removed from Disco Light shows. 100mw 635nm also from Disco light shows.
Because of the laws in Australia it has made it difficult to source higher power lasers.
Recently I was able to remove the 405nm Diode from a Bluray Player. Only a toy but my first view of this wavelength laser. Very close to Ultra Violet and it does make some nice fluorescence. Even at 20 mw it's nice.
I made my first LPM from a Silicon Photo diode and calibrated it from the 25mw Red which came with a calibration certificate. It works from .01 to 30mw.
I am now starting to build a higher power meter based on temperature rise of a small aluminium plate painted with flat black. Loosly based on the design that uses Diodes to measure temperature. But I am using LM335 Temp IC's.
I am amazed at the Power now available in 445nm Diodes. That is my next project.
I destroyed the 808nm Diode in one of my Green ones and was able to buy a new 300mw 808nm Diode and got it working again. That was a thrill to replace the diode in a DPSS laser and fix it. Even managed to tune the optics and got a good beam back.
Better stop now and start reading.
Charles
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