Jayzereer C-Mount Red Mag Build 650nm 1600 mW

[Minamoto Kobayashi]

This was really an endless nightmare, a neverending story.
After 18 waiting months and the same budget spent for an Hercules 600, I have finally in my hand a c-mount red laser with the new Lazereer ramp-up driver.
I prefer to avoid to list all the problems and issues that I have encountered, also because no one would ever believe a similar compilation of misfortunes.
The name "Jayzereer" was an invention of mine, in honor of the big work done by Jayrob and Lazereer.
So, the host has a massive 1085 grams weight (with cells), it uses 2x32650 6000 mAh Li-On black quality cells, it is rock solid, eye-catching and come with a generous aluminum heatsink.
The whole heatsink contain also the lens, and it is spinning, so to obtain the required focus it's enough to rotate the whole heatsink. This was a very good idea by Jayrob!
Here are some nice shots:

The host fully assembled:

(full resolution pic here: http://imageshack.com/a/img633/16/IaUGfD.jpg)

The headsink (head plus heatsink LOL):

The long-focus lens inside the head:

Inside the host:

The host and the original tailcap:

The modded tailcap:

(the modify was needed because there was too much spring pressure against the cells)

The cells:

The beautiful (and very expensive) 650nm c-mount red diode:

Between the diode and the copper heatsink Angelos placed a thin indium foil to maximize the heat transfer.
Also, the central part of the copper heatsink was electrically (but not thermically) insulated from the external part by Jayrob, because the diode is case positive.

The heart of the device: the new Angelos ramp-up driver with two safety silicon diodes:

Wires soldered and insulated with thermal tubing:

Copper heatsink inserted:

There was made three holes in the aluminum host to play with the (very little) gap of the copper heatsink, so there is the choice to centrate better the input beam inside the lens.

The beamshot inside my home (20 sec long exposure and some smoke):

(full resolution pic here: http://imageshack.com/a/img661/7269/nuThBK.jpg)

The beamshot outside (20 sec long exposure):

(full resolution pic here: http://imageshack.com/a/img673/6595/p2hmyZ.jpg)

The 2 minutes performance:

There is a 17 sec ramp up, and a 170 mw power loss during the first 2 working minutes.
Angelos told me that those red c-mount diodes are very delicate, much more than other diodes, so he has limited the driver current.
The diode is already at 10°C above the max temp allowed when it is off, so the chance to kill it if I try to increase the current in high, and since in the past I already have killed an identical 350 dollars diode, it is better do not reply the tragedy again!
Also, despite the indium foil, the copper heatsink and the external big aluminum heatsink, it is better to keep short duty cycle for the above mentioned facts.

Conclusions: this laser was done only for collection. The dot shape is between a line and a rectangle, it has a long range focus, it is not so visible, it is very expensive, it is delicate. It is not a laser for everyone.
If I had a time machine, surely I do not repeat a similar odyssey. I'm happy to have this laser working, but surely it will be a laser little used.

 

[Alaskan]

Thank you for sharing, looks great!

Do I understand how the heat sink functions properly? Here's what I'm seeing; it appears the copper pill with the laser diode is actually separate from the heat sink lens assembly on the end of the host and instead, the copper pill is contained in the end of the battery tube?

I want to do a build for a C-mount diode too but as a IR illuminator with the focus adjustable from a large spot to infinity focus. One big problem is I cannot find a suitable driver which can produce 15 amps of current at 1.9 to 2.2 VDC (although TLS is working on building a prototype for me, if it turns out well I can use that but I think I'm asking for too much from the device we choose to use).

I am very interested in knowing why you choose to isolate the laser diode from the body of the host, couldn't you just have the host common positive instead of isolated? Perhaps this is due to the driver? Do you have a link for the Lazereer ramp-up driver?

In another thread you once showed photo's of some laserglow beam expanders you purchased new which arrived with terribly scratched up AR coatings, you thought you would have someone re-coat them for you, did that happen? If so, curious who did the work and what they charged to re-coat the optics.

Thanks

Chris

 

[Minamoto Kobayashi]

Hello Alaskan!
I have just replaced the two beamshot pics with better ones.

The copper heatsink was originally made in one piece only, but since the new lazereer driver has a particular config, Jayrob has done a great work on the copper heatsink, so now there are two heatsinks, one inside the other, electrically insulated but thermically conductive.
The copper heatsink is inserted in the aluminum tube ad locked thru three screws. It is important to found the correct distance of the diode+copper heatsink from the lens mounted in the big aluminum heatsink to obtain the right gap for an optimal focus range.
The main aluminum heatsink has the lens glued inside it, and it can be screwed in the aluminum host, so the heat migrate from the internal copper heatsink to the external copper heatsink (electrically insulated) to the thin aluminum host and finally to the big aluminum heatsink.
The aluminum heatsink is so bigger that it is always cold.
If You want to know more about the entire build procedure You can contact by PM Jayrob and Lazeerer.

Uncoating and recoating the lens is not the best way to obtain good results. Usually this procedure uses hydrochloric acid at 100+ °C for more than an hour and this can degrade the glass surface.
The results is loss of power and an halo around the dot.
If You are interested, a company here in Italy is building for me the lenses mounted inside the laserglow beam expander. I have ordered 5+5 lenses without any kind of coating. Then I can choose what coating I wish to apply on the surface. The only problem in the LG beam expander is the small lens, and since the company is not able to duplicate it, I'm forced to do a decoating and a recoating.

 

[crazyspaz]

Very nice! Glad to see at least one of these diodes in a host without dying have you just had it sitting around for a while, or what?

 

[icecruncher]

very nice maglite laser, cool driver.