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- Oct 26, 2007
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I PMed Electrofreak a week or two ago about suggested vendors for a 300mW 532nm laser, at or around $200-300. He suggested that I contact David (sales at lasever dot com) at Lasever to see what they could provide.
I contacted David (or rather Van) at Lasever and they first asked what I would be using the laser in, in order to help choose the right laser for the application. This was not an attempt to up-sell, and I actually ended up purchasing a laser more powerful than their suggestions just so that I could have some headroom in the future. They also gave me datasheets on other products, and were very candid with answers and their information.
In the end, I purchased an LSR532NL-500 500mW 532nm laser, at a price that was within my budget along with some other goodies:
The laser itself comes with a free power supply. However, I opted to upgrade the power supply to the LSR-PS-II PSU adjustable power supply above for an extra amount. The PSU can adjust the current output and also has a modulation input. Unfortunately, in transit the front LCD got damaged:
I obtained assurances from David that my warranty would not be voided if I made repairs myself (there are warranty-void stickers on the screws), and fixed the PSU screen. It now works fine.
When I did my testing, I found the PSU only goes up to about 2.56 A at full swing. The laser, however, is rated to run at 500mW output at 2.62A. I did not find this to limit the output power of the laser; 2.56A produced 500mW on the laser after it stabilized. However, going much above 500mW on this laser may not be possible with this PSU.
I clamped the modulation to its maximum for that given output power (3.5V) and did some measurements on the laser:
Around 500mW is my target output power. It would climb higher while it stabilized, but eventually settled to about 512mW @ 2.56A:
I'll try and do some modulation tests some time in the future. I don't have the setup at the moment.
Here is the dot pattern:
It appears to be TEM01. So "TEM00-like" but not TEM00. Even after 5-10 minutes it did not assume TEM00. I'll also need to mess with the focus. That dot depicted in the photo is about 7.5mm @ 7ft, which is quite large.
I also purchased some other goodies along with the laser, namely some dichro mounts and a dichros. The dichro mounts are knife-edge type mounts depicted here:
The above were less expensive than I've seen such mounts elsewhere (I'll leave it up to you to contact David if you want a price quote). They did not come with screws, so I need to buy some M3 screws. The pair of dichros cost far less than they do from sellers like O-like.
Finally, if you're going to order, realize that shipping is $50 via DHL, so factor that into your price. It took one week for them to prepare the laser, and exactly two days for it to arrive at my doorstep after the courier pick-up from China--very fast shipping! I would have probably packed box somewhat better to ensure the PSU didn't get damaged, but the box was noticeably compressed so there might have not been much to prevent damage. Nothing was permanently damaged however.
P.S. Hopefully Electrofreak writes his review on the even higher powered Lasever laser(s) he purchased. I want to read how they are.
I contacted David (or rather Van) at Lasever and they first asked what I would be using the laser in, in order to help choose the right laser for the application. This was not an attempt to up-sell, and I actually ended up purchasing a laser more powerful than their suggestions just so that I could have some headroom in the future. They also gave me datasheets on other products, and were very candid with answers and their information.
In the end, I purchased an LSR532NL-500 500mW 532nm laser, at a price that was within my budget along with some other goodies:
The laser itself comes with a free power supply. However, I opted to upgrade the power supply to the LSR-PS-II PSU adjustable power supply above for an extra amount. The PSU can adjust the current output and also has a modulation input. Unfortunately, in transit the front LCD got damaged:
I obtained assurances from David that my warranty would not be voided if I made repairs myself (there are warranty-void stickers on the screws), and fixed the PSU screen. It now works fine.
When I did my testing, I found the PSU only goes up to about 2.56 A at full swing. The laser, however, is rated to run at 500mW output at 2.62A. I did not find this to limit the output power of the laser; 2.56A produced 500mW on the laser after it stabilized. However, going much above 500mW on this laser may not be possible with this PSU.
I clamped the modulation to its maximum for that given output power (3.5V) and did some measurements on the laser:
Around 500mW is my target output power. It would climb higher while it stabilized, but eventually settled to about 512mW @ 2.56A:
I'll try and do some modulation tests some time in the future. I don't have the setup at the moment.
Here is the dot pattern:
It appears to be TEM01. So "TEM00-like" but not TEM00. Even after 5-10 minutes it did not assume TEM00. I'll also need to mess with the focus. That dot depicted in the photo is about 7.5mm @ 7ft, which is quite large.
I also purchased some other goodies along with the laser, namely some dichro mounts and a dichros. The dichro mounts are knife-edge type mounts depicted here:
The above were less expensive than I've seen such mounts elsewhere (I'll leave it up to you to contact David if you want a price quote). They did not come with screws, so I need to buy some M3 screws. The pair of dichros cost far less than they do from sellers like O-like.
Finally, if you're going to order, realize that shipping is $50 via DHL, so factor that into your price. It took one week for them to prepare the laser, and exactly two days for it to arrive at my doorstep after the courier pick-up from China--very fast shipping! I would have probably packed box somewhat better to ensure the PSU didn't get damaged, but the box was noticeably compressed so there might have not been much to prevent damage. Nothing was permanently damaged however.
P.S. Hopefully Electrofreak writes his review on the even higher powered Lasever laser(s) he purchased. I want to read how they are.
