M140 Power Benchmarks

[Pr1m4lcur5e]

Hey guys! Just recently assembled my third laser! I used an M-type M140 with an X-Drive from DTR's shop and was wondering what it should be able to do. I don't have an LPM yet so I cannot tell what the exact value is, but what should I be able to do with an average M140 diode? I'm assuming the driver from DTR is set at 1.8 Amps and so far, with a bit of practice I was able to light a candle. I'm not sure what else I could do with this besides blind myself, but don't worry, I have the Eagle Pair for 190nm to 540nm. I have yet to actually ignite any material other than a candlewick or a match.

 

[BobMc]

With a m140 and the driver set at 1.8 amps your probably getting 2.0- 2.3 watts. Somewhere in that neck of the woods. With a g2 lens, with a 3 element a little less. Enjoy~~~~~ edit, what host did you use ?

 

[Pr1m4lcur5e]

At about 2 watts, what could I expect it to be able to do/burn? And to answer your question, it is currently in a Survival Laser S4 Host. I'm hoping to upgrade to a different host in perhaps a month. By no means is the S4 a bad host, it is actually really sturdy and compact. Better than what I expected from a host of that size. It's just that it isn't very big, and with an M-140, I would imagine at 1.8 Amps there would be a considerable amount of heat. I am deathly afraid of thermal runaway, so I have not powered it on for longer than 25 seconds at a time. I figure if I can't feel any warmth then I should be safe. Any recommendations for a next potential host?

 

[BobMc]

A s4 host is good for a m140. Your duty cycle of 25 seconds is about right but I'm guessing you could extend it to 45 seconds and you'd still be "ok"but the shorter the better. You can burn just about anything matches,paper,whatever just will have to keep them fairly close. If you want to burn things father away your going to have to upgrade to a larger diode. You can always put that m140 in a custom host with a large copper sink and get some really great run times out of it. You've got a bunch of options, that's a really great diode.

 

[Pr1m4lcur5e]

Yeah I was planning on finding when the host would get warm by upping the duty cycle by 5 second and 10 second intervals. I would have gone from 25 on and 40 off to 30 on and 50 off and so on, so forth. Thanks for such a fast response.