My new LPM

[docjohn]

DIY MXDL

 

[docjohn]

DIY red

 

[docjohn]

My DIY lasers so far Have plans for at least 5 more. I get a kick out of making different host, driver, and battery combinations. I got interested in lasers 2 months ago and kind of went nuts.

 

[JLSE]

Nice collection you have there! Did you order the LPM with the PC interface?

 

[docjohn]

Yes. It came with the sensor on the black heat sink and the pcb with the readout and all the stuff on the board. All I had to do was hook up a 9 V. battery and start measuring. Got it for $172 from Laserbee in Canada. Seems to be pretty accurate. Laserbee built it and calibrated it B4 shipment. This is his latest Mod. It is a thermocouple sensor so it is good for all visible colors without correction.

 

[JLSE]

Sorry if I wasnt clear, I meant the serial cable that hooks to your computer to graph. For 172. im guessing no. It cost I think 210. wtih that option. I have measured all the way down to a 5mW green leadlight and this unit looks very promising. Im in the middle of putting together a few different wavelength lasers to test against another members high end Coherent meter. Ive put some pics together and will be adding more of course, if you want to take a peak they can be found here.

http://www.laserpointerforums.com/forums/YaBB.pl?num=1214528356/0#0

 

[docjohn]

Yes it came with that cable and software to connect to pc. I got it for 172 when he was selling one on e-bay. I won at 172. I think he is asking over 200 now for same as mine. You are right, it goes from 5mw to 1000 mw. For the price I haven't been able to find better. When I get it in an enclosure I will post a picture.

Yours looks great!!!

 

[Murudai]

I recently purchased one of those meters as well.

It's a great meter isn't it? Works just as advertised and quite cheap. Excellent for the hobbyist

 

[MarioMaster]

is there a metal piece on top of the TEC (sensor)? if not beam diameter may influence your readings

 

[docjohn]

I recently purchased one of those meters as well.

It's a great meter isn't it? Works just as advertised and quite cheap. Excellent for the hobbyist

It's really great Murudai. I love it. I know it is not an expensive lab LPM, but it is accurate enough for me. The main thing is that it seems to have reproducable results. Do you plan to mount yours in something? I am loking for a small plastic or metal case.

 

[docjohn]

is there a metal piece on top of the TEC (sensor)? if not beam diameter may influence your readings

Not sure. If I take a real close up do you think you could tell? Laserbee said that beam diameter could effect it and suggested that I try to fill the entire sensor. Not sure if he was concerned about burning the paint or it affecting the reading.

 

[Murudai]

I tried a few readings, both with small beam diameters and then increasing the diameter to the whole sensor.

Making the dot larger makes a small amount of difference. ~5mW at ~180mW for my dilda laser.

 

[SenKat_Stonetek]

You will find that with the TEC type of meters, your readings will vary depending on the size of the area you are measuring....I had made some rough "meters" with larger TEC's in the past - decent results, the paint is high temp flat black, but WILL burn up if your dot is too focused. Glad to see more folks taking advantage of this unit, the Die4Thing meter was similar in design - I think it used a little smaller TEC for the sensor - but was accurate as hell
I think that is my long-winded way of saying, "Yes" Dot size plays a large part in the accuracy of the meter... I found the best results were to use a .5cm dot size or so - that seemed to be the most accurate for me. This meter MAY be different, but not by much - so see if you can reduce/enlarge your dot size to .5cm and try it out ???

 

[docjohn]

is there a metal piece on top of the TEC (sensor)? if not beam diameter may influence your readings

I think there is. Here are a few close ups of the sensor. It looks to me like there is a thin piece of metal on top. Am I right?

here is sort of Front view

 

[docjohn]

A top view.

 

[docjohn]

another angle on top