drlava said:
Hi Odic, welcome, and thanks for posting! soon some of the members who have laser meters here will receive their lasers and measure the output, so we will know for sure.
Does the driver you mention pulse the laser rapidly in medium mode, or is it CW? Rmember to factor in the lasing threshold when you approximate the power output based on current and optical gain.
I hope you like it here!
Thanks for the welcome, I have posted a few pics in the multimedia section now.
The driver on the homebuilt is simply a modified 1-3v led driver from DX , I keep it on the low setting which gives about 220-230ma from 2 x alkaline cells in, so I was guessing at 180ma to the diode (after taking away a threshold current of 40-45ma).
This is not by any means how I would recommend to drive the diode ;D but my quick stab at a power burst to try and approximate the claimed 200mw ...
The figures in the DX post were only intended as a rough first look guide I missed out detail and obviously the men with the meters will give the real answer...
I am, a chemist by profession, not a a laser buff but did play about with fluorescence decay spectroscopy some years back and at work I did a quick 'lunchtime' comparative calibration of one of the diodes in pulse and continuous mode, unfortunately that equipment is not available now. :'(
Actually the quote in the thread earlier which says my review
was taken from an answer, not my review
which is posted at DX now and estimates the output at 160mw! But I would really rather stop guessing and wait for some real data...
Cheers!
Driver I used: