PGL-III-C 671nm 100mW+ re-alignment

[ultimatekaiser]

Re: PGL-III-C 671 repair

I may take you up on that. I actually just finished some tinkering, as after my re-alignment it was still slightly off center. after a couple hours, I have now centered it even better than it was when it came to me, and I consistently get a steady TEM00, not only even powered, but Gaussian like a HeNe (considered superior and the true 00 mode) with some TEM01 at any place on the pot-even maximum current. (though it rapidly overheats and is ever so slightly off as the Gaussian core of the beam is slightly off but only just barely at max) Thus allowing me a tremendous amount of power. not bad for a bare hand adjustment. If only I had a way to cool the beast better on my desk as a bare module and a fresh battery on me, I'll have to find out now what it can really do!

 

[DashApple]

Re: PGL-III-C 671 repair

Nice ,

Ive found that on my green the biggest factor to get a good beam and output power is the position of the lens after the pump diode , as the pump density and position in the ND:YVO4 makes the most difference

 

[Marco Polo]

Re: PGL-III-C 671 repair

I don't understand why some of these CNI lasers are so horribly put together! Are they really in such a hurry to build these lasers that they can't take at "least" a few extra minutes to stabilize the lasers they are sending out? You'd think directly from CNI, these lasers would be super fine tuned. Instead leave it to a hobbiest to correct the problems.

They're a CHINESE company, does anymore need to be said?

Why is Laserglow considered to be so good? Because they QA the units they receive and reject the garbage, that's why! Because they're a Western company with actual STANDARDS and they REJECT Chinese corner-cutting! As any self-respecting Western company should, and would!

Photonicinduction had it EXACTLY right, dead-on, 100%: Chinky-chonk Chinese absolute f*cking shit! It doesn't work!

I don't care if that's "racist" or what have you; the evidence speaks for itself IMHO. TELL me that I'm wrong. Compare ANY Chinese laser product to a proper Western build, there is no contest. Western is superior every single time because Westerners have STANDARDS. I will never buy Chinese lasers ever again, and that DOES include CNI. If that means no yellow for me so be it, their yellows are probably pieces of crap anyway, and not worth the money.

If these Chinese companies CARED about customer satisfaction they would never sell us defective or dodgy units, PERIOD. They would QC and QA them to make SURE they could stand up to normal use. THEY DON'T. They don't care, and as such they are not worth a single dime of your money. They certainly aren't worth mine. PERIOD, end of story.

 

[DashApple]

Re: PGL-III-C 671 repair

Someone likes uppercase words .

and as such they are not worth a single dime of your money.

Purely subjective .... ,

I think CNI do make some pretty good systems .

 

[IsaacT]

Re: PGL-III-C 671 repair

I would buy a module again from CNI but never a full laser. Their QC looks good at first but once you get down to it their QC is really just an overuse of epoxy. I'll take my hosts handmade and my diodes locally sourced if possible.

 

[DashApple]

Re: PGL-III-C 671 repair

I'd stay away from the pointers they make personally , but the lab systems are pretty good ( hardly any epoxy ) xD

 

[ultimatekaiser]

Re: PGL-III-C 671 repair

indeed. the labbies are not bad. some of the handhelds are better than others. but many are hit or miss.

 

[ultimatekaiser]

Re: PGL-III-C 671 repair

Additional update:

First re alignment was good, but clipped the aperture when finished. Just redid it again today taking a lot more time (several hours) and now have a much more stable and narrow TEM00 that isn't hitting the edge of the aperture. Recovered some of the lost power too, & with a little less current.

Edit: correction it's more powerful! just let it cool and on startup it was crazy. It used to struggle burning black plastic, now it's burning through it like Swiss cheese, and the beam is visible in the dark! Wow... Now I really need an LPM....

 

[ultimatekaiser]

Re: PGL-III-C 671 repair

Update: this thing is a beast now. Still not a perfect, but very good, much better than when I got it. I got a new LPM, and it is properly calibrated. It checks out against several others.

Got around to metering it today and it's consistently putting out a whopping 300 mW or so. Peaked at 338mW. That's with a better profile, and 3x it's rated output!

 

[IsaacT]

Re: PGL-III-C 671 repair

Hot damn dude! It peeked at like 150 when I sold it to you

 

[ultimatekaiser]

Re: PGL-III-C 671 repair

I know...i'm rather flabbergasted...so much I re-measured it 3 times! It starts at about 300 and hangs out about 300-320mW for a few moments occasionally jumping up higher, peaks after few, and then verrryyy slowly drops back down and then down closer to 280 and then down a little more, steadily decreasing as I assume it overheats. at which point I turned it off.

turns out my LPM wasn't as off as I thought. just turns out the cable (BNC?) had a small problem. repaired it and compared it to several others at the lab and they're all happy with one another. used my 680 (ultra stable at exactly 22mW with a 3 element) to double check all the readings, as well as a couple other lasers from the lab and a HeNe. its reading like a champ. The response time is under a second, so its nice as I can see every little dip and curve in the power shift. Turns out (as I posted there) my yellow did take a small hit for TEM00 dropping in power a pretty good amount and then mode hops dropping output very low. might be fixable if I put it in a custom host....I wonder if I should yank them both and have a host crafted for them...