power meter discussion

[Gazoo]

What's the matter Mike...beginning to miss your LPM-1 already.... ;D

 

[Hemlock_Mike]

Gazoo --

Actually, now that DDL has it, I may learn new things too.  He is qualified to use it and provide me (us) with info which I don't have.  This is a Win/Win for all of us.   That meter is in capable hands for as long as needed.

Mike

 

[Gazoo]

Won't be long until I have mine...I am really looking forward to real data vs. guessing.

 

[SenKat]

Guys - I am gonna split this off from this thread, cause there are a few comments I wanna make, and I dont want to mess up his thread too much !

 

[SenKat]

This is good info to have...MIKE !  That Thermal Head I sent you ages ago...THAT is what Daedal used for these tests - he calibrated it with teh LPM-1 and is light years head now...I TOLD you if I were lazy enough, someone would figure that out  I am looking forward to possibly doing a bulk purchase on those sensors, and making some low cost, high quality LPM's of my own to recoup all my losses lately IF they work out well, that is.  If all he is doing is reading the millivolts, or milliamps off of the multimer that is attached to it, then there is NO reason to not turn this into a hand held unit - a display LED board that is pre-wired to detect milli/volts/amps and we are in business, man ! Weee hoooo !    IF it is that simple, that is...daedal needs to wake back up and add his input, since I am headed off to bed

 

[Daedal]

;D

Mike... I only hope to make the LPM's trip worth it  ;D

SenKat... the thermal head I am using is not the one from the module you have... this is a homemade thermal sensor. Completely built from scratch!  I'll supply a photo for the record... look at the next reply (as long as no one beats me to it  ;D)

--DDL

 

[Daedal]

Here it is on the now-famous table... ;D  Gotta love that background effect though  

Enjoy;
DDL

 

[Daedal]

The problem with the sensor that you have is that it is too big and very thick and thus not very sensitive at all. The sensing on it is about 300 times less than on this one I made. On that one a 100mW laser would give barely 0.1 mV, versus this one will give you a very nice ~33.3 mV (again, there is the 3 to 1 conversion ratio ). I'm sure I would be able to make these available as long as I can find more of the materials I used. This one was a luck of the draw. I made a couple and nothing showed up, and this one is sensitive as hell to even a 5mW pointer. A crappy $1 pointer with dead batteries showed up on it as 0.3mV!! Giving about 0.9mW of power out of that little thing  ;D

--DDL

 

[SenKat]

Well, I already have that dummy load resistor (the heatsink) so all I lack is hte sensor  I thought you had managed to get the other head to function properly

 

[Hemlock_Mike]

I've noticed that some TEC's respond well to the application of heat to produce an output.  Maybe a small TEC with heatsink is a clue here.

Mike

 

[Kenom]

basically a thermal pile (thermal head ) is just a peltier that is very small packed onto lots of other peltiers.

You can read the information http://www.gentec-eo.com/en/articles/laser-power-meter.htm

 

[SenKat]

This DEFINITELY warrants further looking into ! I tried black sharpie on the TEC...got some odd - but slightly encouraging results...we will have to see how it works out from here ! Keep some ideas flowing in, folks - I don't suppose we could get Me_Too_Lazy to donate his meter to me in the name of science ?

 

[Daedal]

I tried that one already... :

;D

--DDL

 

[SenKat]

I tried that one already...  :

;D

--DDL

GAH ! I got some odd readings - but that won't stop me until I run out of TEC's hahahahahahaha ! I am of the mind that a "stain" type of finish on it will work well - so it is not too much of a barrier ? I could be WAY out in left field on this one, but time, and murdered TEC's will tell the tale ! hehehehehehe !

 

[chimo]

I did this as well with interesting results. One very key factor is the coating material on the peltier. The absorbtion and lack of susceptability to damage are important.

 

[SenKat]

I did this as well with interesting results.  One very key factor is the coating material on the peltier. The absorbtion and lack of susceptability to damage are important.

What did you use to coat your Peltier ? What kinds of results did you have ?