Review of Thor H Dual Power

[paul1598419]

It's all good. You know I didn't mention it in the OP because I posted about it in the other thread, but this laser has a brass or copper core already in it. It's difficult to tell for sure without a tear down and I didn't want to do that. I did spend a lot of time testing and using this laser. My opinion is it is a well built laser with some surprising features at a reasonable price.

Edit: I got a surprise when my daughter showed up today and gave me an Amazon Echo Tower. It's something I'd have never bought for myself. I set it up with my network and I have to admit it is pretty cool. Looks like Lifetime17 is sending me something, though he hasn't told me what it is. Thank you, Rich.

 

[paul1598419]

I decided to see if this laser would burn, as I haven't actually been interested in this property of lasers for some time. I have a large piece of plywood for this purpose. I found that the Thor H is quite capable of burning wood on the high power setting. The beam divergence is very good on my laser and it causes smoke within 2 seconds.

 

[dden4012]

Nice review Paul. Seems like you enjoyed the task. +Rep when it lets me
Is the lens replaceable with our 9mm variety?

 

[diachi]

Nice review Paul. Seems like you enjoyed the task. +Rep when it lets me
Is the lens replaceable with our 9mm variety?

Looks fairly standard to me, I'll take some measurements later.

 

[paul1598419]

Thanks, Dan. Yeah, the lens is flush with the inner surface and looks like it could be pushed out and a new pushed in. If you saw the end of the lens assembly it is likely touching the diode when screwed all the way in, so a very short FL lens should be able to work with it. It's just that these came with a three element lens which gives the laser's divergence a better angle than a single element would.


Edit: Now that I've had this host all the way apart, I found the copper/brass heat sink the diode is pressed into is quite thin. Maybe 5-8mm, but the diameter is 20mm. This means that the host would take one of DTRs 20mm copper modules and should just press into the opening made for it. The host doesn't get warm to the touch immediately, but does so after a couple of minutes after being on for a minute or two on high.

 

[lasersbee]

Thanks, astralist. The error on my Radiant is stated as 5% and is the only one I have set up for data logging. That is the main reason I used it. I need to do some more work with my Scientech, but with my health issues since my last surgery, I haven't been able to make the time to do it.

Nice Review of that Laser.....

I read that Ophir Meter Calibration procedure years ago
when we started designing LPMs. Very interesting if you
are designing/building Professional LPMs for the industry.

There is nothing wrong in using a TEC based LPM that
is calibrated against a recently calibrated NIST traceable
LPM. Remember that even I don't claim to sell Professional
level LPMs on par with OPHIR or Coherent.
We sell Hobbyist LPMs.

If you can get a true +/-5% in a hobbyist LPM you are
doing quite good. Even an expensive Professional LPM
company like OPHIR can only state a +/-3% accuracy
of their 20c heads.

Spewing technical data does not make a Hobyist LPM
a Professional Laser Power Meter.... IMO


Jerry

 

[BowtieGuy]

Finally got around to reading your review Paul, good job, and thanks for adding the graphs, it's nice to know that you're getting what is advertised by the manufacturer.
Nice to see you've disassembled it and found it capable housing a DTR 20mm module for better heatsinking with those higher power diodes that I'm sure someone will be sticking in these! :yh:
:gj:

 

[paul1598419]

Thanks, Jerry. I have read the Ophir Calibration procedure. It isn't something I need to use, but all knowledge is good to know.

Thank you, Jeff. I'm very glad you liked my review. I did the best I could with this laser, but there are still other things to learn about it. I plan on tackling the driver to find the frequency and pulse width of the PWM used in the low power setting to understand if it changes over time making the low power setting somewhat unstable. I can't say for sure what I'll find, but I will post it here when I am done.

 

[diachi]

Thanks, Jerry. I have read the Ophir Calibration procedure. It isn't something I need to use, but all knowledge is good to know.

Thank you, Jeff. I'm very glad you liked my review. I did the best I could with this laser, but there are still other things to learn about it. I plan on tackling the driver to find the frequency and pulse width of the PWM used in the low power setting to understand if it changes over time making the low power setting somewhat unstable. I can't say for sure what I'll find, but I will post it here when I am done.

Let me know your test procedures with the driver and I'll replicate those when I can. We can compare! :beer:

I'll have my review up this afternoon, it's pretty much done, I just need to grab a couple little bits of information on my lunch break.

 

[paul1598419]

Will do, diachi. I have a frequency counter too with a duty cycle app on it. I'll be using it plus my scope to watch the PWM over time. It should be very interesting.

Edit: Just spent 5 minutes checking the frequency and the duty cycle of this laser on low power with my digital counter. It was stable at 500Hz and 50% duty cycle for the entire time. Will need to wheel my scope, which is on a scope cart, from my storage room to do further testing. But, so far I can't find a reason that diachi's laser continues to increase in power in the low setting. It may very well be a unique effect of his laser.

 

[paul1598419]

Well, I got my scope set up and took some screen shots. In low power my scope reads exactly 500 Hz at 3.64 V p-p. On full power I get a reading of 4.83 VDC. I haven't figured out how to get a clean shot of my scope today, so please forgive the quality.

I see the same ringing that diachi has on his scope, but my p-p reading is different. I believe this small amount of ringing is due to the conduction of the laser diode and is nothing to worry about.


Edit: I resized all my photos in the OP and everywhere else. Sorry if they were too large for some to see on their devices.

 

[paul1598419]

Today I was testing this laser again and found that after some hours of use, the two 26650 unmarked batteries that came with mine were showing two LEDs lit on the battery charge display. So, I decided to charge them and once charged, to test them as well. After a few hours on my Opus BT-C3100 intellecharger they measured 79 mohm and 84 mohm dynamic internal resistance! A very good reading for these no name batteries. The charger states that the contact resistance of the charger is ~30 mohm, which should be deducted from the readings. That makes htese about 49 mohms and 54 mohms respectively. Think I will do a capacity test next and post the results here.

 

[dden4012]

That's great info Paul. I'm curious of who the main manufacturer(s) are of the 26650 since they are all rebrands as far as I've seen.

 

[paul1598419]

IDK, Dan as these are just unbranded. I doubt they are old rewraps as the dynamic internal resistance is just too good. I did get a chance to check their capacity, though. Since they are protected cells they can't be discharged past 3.18 volts, but still have a capacity of 2500 mAh each. Not too shabby!? Thanks for having a look.

 

[Lifetime17]

Hi,
The Thor hosts i build have a 43mm long heat sink pressed in the AL heat sink that i bore out to a maximum diameter. And the battery tube is also bored out ti take 2-18350's instead of 2-16340's. And the sink is also threaded for our lenses. here is a sample of one of them i did on my sales page. It has a 3W /9MM diode in it SXD set to 2.4A .Thes e hosts are great.
Thank you Paul for a wonderful review as always great job all the way through buddy.

Rich

 

[paul1598419]

Thanks, Rich. I like your repurposed use of your host. These are somewhat larger. They have a 20mm copper/brass heat sink that is pressed into the aluminum host, and I believe they could be repurposed to use the 20mm copper module DTR sells.