RGB 600mw with 445nm blue, beam pictures and video

[rom]

No I haven't. You can buy on this website http://hacylon.case.edu/ebay/laser_diode/FlexMod01.php
But it's "TEMPORARILY SOLD OUT"...

On the pictures, the diode was at 300mA. Now it's 400mA.

 

[Benm]

As far as i understand they can be pushed quite a bit harder than that if you want to - but for the projector you'll come up seriously short on red in any case.

 

[ElektroFreak]

I just finally added about 600mW of 445 to my RGB system, replacing a 100mW 473nm CNI unit. These diodes do GREAT in a projector, but as the OP said now I don't have enough red.. I've got my eye on a 1W 650nm analog module from snoctony.. hopefully that will be enough. The color depth has really improved with 445nm compared to 473nm.

 

[Benm]

I doubt even 1 watt of 650 would cut it here in terms for running white with everything at full power. It seems that getting enough red is now a serious problem, which will probably end in getting expensive 635 c-mount diodes for the time being.

1 watt or so of 650 would be nice, but i reckon it will be closer to 660 nm in reality, unless you cool it cryogenically.

 

[cmak]

:kewlpics: +1

-Chris

 

[ElektroFreak]

I doubt even 1 watt of 650 would cut it here in terms for running white with everything at full power. It seems that getting enough red is now a serious problem, which will probably end in getting expensive 635 c-mount diodes for the time being.

1 watt or so of 650 would be nice, but i reckon it will be closer to 660 nm in reality, unless you cool it cryogenically.

You may be right.. we'll have to see. In the system as it sits today there is about 300mW of 650nm, 120mW 532nm and 600mW 445nm. To get a nice white I turn down the 445nm to 60% or about 350-400mW and leave the 532nm and 650nm set at full. 1W of 650 should make the red more visible, but it will likely have to be dialed back a bit to keep from giving everything a red tint.

 

[Benm]

I guess there is only one way to find out. I don't know if the red you're planning to buy has TEC installed, but otherwise it will shift further down in wavelength when it runs warm. This will only be a couple of nanometers for a 10 degree increase, but since visibily drops off so rapidly around 650 nm its a factor to consider.

 

[ElektroFreak]

It's a TEC cooled analog module.. looks similar to a CNI unit, only cheaper. I'll be interested in the beam specs, though. The listed specs appear to be the same as my CNI..

 

[Solonar]

Do you guys now of a decent $200-300 TEC cooled analog modulated green.

My aixiz lab module is giving me a lot of problems even with only 200mW of 445 and 230mw of 650 I can't seem to keep a good white balance. On a simple beam or graphic, its ok, but on more complex frames I get either a blue tint or red tint to the white lines.

 

[ElektroFreak]

A lot of those kinds of issues are caused by the beams being different sizes and shapes, which makes it impossible for the colors to overlap completely to give a pure white. I wouldn't worry about it too much. In my system my white often has a little red or blue tint to it depending on what's being scanned. As the angles change, so does the beam overlap.

 

[designedfor1]

Wow, this is quite beautiful! I'm not sure how I didn't see this post, but it deserves to get a bump! I really want to build one, but money doesn't grow on trees....YET! By the way the videos and pictures are stunning!

 

[millirad]

Great pics and video! I was wondering what ratios were going to be needed with the 445nm so strong.

 

[Benm]

A lot of those kinds of issues are caused by the beams being different sizes and shapes, which makes it impossible for the colors to overlap completely to give a pure white. I wouldn't worry about it too much. In my system my white often has a little red or blue tint to it depending on what's being scanned. As the angles change, so does the beam overlap.

Yeah, its finicky... on my red/green i already have the problem of the green starting out smaller diameter but with bigger divergence. Very close to the scanner its a red dot with a green dot inside it, at larger distances its the other way around (they're about equal at 5 meters).

This doesnt really matter for beamshots though, when you scan a tunnel or something similar, the result is yellow.

Integrating 445 probably makes it worse since those diodes are multimode, so they have a big beam to begin with, and bad divergence in one direction.

 

[ElektroFreak]

I actually thing that since my red laser is multimode the blue blends pretty good to make a pretty solid white beam. I'm actually happier with my alignment now than I have been in awhile.

In my case I installed the diode in the module so that the output line would be diagonal at 45deg which sort of minimizes perception of the difference in divergence between axes from the most common audience perspectives.

 

[Solonar]

As my projection surface is only 15ft from my projector at the moment, divergence is not really an issue for me. Even with my red and blue focused at the surface, they are both 3-4x larger than my green.

 

[Benm]

15 feet can go a long way though. If you are only using this distance for projecting stuff, mis-focussing your green to match the red and blue dot diameters at 15 ft could be worthwhile.

I suppose it depends on what you want people to see: the projection on a surface, or just the beamshow in the air coming more or less at them. In the latter case, differences in divergence and beam size easily blend out when scanning.