RGB Dichroic Mirrors

[Dreadnought]

Hey guys, I need soms help with RGB dichroic mirrors.

I have done some research and found out the dichroic on o-like which are pretty cheap but have a hefty shipping charge with them because I live in the UK. I have also heard some bad reviews on them but might not apply to these sets of mirrors.

Do you guys have any better deals for me? Paying £28 including shipping for a tiny set of mirrors seem expensive. I live in the UK so I would appreciate if you found some mirrors which are sold at good prices or if this is infact a good deal and go order it.

I plan to create a tunable RGB laser which you can use to create different colours of beams. Just like JLSE creates but in a less compact form becauss I am not master like him

Link to the O-Like mirror: RGB laser systerm combine optical lens /2pcs in a pack [OLRGML] - $16.00 : Zen Cart!, The Art of E-commerce

(for some reason, the link redirects on my phone so you may have some issues.)

 

[grainde]

Check on ebay, there are lots of sets available. :beer:

 

[Dreadnought]

Yep, there does seem to be a lot of dichroic mirrors on ebay but as we all know; ebay is scambay.

You got any trusted sellers on ebay which sell the kit similar to the o-like mirror?

I might just buy the o-like mirror but I don't know the quality of those mirrors. Reflecting at around 90-95% seems pretty good but I might want some reviews from you guys.

 

[grainde]

I bought a few and wasnt scammed. Havent actually heard of it being referred to as scam bay either? :thinking: Anyway they have a good selection so your call.:beer:

 

[diachi]

Hey guys, I need soms help with RGB dichroic mirrors.

I have done some research and found out the dichroic on o-like which are pretty cheap but have a hefty shipping charge with them because I live in the UK. I have also heard some bad reviews on them but might not apply to these sets of mirrors.

Do you guys have any better deals for me? Paying £28 including shipping for a tiny set of mirrors seem expensive. I live in the UK so I would appreciate if you found some mirrors which are sold at good prices or if this is infact a good deal and go order it.

I plan to create a tunable RGB laser which you can use to create different colours of beams. Just like JLSE creates but in a less compact form becauss I am not master like him

Link to the O-Like mirror: RGB laser systerm combine optical lens /2pcs in a pack [OLRGML] - $16.00 : Zen Cart!, The Art of E-commerce

(for some reason, the link redirects on my phone so you may have some issues.)

28 pounds including shipping is cheap for a set of dichros.

A quality set of dichros + mounts will run you way more than that.

RGB optics Set - 1 RGB GB

The O-like dichros probably aren't as efficient but they'd do the job.

 

[Dreadnought]

I bought a few and wasnt scammed. Havent actually heard of it being referred to as scam bay either? :thinking: Anyway they have a good selection so your call.:beer:

Mmm, thanks for the great help man! +1 for you!

28 pounds including shipping is cheap for a set of dichros.

A quality set of dichros + mounts will run you way more than that.

RGB optics Set - 1 RGB GB

Agreed, those are crazy expensive. I am going to try my luck and order. Set from o-like and see how they perform. Thanks for your help, +1 for you too!

 

[diachi]

Mmm, thanks for the great help man! +1 for you!



Agreed, those are crazy expensive. I am going to try my luck and order. Set from o-like and see how they perform. Thanks for your help, +1 for you too!

For sure, part of the cost on the stanwax bundle is the mounts too - high quality mounts aren't cheap either.

Worst case you lose ~10-15% of your power because of low quality dichros. At those prices that's not too bad. Realistically, I don't imagine you'll lose that much though. Doesn't hurt to try!

What kind of mounts are you planning on using?

 

[Bionic-Badger]

You can get some from Tomorrow Systems (site). If you contact him directly he might give you a better deal than the eBay price. I've gotten some cylindrical lenses from him and they're good quality. Shipping was pretty quick too. You'll need to buy some mounts too

The ones from Techhood aren't God's gift to dichros, but they're inexpensive. You can also get dichros out of the set of optics from laser projectors if you can find them. DTR's shop used to sell them, but it's out of stock now. They're large, so breaking them into smaller pieces could work. Maybe someone on the board has some extras.

 

[Dreadnought]

It's

You can get some from Tomorrow Systems (site). If you contact him directly he might give you a better deal than the eBay price. I've gotten some cylindrical lenses from him and they're good quality. Shipping was pretty quick too. You'll need to buy some mounts too

The ones from Techhood aren't God's gift to dichros, but they're inexpensive. You can also get dichros out of the set of optics from laser projectors if you can find them. DTR's shop used to sell them, but it's out of stock now. They're large, so breaking them into smaller pieces could work. Maybe someone on the board has some extras.

For sure, part of the cost on the stanwax bundle is the mounts too - high quality mounts aren't cheap either.

Worst case you lose ~10-15% of your power because of low quality dichros. At those prices that's not too bad. Realistically, I don't imagine you'll lose that much though. Doesn't hurt to try!

What kind of mounts are you planning on using?

There was 2 mounts that I was looking at. One from ebay which was made by Techhood and was linked by Bionic: Click and the ones made by Aixz: Click

It seems like I will go for the Ebay mounts because they look like they have better quality and better adjustability.

I am also going to try my luck on the o-like because I am very curious on how they perform. A 10% reduction seems bad but wont really matter for a low cost system like this.

The reason why I am trying to keep the costs down for this project is too see if you can make a RGB system for a small price.

Also, looking at the pictures; mounting the mirrors seems to be pretty confusing. For instace, there do you even mount the thing

I guess another issus COULD be that the dichroic mirrors that I am going to use is circular, not rectangular.

Again, if you guys have suggestions for mounts; go ahead and link them but it does sort of seems to be sorted out

EDIT: For some reason, when I give rep to members on mobile; it only puts a letter for the comment. Apologies for the single letter comments for rep, Iphone really sucks for these sorts of things. Its supposed to say "Thanks for the awesome help!"

Until I have access to my PC, doing PM's are very difficult so if a mod/admin reads this before I send a PM out, and if they have powers to do so; could you please edit my rep comments for grainde, diachi and badger with "Thanks for the awesome help!"

 

[Bionic-Badger]

Those mounts on Techhood work okay. For a nicer setup you would probably want some 2-axis kinematic mirror mounts; sometimes you can find them on eBay for $20-30.

For mounting the dichros to the flexure (Techhood-style) mounts, you'll just glue them to the mounts. It sounds somewhat low-tech, but you have to glue the optics to something to attach them to your mechanical mounts. You also don't want the optics to move once you've set them.

The Techhood mounts aren't bad. There three styles the store sells now (#1 #2 #3). I would go with #2 and #3. They're not bad, but they only provide a small bit of adjustment; #2 provides the most adjustment; #1 the least. Sometimes the screws they provide are pretty weak, so you may need to buy some harder screws at your locals store (M3 screws I think). For easier adjustment you may want those larger 2-axis kinematic mirror mounts.

I wouldn't worry too much about the losses at this point. I would, however, invest in two pairs of good goggles: one that covers blue and green wavelengths, and another that covers red wavelengths. You'll be dealing with reflective surfaces a lot while adjusting your system, and you need to protect your eyes. It also helps you see what you're doing.

 

[Dreadnought]

Those mounts on Techhood work okay. For a nicer setup you would probably want some 2-axis kinematic mirror mounts; sometimes you can find them on eBay for $20-30.

For mounting the dichros to the flexure (Techhood-style) mounts, you'll just glue them to the mounts. It sounds somewhat low-tech, but you have to glue the optics to something to attach them to your mechanical mounts. You also don't want the optics to move once you've set them.

The Techhood mounts aren't bad. There three styles the store sells now (#1 #2 #3). I would go with #2 and #3. They're not bad, but they only provide a small bit of adjustment; #2 provides the most adjustment; #1 the least. Sometimes the screws they provide are pretty weak, so you may need to buy some harder screws at your locals store (M3 screws I think). For easier adjustment you may want those larger 2-axis kinematic mirror mounts.

I wouldn't worry too much about the losses at this point. I would, however, invest in two pairs of good goggles: one that covers blue and green wavelengths, and another that covers red wavelengths. You'll be dealing with reflective surfaces a lot while adjusting your system, and you need to protect your eyes. It also helps you see what you're doing.

Thanks for the help buddy!

I'll have to order 2 new goggles as I cant seem to find my old goggles.

In the mean while, I should watch ebay until I can get a good mount or buy the techhood mounts and create a plastic holder for the optics without actually gluing them onto the mount itself. That way, I can reuse the optics and the mounts.

EDIT: Great, I even lost my IR goggles. But I did buy 2 glasses which cover all of the visible range. Basically, these glasses have a combined protection of 200nm to 770nm which protects into the near infrared range. Time to find some glasses to protect between 700-1000 or even 1500nm. I wonder where my glasses even went...

 

[Bionic-Badger]

You really shouldn't get goggles that cover the entire visible spectrum. It'll make it too hard to see what you're doing because they're trying to cover all the wavelengths. By the same token, they generally provide poor protection because they can't block everything and expect the user to be able to see. I've got some general purpose alignment goggles and I stopped using them long ago. Despite their cost, they had all the faults detailed above.

A better choice is two sets of goggles: those that cover blue and green, and those that cover red. Get them from decent sources though, not those crummy goggles that are all over eBay that may not even provide good protection. There are many threads on this.

 

[Benm]

As far as mounts are concerned, you would want this type:
RGB optics Set - 1 RGB GB

I have no experience with that vendor, but those fully adjustable (5 axis) mounts are a LOT easier to align compared to the simple cheaper ones. I've made the simple adjustable ones myself from angled aluminium strips myself - they work fine but are a major pain to adjust.

Realistically a set of a good ajustable mounts could easily cost more than a set of decent dichro's to put in them.

 

[Dreadnought]

You really shouldn't get goggles that cover the entire visible spectrum. It'll make it too hard to see what you're doing because they're trying to cover all the wavelengths. By the same token, they generally provide poor protection because they can't block everything and expect the user to be able to see. I've got some general purpose alignment goggles and I stopped using them long ago. Despite their cost, they had all the faults detailed above.

A better choice is two sets of goggles: those that cover blue and green, and those that cover red. Get them from decent sources though, not those crummy goggles that are all over eBay that may not even provide good protection. There are many threads on this.

Thats exactly what I did, I bought 2 pairs of glasses which cover all of the necessary colours.

As far as mounts are concerned, you would want this type:
RGB optics Set - 1 RGB GB

I have no experience with that vendor, but those fully adjustable (5 axis) mounts are a LOT easier to align compared to the simple cheaper ones. I've made the simple adjustable ones myself from angled aluminium strips myself - they work fine but are a major pain to adjust.

Realistically a set of a good ajustable mounts could easily cost more than a set of decent dichro's to put in them.

Agreed, as the cost of mounts increase; so does the overall quality and ease of use. However, because I am trying to keep costs to a minimum to see how it performs. Fortunately, I am a very patient person so the adjustment of mirrors shouldnt stress me out too much.

Anyways, thanks for the excellent help from both of you!

 

[diachi]

As far as mounts are concerned, you would want this type:
RGB optics Set - 1 RGB GB

I have no experience with that vendor, but those fully adjustable (5 axis) mounts are a LOT easier to align compared to the simple cheaper ones. I've made the simple adjustable ones myself from angled aluminium strips myself - they work fine but are a major pain to adjust.

Realistically a set of a good ajustable mounts could easily cost more than a set of decent dichro's to put in them.

Flexmounts will work just fine, but proper adjustable mounts like the ones you linked are way easier to work with I've found.

OP, make sure you get the correct size if you go with the type of mount linked to above.

 

[Dreadnought]

Flexmounts will work just fine, but proper adjustable mounts like the ones you linked are way easier to work with I've found.

OP, make sure you get the correct size if you go with the type of mount linked to above.

I went with the flexmounts because of their relative abundance and that I get 3 of them. I will have to make a lens holder to hold the mirror in place. The plastic holder will mean that I will not have to stick the mirror into place, but stick the holder.

Thanks for the help Diachi :beer: