The Gauntlet: A 1 Watt Laser Module

[madmacmo]

Found this on HackADay.com (is it just me or is anyone else really, really tired of anything titled Hack-A-Crap this or Hack-A-Poop that?) Anyway, after I managed to get past the Hack-on-Crack bullsh_t title, I did find Adam Munich's review of the 1W 532nm DHOM laser to be of interest.

The Gauntlet: A 1 Watt Laser Module - Hack a Day
Quote:
This is the gauntlet; a place where things are tortured in ways that only an engineer could appreciate.

Today’s victim is a 1.0W green laser module, manufactured by Suzhou Daheng under the brand name “DHOM”.

As far as Chinese laser manufacturers go, Suzhou Daheng is about one rung lower than CNI in terms of quality. Although US companies like Coherent blow these guys out of the water, both are still reputable nonetheless. As far as Chinese lasers themselves go, this one seems a bit conservatively rated; a nice change from the “1000MW 532nm laser cat toy burning module” that’s not too uncommon on dealextreme and the like.

Here are the laser’s typical ratings, as quoted by the manufacturer.

Wavelength: 532nm
Output Power: <1000mW
Transverse Mode: TEM00
Divergence: <1.5mRad
Beam Diameter: <2.0mm
Cooling Mode: TEC
Modulation: Analog 0~10K
Expected Lifetime: 10,000hrs
IR leak: <1mW



Quote:
Recap:
Wavelength: 532nm ++
Output Power: <1000mW 1,450mW
Transverse Mode: TEM00 TEM11
Divergence: <1.5mRad 2.7mRad
Beam Diameter: <2.0mm 3mm
Cooling Mode: TEC ++
Modulation: Analog 0~10K ++
Expected Lifetime: 10,000hrs ??
IR leak: <1mW ++

Overall I’d say it’s an average laser; not wonderful, but not craptastic either. If your goal is to make a laser harp or a projector then this module should work fine, however if your goal is holography or high-speed long-distance communication this isn’t the module for you. At $1200 though, it’s still a good deal as far as the green ones go.
What do youse guys think, thumbs up or down for this Hack-A-Dingle_Berry review?

 

[ARG]

1200$ is a bit much for that laser. Same thing is 800$ from Meierlight.

http://laserpointerforums.com/f45/1...laser-pic-heavy-video-review-added-63497.html
meierlight

I do like the review though, it was pretty through and I really liked how he went into detail with the modulation.

 

[lasersbee]

Man... that is weird...
That Tek Scope looks exactly like the one I got
from sputnik77. It has the same Volts/Div knob
missing on Ch 4....:thinking:

Jerry

 

[BShanahan14rulz]

If your goal is to make a laser harp or a projector then this module should work fine, however if your goal is holography or high-speed long-distance communication this isn’t the module for you.

Why do you need a whole watt of power for a laser harp? And why is it not suitable for holography?

 

[Hiemal]

To burn your fingers off of course Bshanahan. :B

Also, I think the holography issue is due to the mode hopping thing... It's not TEM00 so it wouldn't be very suitable for holography, as the light would be concentrated differently based off the mode type it's outputting.

 

[BShanahan14rulz]

It's not TEM00 so it wouldn't be very suitable for holography

A-ha! I must have missed the part where the reviewer corrected the manufacturer's listed specifications. Well, at least this would be a good harp training tool: after you are done you'll have callouses that will allow you to play much longer songs on the real harp.

 

[jeffreythe00]

1200$ is a bit much for that laser. Same thing is 800$ from Meierlight.

http://laserpointerforums.com/f45/1...laser-pic-heavy-video-review-added-63497.html
meierlight

I do like the review though, it was pretty through and I really liked how he went into detail with the modulation.

Just for the information. He did not pay 1200$ for the unit. The unit was mine and I traded it to him.

http://laserpointerforums.com/f39/big-laser-sale-laptop-fund-71129.html

Edit: Also if you take notice its the same graph I included with the laser Just inverted and cropped