Warm greetings to all! First build tips?

[itsJesterTrap]

Hello everyone,

Jester here, stumbled across this and can't explain the excitement I have to make my first laser or two.

Pretty confident I shouldn't have any issues putting it together as I'm currently grinding away towards my EE degree, while working full time as a reliability engineer(fancy title for lead RMA tech) for a revolutionary hoverboard company based out of the bay area.

Now that I've got myself introduced, I'm seeking a little helpful advice. I leave town backpacking on Wednesday am going to try my damn best to have at least one bad ass laser built to take.

I plan to order the diodes and drivers from DTR as soon as I can figure out what I actually want, likely "Nichia NUGM01 1W 520nm" one and/or "Nichia 6W+ NUBM44 450nm"
How do all the Nichia diodes in the 445nm-520nm range differ?
How do they compare to M140s?
What diodes would you recommend?

I'm going to be conversing with ElectricPlasma about seeing what hosts he has on hand, otherwise I'll be going with survival lasers I suppose, but again I'm welcoming suggestions. Remember I'm trying to source these parts as fast as possible.

 

[BobMc]

Welcome to the forum.

A 1 watt 520 with no gball if you want a green, there's a couple to choose from. The 044 has bad divergence as compared to the m140 but it throws one heck of a beam, and it burns like there's no tomorrow. Depends on what you want?

Just know that as a first laser your playing with something that can take a eye out permanently, yours or someone else's. Please read up on laser safety first, if you haven't done so already and grab a couple sets of safety glasses in the correct wavelength for you and your friends. Be safe and enjoy and welcome. If you can, make a build thread, always interesting to see someone's builds .

 

[itsJesterTrap]

:thanks: for the welcome :wave:

Can you explain gball?
Divergence meaning that the "dot" will be less of a dot at further distances?

Do I have any options regarding hosts other than SL if I'm shooting to have it on or before Wednesday?

Thanks for the safety advice, I have to use laser goggles at work when using the laser etching machine which is how we engrave our logo and SN to the hoverboard.

**EDIT** Surely there has to be some sort of spreadsheet covering all the different specs of the laser diodes available to us, right? Can somebody help to link? If not, lets start building one

Welcome to the forum.

A 1 watt 520 with no gball if you want a green, there's a couple to choose from. The 044 has bad divergence as compared to the m140 but it throws one heck of a beam, and it burns like there's no tomorrow. Depends on what you want?

Just know that as a first laser your playing with something that can take a eye out permanently, yours or someone else's. Please read up on laser safety first, if you haven't done so already and grab a couple sets of safety glasses in the correct wavelength for you and your friends. Be safe and enjoy and welcome. If you can, make a build thread, always interesting to see someone's builds .

 

[GSS]

Check out Lifetime17's sales thread that was just bumped. Plenty ready to go wire to wire connect builds. 2 day shipping
I would also mention Electric Plasma but unfortunatly he's located in Canada and might build to order..

Dtr's sight would be the quickest get to know each diode individual spec's on a whim..

 

[itsJesterTrap]

Will look into Lifetimes thread.

DTR seems like the man, but f*ck, what a terribly organized website...

I want to be able to compare power/wavelength/divergence/package size/cost without looking at every diode individually. Is there really no community maintained spreadsheet/mega thread?

Check out Lifetime17's sales thread that was just bumped. Plenty ready to go wire to wire connect builds. 2 day shipping
I would also mention Electric Plasma but unfortunatly he's located in Canada and might build to order..

Dtr's sight would be the quickest get to know each diode individual spec's on a whim..

 

[dden4012]

The NUBM07 or N465 for blue. 2 or 3 element lens for these. Probably going to want a 3x BE as well.
Plenty of 520nm options. 1w of 520 is a sight to see. 2 element lens for these.
The G2 lens is not the way to go for multimode diodes unless your adding additional lenses to further correct the beam profile. It will give you higher LPM values but that's really a non issue. They are great for single mode diodes.

Some diodes are built with a lens and can attached. Others are canless like the mits 635. Some have a can and a window like the nub44. Removing the gball can allows you to use one of the lens such as the G2, 2 element, or 3 element. With the diodes that have a gball setup there is a chance that the included lens is optimally set to focus a tight beam down range. Don't bet on it though.

 

[paul1598419]

Welcome, Jester. You haven't left yourself much time to order, get assemble and test a laser ready to take on this coming Wednesday. A Gball is a lens that is part and parcel of the diode itself. Some are focused well enough to leave intact, others, not so much. The problem with removing the Gball is the life of the laser is usually drastically reduced. Most of the higher power diodes are multi mode, having a large emitter, so they diverge in one axis far more than in the other. You might be better off building a lower power mulimode diode laser as these have much better divergence. The NDB7875 is a 9mm diode that can output 3 watts with an aspherical single element lens around 445nm wavelength. It has the best divergence specs of a diode of this power and is not particularly expensive to build.

 

[Lifetime17]

Hi Jest,
I have a few already built new a 3W /7875 and a M140/1900+ G3 or 3 element lens a choice.

 

[BobMc]

It looks like other members answered your questions. Glad they did. Best wishes with your build.

 

[Radim]

Welcome to the LPF!
As it was said do not forget to study safety. These diodes look harmless, but they are serious class 4 lasers able to blind you instantly or bring you into serious trouble. It's impresive how advanced the technology is...
Enjoy and stay safe...

 

[lasersbee]

:wave:Welcome to the Forum...
Enjoy your stay.

Jerry