Certainly an old thread, but since its sticky and just hanging there in necrofileland, still room for own approaches.
I dont own an LPM.. been thinking about jumping on one for some years, and patrtically since they TEC-based-ones, seems to be acces-able from around 70US (certainly attractive pricelevel)
but still, to some extend still in no-mands land in lack of some of the praised OPhir heads as to relaying on TECs, so been in doubt if I should go all in from an relative hobbyperspective and get an amp. Ophir head and suit it up with own DMM hence v=w with sep. 9v power, but still here anno 4q16 they are certainly in another price-ballpark in lack of relative few out there.
Im a noob' as they come, and also enjoy my lasers from time to time here at home, and enjoying ´the different wavelength and bouncing them on multiple small mirrors to get the beam going and thrue prismes and simply enjoying this leveraging of massless-particles there takes place and there charistica,- and in lack of an LPM also wonder about alternatives just to measure and enjoy these lasers..
but from household items, I mostly been using multimeters with an cheap 0.70US pearl-thermocouple fx attached with an small thin matblackcolored cobber-heatsink attached to catch the beameffect, and checking what the temp-reaches, while having an eye on what ampcurrent the diode takes..
it doesnt tell me anything usefull to put into mW, for that i need an trustworthy LPM for simply grasping an benchmark and being able to put it into context and what temp equals what on wich <nm but still.)
but for the time being its been better then nothing, just to use an multimeter with an pearlthermocouple (pic attached) and taking the temp on an infinity beam setup close-by, while looking at the graph on my computer from the bluetooth-DMM connection and how the heat goes to the thermopearl and when it seems to flat out on the computer graph..
the cheap laser-graving-labby that cost around 65US containing NDB7775.. that one i took the plunge at around a little year ago for 65US shippped (that model are being labeled as high as 2.5w at fx BG) but that clock in at around +700 degrees.. the lesser 1.4w comes in around 400degrees as i remember.. its been some time since i did the measurements, but in lack of an LPM..I did love fiddling with that and seeing the charistica & temp graphing out while an eye on the amp, ewen thow i cant use it for jack-shit in regards to put solid MVnumbers on my stuff, but im an rookie on this field an learning a lot' as i go..-
Do got got an peltier in house, but its an massive 3x3cm optained from aliE some years back, for around 1.5US shipped and wont do any favors in taking the temp, and been checking for some of the smaller ones, but are certainly on foreign ice.. as to knowledge on this subject.
been purchasing some expensiv-diodes lately from sale (7675,NUBM08,500mitP73,900*16x), and do need an LPM to sense when they flat out, and not just take it by the amp and my own-sense of beam-light..(reckon it will be cheaper in the long run)
as for some of the more tested diodes, and in lack of an LPM and just getting an rough-idea of mW-effect' could comparing the ampcurrrent-level draw suited with an site like DTR testphotos on that partically diode, - that give an rough indication where your at, if it aint an freak or an cousin3..
