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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

Why do I gotta fall off the damn laser train so often...

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Thanks much guys, for the updates and the welcome, always good to be here and, actually really cool to hear that a lot is happening in the diode scene.

The loss of accessibility to CNI's stuff sucks, on the DPSS front - (at least for us US people) but, 1W greens and these 462s, its good to hear that progress is being made where we can still do builds. (Would rather see progress in the diode area anyways for that reason...) 1W of direct green would definitely be something, and if the prices come down low enough may be the next build I tackle myself.

Thanks a lot and really good to see everyone still here, I shall catch up! (and looks like DTR's site may be a good place to start.)
 
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IsaacT

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WELCOME BACK! With you back I am sure we will start to see some crazy builds of previously unavailable wavelengths or something, lol. Here is a picture of my 462nm build. I am guestimating 470nm or so actual since I am pushing it too hard haha. You can click the pic for the thread.

The 1W 520nm diodes are supposed to be awesome but 700 is still a hard pill to swallow for me personally. I would really like to see some progress on the 490nm range of wavelengths. Or a 1W Single Mode Red. Yeah I know, I gotta keep dreamin'.

 
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Welcome back! It looks like people covered what has happened recently pretty well, there are a lot of cool things available to us nowadays!

How is that 476 treating you?? :)
 
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Welcome back! It looks like people covered what has happened recently pretty well, there are a lot of cool things available to us nowadays!

How is that 476 treating you?? :)


Very well, sir! Ran it again today just because. Next diode to conquer will be in the 480-490 range but I know that's still a tough one, and I missed some chances on that. :)

But it's that, and then maybe by the time that's satisfied it'll make sense to re-approach some of the manufacturers who had orange diodes in the works. (it is possible!)
 
D

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Next diode to conquer will be in the 480-490 range
57#nm :whistle:

What ever happened with that CNI frustrations. You said it ended but never filled us in xD. what wavelength was it you were trying to get.
 
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Welcome back again =)

To add to what others have said: yellow hene's are getting harder to source, but orange ones are getting easier (albeit still obsurdly expensive). ArIons are very common and damn near impossible to sell, even at fractions of what they used to go for. Many of us have some beauties that we just can't seem to get a new home for. 589's came WAY down in price while simultaneously going up in available power. Some new high power reds and green diodes are becoming available too. Lots and lots of unfavorable anti-laser laws are going up across the globe.
 
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@Laserman - I'll PM you, because it ends up being a 'sensitive issue', but I guess it doesn't matter to a lot of us since CNI isn't as big of a participant as they once were, here.

@Sigurthur - When you say orange is becoming easier to source, is that new production? Or just an old stash found? Where would these be? Interesting though, I know for a long time Meredith Instruments had a big stock of yellows, I guess those are gone.

Also - 589s up in power and down in price ... Available to us in the US, or nah? Never can have too many 589s. c_c
 

IsaacT

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@Laserman - I'll PM you, because it ends up being a 'sensitive issue', but I guess it doesn't matter to a lot of us since CNI isn't as big of a participant as they once were, here.

@Sigurthur - When you say orange is becoming easier to source, is that new production? Or just an old stash found? Where would these be? Interesting though, I know for a long time Meredith Instruments had a big stock of yellows, I guess those are gone.

Also - 589s up in power and down in price ... Available to us in the US, or nah? Never can have too many 589s. c_c

They are up in price with CNI, but Dragonlasers is down in price. I picked mine up for 420 shipped and it is rated for 50mW while outputting 75mW average. A lot of people are jumping on those and they apparently include a TEC inside now.
 
D

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They are up in price with CNI, but Dragonlasers is down in price. I picked mine up for 420 shipped and it is rated for 50mW while outputting 75mW average. A lot of people are jumping on those and they apparently include a TEC inside now.

How is that I thought dragon-lasers resold CNI products.
 

IsaacT

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CNI has become difficult. 1200 dollars for an 80mW PGL-III-C is what they are asking now. Dragonlasers might source parts from them, i dont know, but I know they have MUCH more reasonable pricing.
 
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@Sigurthur - When you say orange is becoming easier to source, is that new production? Or just an old stash found? Where would these be? Interesting though, I know for a long time Meredith Instruments had a big stock of yellows, I guess those are gone.

Also - 589s up in power and down in price ... Available to us in the US, or nah? Never can have too many 589s. c_c

As posted above DragonLasers has drastically lowered their prices on most exotic wavelengths (their 473nm and 593.5nm's are down in price compared to LG/CNI as well). I jumped in and ordered a 50mW 589nm for $445 shipped too, can't beat that, especially with integrated TEC thermal regulation. I remember them being close to $2000 not too long ago, and I think CNI still charges near that. LG doesn't even offer them in that power range anymore. For yellow lab systems DL is charging 1/3 that of LG for comparable units. I emailed LG and asked about binning for a higher stability yellow and was told I should look into their lab systems, and received no further replies. DL was very responsive with the same request and didn't shove me off to the labby dept. LG won't ship any >5mW to the US now, but DL still will, and guarantees that it makes it to the customer.

AFAIK there aren't any/many new production Yellow/Orange HeNes hitting the market, but there are a lot of older ones surfacing now as the demand has waned. Sam's Classifieds (google "repairfaq classified") has five or six affordable 594.1nm HeNes available for the best prices on the net, and he has a handful of well-priced Oranges as well. eBay even has a couple yellows surfacing regularly, but their prices are above Sam's so they're just perpetually relisted. Either way, it isn't at all like it used to be where you had to search daily for months to even find mention of a single unit. Hell, there's a IR HeNe up on eBay for <$200 right now. Even MI (Meredith) has a decent stock of yellows available now. Their prices are still higher than Sam's, but not by a whole lot. $500 can get you a >2mW 594.1nm HeNe Head + matching PSU any day of the week now, on demand. Obviously supplies are still limited, but there is an abundance in supply compared to demand.

On the subject of HeNes.. a 543nm can be had easily for $200 now without trouble, and a thrifty buyer can find one for as low as $50 if they're willing to take a gamble on the surplus market. High power 632.8's are a dime a dozen now too. I'm seeing units as powerful as 50mW fairly regularly just in eBay trawls.

Edit: forgot to mention; Sam also has a Tunable HeNe available and lots of Brewster tubes.
 
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IsaacT

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By the way my 462nm diode build clocked in at 469nm/1.6W @ 2.4A. Driven a bit high but still. The color is so close to 473 it is awesome.
 
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Got my NDB7676 build from DTR, 2.03w ~465nm, feel like i'm back in the game :)

Definitely have to look at what Sam has for sale, too, and what Dragonalsers is doing.
 

IsaacT

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By the way. Dragon Lasers has discontinues all of their 593.5nm offerings and all of their lower output 589nm offerings. Makes me worry they are trying to get out of that area of the market.

Esp if, they having stocked CNI units, are unable to get the units for reasonable prices. They may be selling out of what they have. Thus the lowered pricing? But I don't know anything concrete.
 
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I suspect the same, which is why I grabbed mine (50mW 589 Spartan) instead of putting the $430 into my quadcopters or EE lab.
 

DJNY

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Hey here you are again, welcome back again :beer:

Many things happen since you last visit.

More to come in the next weeks, I promise ;)
 




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