Zaser XL Custom Silver Metallized Car Paint 1.2W 520nm Build (3 Elements Glass Lens)

[Minamoto Kobayashi]

I have decided to redo my 520nm build because I found a much better paint.
I also redo all the the wirings and other minor cosmetic/build issues.
So here is the stunning 1W @1.5W @1.2W 520 nm diode mounted in a evergreen custom Zaser host.

Those are the parts:

(full resolution pic here: http://imageshack.com/a/img912/9837/oE2TEm.jpg)

The head is slightly bigger than normal because I'm planning to put on a LG beam expander in the near future.
It were added also two more fins to compensate the original proportions of the head diameter vs lenght.
Some other cosmetic changes were made to meet my personal taste.

I soldered a neodimium gold plated magnet on the top of every spring to improve electrical path and spring pressure:

The X-drive @2.4A locked inside the heatsink with Arctic silver thermal glue:

Driver pill and switch parts locked in place:

The diode mounted and locked thru the side screw inside the head hole:

(full pic here: http://imageshack.com/a/img661/5690/4J6r8X.jpg)
The tolerance is impressive: the diode fit inside the hole like a piston inside a cylinder!

Three elements glass lenses with a lot of teflon tape around the threaded barrel screwed into the focusing disk:

A small piece of acetate foil to avoid battery shakes and rattle:

The laser fully assembled:

(full resolution pic here: http://imageshack.com/a/img661/6185/dmiVi3.jpg)

(full resolution pic here: http://imageshack.com/a/img905/9623/mKJ8MT.jpg)

(full pic here: http://imageshack.com/a/img540/1629/jnHydl.jpg)

The laser mounted on a Manfrotto tripod+clamp:

(full resolution pic here: http://imageshack.com/a/img910/741/FjWxUn.jpg)

The laser on the desk of my "buttons' room":

(full resolution pic here: http://imageshack.com/a/img540/2401/5ChIwt.jpg)

The indoor beamshot (without smoke, with normal exposition and with the lights ON!):

An outdoor beamshot in the night (nocturne mode):

(full resolution pic here: http://imageshack.com/a/img540/6126/8i9ELq.jpg)

A spectacular outdoor beamshot in the night against the moon (nocturne mode):

(full resolution pic here: http://imageshack.com/a/img673/8661/kceSUB.jpg)

The performance graph with 405-G2 lenses:

The performance graph with three elements glass lenses:

I prefer to sacrifice about 300 mW of output power and use three elements glass lenses because I like to see a thinner beam without the classical reflections/aberrations of the multimode diodes.

The video:

The laser was placed at about 4 meters from the black plastic panel.

Conclusions:
this is the brightest laser that I have seen until now!
The colour is slightly different from the traditional 532 nm DPSS lasers: it looks like a green emerald, while the DPSS looks like a green pea.
The beam shape is the classical line of the multimode diodes, shortened and corrected with the use of three elements glass lenses.
I wish to thanks one more time DTR and MrCrouse for the professionality and patience and the italian company Compagnin for the excellent
metallized painting work!

 

[Alaskan]

Very nice indeed. Curious how the three element lens cleans up the multimode output? I expected it would still be ribbon-like with the fast axis being so wide compared to the slow. I guess it's clipping some of the wide side?

 

[Minamoto Kobayashi]

Hi.
Yes I think that the lenses cut a piece of the fast axis, and this is the reason of the power loss.
But if You think about a cylindrical lens, it trasform a rectangle in a line without any kind of clipping, so it could be that also this lenses transforms the beam without cut it, or cut it only a little.
Another advantage of the three elements lenses is that the dot is clean, without the classical square reflection near the dot.

 

[DTR]

Awesome build.:beer:

 

[Podo]

I bet it will doing 1.2~1.3W if using G7 but since nobody care about this lens...doesn't matter then. I switched all my 3-elements lasers to G7 for quite a while and at least I'm happy with that. The square reflection can be barely seen on 1W 445nm laser so a 3W 445nm and 1W 520nm you won't even catch it at all. Just as clean as a 3-elements.

 

[BowtieGuy]

Very nice! I really like that "evergreen" color.
If you don't mind me asking, what type of paint did you use? Is it a powder coat type finish?

 

[Pman]

That is one very clean build. It almost looks like plastic in a couple pics. Congrats and I've changed most of my units to 3 element lenses for the same reason including my 1.5W 520nm. Your graphs look just like everyone I've seen. These diodes seem to be very consistent.

 

[gozert]

Looks very nice! I'll be building a 1W 520nm in a similar host soon too. I purchased a black and silver one with a slightly different head, it'll probably arrive tomorrow or the day after. The only thing I like less about the 1W 520's is the price tag

I have a question though that I think I'd be better off asking here than making a whole new thread for it. How exactly does wiring the contact board to the driver work?

 

[Minamoto Kobayashi]

x Podo: Where I can buy the G7 lenses? I never used that kind of lenses!

x BowtieGuy: it is not powder coating, I do not like it because the powder coating show an orange peel surface and seems plastic made. I went in a body, so the host had the same painting procedure of a car. Then I protected the paint with Meguiar's wax. Surely as the host will be enough dirty I'm going to clean it in a car wash LOOOL :crackup::crackup::crackup:

x Gozert: The driver is glued to the pill. There are two holes in the aluminum barrel. The cables pass through these holes and are soldered on two pitches in one of the two surfaces of the back pill.
The back pill has two coppery holes, so the electrical path continues on the opposite side (for the spring -> pole positive) and around the pill (case negative). When I insert with pressure the pill inside the aluminum barrell, and lock it by the threaded aluminum ring, also the negative path will be created.