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FrozenGate by Avery

Zaser XL II Polished Gray Metallic Powder Coated 1.5W 520nm build

Joined
Aug 25, 2010
Messages
533
Points
63
Here I'm again with another expensive project.
This time is my pleasure to introduce You my last effort: the stunning 1W @1.5W 520 nm diode mounted in a custom evegreen Zaser host.

Those are the parts:

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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:

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The X-drive @2.4A locked inside the heatsink with aluminum thermal glue. All the wires soldered and insulated with thermal tubing:

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A special custom thick washer was placed between the head and the driver barrel to reach the perfect gap between the two springs to obtain the right pressure:

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Driver barrel and all the switch parts locked in place:

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

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The tolerance is impressive: the diode fit inside the hole like a piston inside a cylinder!

A precise plastic thick washer was placed at the end of the threaded lens hole to obtain a perfect gap from the min to the max focus adjustment:

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So I have the focus to the infinity when I reach the middleway of the entire lens excursion.

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

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I used both teflon aroud the lens barrel thread and spring between the parts to obtain a nice friction and a precision rotating movement.

A small piece of acetate foil to avoid battery shakes and rattle:
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The laser fully assembled:

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The laser mounted on a Manfrotto tripod+clamp:

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The laser on the desk of my button room:

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The indoor beamshot:

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The outdoor beamshots during an icy clear night:

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An outdoor beamshot during an warm foggy night:

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Those shots were made without any long exposure mode: what You see in the photo now is what I really see when I grab the beam.
It is astonishing how brilliant is this laser !!
In the outdoor night shot there was a lot of fog, so the beam seems really fat.

And those are my best friends:

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A phenomenal polymeric wax to protect and shine my lasers, and the best spray compound in the world to maintain every surface contact, mechanical or electrical, at peak performance! :beer:

The performance graph with 405-G2 lenses:

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The performance graph with three elements glass lenses:

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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, my italian friend Fabrizio for some extra machined aluminum parts used inside this host (special washers and spacers), and the Red Color italian company for their courtesy, great competence, short realization time, low prices and attention to details.
 
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Re: Zaser XL Aluminum Polished Antiscratching Powder Coated 1.5W 520nm build

That laser is going to make a lot of people green too, with envy :) - Wonderful toy. Have you put a beam expander on it yet?
 
Re: Zaser XL Aluminum Polished Antiscratching Powder Coated 1.5W 520nm build

Nice! Another very impressive laser to go along with your already impressive signature.
That's a sweet foggy beam shot you've got there; be sure to show us some more beams when you get your B.E. attached. :)

A very GREEN Christmas to you as well! :san:
 
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Re: Zaser XL Aluminum Polished Antiscratching Powder Coated 1.5W 520nm build

Very nice. +REP
Have the 1.5W 520nm in my possession. Host will likely show up tomorrow:)
 
Re: Zaser XL Aluminum Polished Antiscratching Powder Coated 1.5W 520nm build

Looks awesome. Great build. One note about the teflon on the lens I like it to just make sure there is not any little bits hanging down. I noticed in this image there is just a tiny sliver hanging on the bottom of the lens and if it fell on the diode window it could do damage. Anyway congrats that is one hell of a unit.:beer:

Eq1QPN.jpg
 
Re: Zaser XL Aluminum Polished Antiscratching Powder Coated 1.5W 520nm build

I bought his white powder coat Zaser XL and have a 2 watt 445nm diode in it right now, later I will switch it out for a 1.3 watt 520nm. One concern is the divergence of this diode and because of that, I want to put a beam expander on it, if anyone has done that with this diode, I'd be interested in knowing the clear aperture diameter of the input lens you had to use to keep from blocking a portion of the beam and what type of expander you are using, 4x, 10x etc.

Thanks!
 
Re: Zaser XL Aluminum Polished Antiscratching Powder Coated 1.5W 520nm build

Hello. I have two modified 10x Laserglow Hercules beam expanders for the 445 nm build. The last one for the Nichia 3.5W, that has an horrible divergence in the slow axis.
The problem is not the input diamater beam, because with a 405 G-2 lens You can focalize a small spot just before the input lens, but the coating of the lenses. I had to decoat and recoat. here in Padova there is a company specialized in it. But consider that a decoated lens lost part of the performance. For example I lost about 600 mW in a 4900 mW output. Take a look of all my builds and You can see everything You must know. You mayuse Jetlaser beam expander but it had only 2 lenses and a very long focus, so You can not focalize near the aperture. There are many others beam expanders but I do not know how they works. Jetlaser is a good choice only because is well built, very cheap and You do not need to decoat and recoat the lenses because it accepts a wide range of frequencies. Hope it helps.
 
Re: Zaser XL Aluminum Polished Antiscratching Powder Coated 1.5W 520nm build

Thank you, I just received a JetLasers beam expander and it works well, centering on the pointer requires some wiggling, but once there and tightened down is OK. I don't need a close in focal point, just want a long "throw", to use a flashlight term.
 
What is the beam divergence with the 3 elements lenses mounted?

I know typical 9mm diode divergence with 3 elements lenses are around

1.5mrad but I just want to ask.
 
I have to say that your graphs look exactly like mine. Get the feeling they might all have that initial output spike at just over 1.5W before the drop to a bit over 1.4W. Wondering if this still occurs if it's connected to a variable DC power supply or just with batteries. My guess is it still occurs.
Great choice going with the 3 element. I changed almost all my units from G-2 over to them after the initial output testing as I label mine with peak output for hazard level. Haven't tried it yet with my Beam-x.
Any issues with soldering on those magnets? I have a nice selection of them and had thought about doing that but was thinking that that the solder bond might not be strong enough. Comment on this?
Never heard of crc 5-56 spray. I'll have to look that up. I use variations of deoxit.
What's a "button" room? Does it just mean office room?
 
xPodo: I never measured the real divergence of the diodes, but I think that Nichia 3.5w 445nm diode could have more divergence also using three elements glass lenses.

xPman: The only issues that You may encounter with magnets is that while You try to solder them to the springs, the magnet could stick to the tip of the soldering iron :D
If You use gold plated magnets the welding will be very strong.
I use 5-56 compound from many years in every contact and in every moving mechanical part, it is really a Godsend!
"Button room" is a sort of office room, but it is in my bedroom and it is used also for other use besides work :na:
 
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