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Thread: BWB-10-OEM 473nm laser module info thread

  1. #21
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Posts
    54

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    Thanks again krazer, once again a very informative post! You have done much more fiddling with these lasers than I have and I appreciate the extra information you've provided.

    drlava said that his unit had a maximum diode current setting at around 1.95A, so your unit running at a max of 3.29A seems a bit high.

    I have a version 4.0 driver board and it appears that R53 is absent. It is marked on a trace and there are two solder pads below this trace but there is no component present. For the record, I'm nearly electronically retarded so I may be overlooking something.

    I was thinking about removing the base from the lid via the bottom screws but have not done so yet; it's nice to know that is somewhat possible.

    I'm also relieved to here that pots 4 and 5 are nonfunctional, as the version 4.0 boards don't have them. That's one less thing to worry about as I try to squeeze a bit more power out of my unit.

    - Kyle

  2. #22
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    UCSB
    Posts
    715

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    R53 is a big transistor looking thing, soldered in from below like Q4 and Q6, and is bolted to the baseplate, between said Q4 and Q6. I got up the courage to take my driver apart, and have confirmed it to be a 1ohm resistor on my board, showing that in normal operation the diode is running at 1.24A, and 1.94A with the pickup removed. A quick comparison to my reported values and everything looks linear, with the output in the form of Iout [mA] = Id*5.8. If anyone else wants to 'calibrate' yours, just take the reading with the photo diode removed, take 2000 divided by the reading, and you should be fairly close (within 5%).

  3. #23
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Posts
    54

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    Ah, okay, thank you! I saw the TO-220 package and thought that it was a transistor or IC of some sort. Maybe one day I'll get around to connecting the driver to a PC and toy around a bit. It's good to know that we can check the diode current quite easily now, that probably would have helped when I was trying to figure out which pot controlled that setting.

    - Kyle

  4. #24
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Nottingham, UK
    Posts
    2,845

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    Krazer,
    Thanks for the info on the driver

    This unit does 8mW with PD. 16mW without PD.

    I know it's very similar, but here is the output of mine:

    WITH Photodiode:
    Code:
    Save[5]=1400 Save[6]=65498 Tcon_ld=1362
    
    1795 0 1380 8 1400 65498
    KTP temperature has been tuned 0 times!
    
    Beginning temperature point tuning!
    From 1792 to 1798, step 3. 
    
    Tcon=1800
    k=1 m=0 Tcon=1800 Trt=1790
     k=2 m=1 Tcon=1801 Trt=1791
     k=3 m=1 Tcon=1801 Trt=1790
     k=4 m=1 Tcon=1801 Trt=1791
     k=5 m=1 Tcon=1801 Trt=1791
    ...lots of lines...
     k=500 m=1 Tcon=1801 Trt=1793
     k=501 m=1 Tcon=1801 Trt=1792
    k=502 m=1 Tcon=1801 Trt=1792
    got it!
    k=503 m=2 Tcon=1801 Trt=1792
    got it!
    k=504 m=3 Tcon=1801 Trt=1792
    got it!
    k=505 m=4 Tcon=1801 Trt=1792
    got it!
    ...lots of lines...
    k=998 m=497 Tcon=1801 Trt=1792
    got it!
    k=999 m=498 Tcon=1801 Trt=1792
    got it!
    k=1000 m=499 Tcon=1801 Trt=1792
    got it!
    
    Pd=827
    
    Pd is higher than 800!
    
    Id=186
    
    Id is below 330!
    
    Id is below 300!
    
    judge2=0  down2=1  all_down2=1
    
    judge1=0  down1=1  all_down1=1
    
    judge=0  down=1  all_down=1
    
    Tcon=1804
    k=1 m=0 Tcon=1804 Trt=1795
    got it!
    k=2 m=1 Tcon=1804 Trt=1795
    got it!
    ...repeats...

    WITHOUT Photodiode:
    Code:
    Save[5]=1400 Save[6]=65498 Tcon_ld=1362
    
    1795 0 1380 8 1400 65498
    KTP temperature has been tuned 0 times!
    
    Beginning temperature point tuning!
    From 1792 to 1798, step 3. 
    
    Tcon=1800
    k=1 m=0 Tcon=1800 Trt=1789
     k=2 m=0 Tcon=1803 Trt=1789
     k=3 m=0 Tcon=1803 Trt=1788
     k=4 m=0 Tcon=1803 Trt=1789
     k=5 m=0 Tcon=1803 Trt=1788
    ...lots of lines...
     k=500 m=0 Tcon=1803 Trt=1792
     k=501 m=0 Tcon=1803 Trt=1792
    k=502 m=0 Tcon=1803 Trt=1792
    got it!
    k=503 m=1 Tcon=1803 Trt=1792
    got it!
    k=504 m=2 Tcon=1803 Trt=1792
    got it!
    k=505 m=3 Tcon=1803 Trt=1792
    got it!
    ...lots of lines...
    k=996 m=494 Tcon=1803 Trt=1792
    got it!
    k=997 m=495 Tcon=1803 Trt=1792
    got it!
    k=998 m=496 Tcon=1803 Trt=1792
    got it!
    k=999 m=497 Tcon=1803 Trt=1792
    got it!
    k=1000 m=498 Tcon=1803 Trt=1792
    got it!
    k=1001 m=499 Tcon=1803 Trt=1792
    got it!
    
    Pd=38
    No Pd detected! Pd=38
    
    Id=346
    
    Power's too low!
    
    judge2=0  down2=1  all_down2=1
    
    judge1=1  down1=0  all_down1=0
    
    judge=1  down=0  all_down=0
    
    Tcon=1806
    k=1 m=0 Tcon=1806 Trt=1795
    got it!
    k=2 m=1 Tcon=1806 Trt=1795
    got it!
    k=3 m=2 Tcon=1806 Trt=1795
    got it!
    ...repeats...
    - There is no such word as "can't" -
    - 60% of the time it works every time -

  5. #25
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Posts
    2

    Default

    Hey guys, new here, but not to the hobby.

    Thanks for all the information posted! I just picked one of these up and am really excited. Has anyone figured out a good setup for the beam correction optics? Any pics of your set ups?

    It looks like I've got the old version of the board too.



    -Tony
    Last edited by Xplorer877; 07-25-2010 at 01:25.

  6. #26
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Posts
    2

    Default

    I messed with it a little more today and was ablt to fix the divergence down to about 1.5-2mRad! At 50ft the dot is about the size of a quarter now. That's much better than I expected.

    I used the optics from a dead green laser I had lying around. There were two lenses that I had to add to get the divergence down. The cool part is that I was able to mount them both inside the module itself. You'd never know I messed with the beam unless you take it apart.

    The fist lens I mounted as close as I could to the pump diode itself. I didn't want to use epoxy for two reasons. First it takes too ling to dry and unless the lens was mounted perfectly, the first time, it would have been a pain in the ass to have to remove it, re-gule it and let it dry again. Secondly, the lens really doesn't need to be cemented in place so I just used hot glue. It's not pretty, but it works.

    For the second lens I machined off the brass holder on the green module and that will allow me to adjust the dept of the second lens to adjust the focus. There is space after the IR filter but before the photo diode to fit the mount for the second lens. So the IR filter is between the two lenses.

    Oh by the way, DO NOT MESS WITH THE DIODE!!!!!!!! I, unknowingly, unscrewed the diode mount and miss aligned the diode relative to the optics. It wont lase unless the diode is in just the right spot, or if it does lase it'll lase at TEM-WTF!!! You've got like 1/2 a mm of tolerance to get it in the right spot. It took me the better part of an hour to get the damn thing to lase again.

    Finally after much fine tuning and adjustment it's lasing again and with a nice tight beam. I probably lost a few mW form the lenses, but it's a small price to pay for a better beam. It's got great divergence now.

    These are the lenses from the green laser:


    The KPT for the green laser is right under this lens:


    The second lens conveniently has threads:


    I cut off the mount from the old module to hold the optic.



    Here is the first lens mounted right nest to the diode, which is inside that pale plastic housing.


    The front assembly bolts on nicely even with that brass holder glued in there.


    Here is the dot at over 50ft, whereas before it would have been like 2ft in diameter.



    -Tony

  7. #27
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Posts
    2

    Talking

    Quote Originally Posted by mophead View Post
    Here are a few hi-res shots of the driver, control pcb and head (thanks to kyle for the head pics).

    Maybe we can figure out pinouts, serial connections, and which pot is which.

    Attachment 16753Attachment 16754Attachment 16755Attachment 16756
    Here is the pinout of the connector 15 pin VGA connector on the Version 4.0 09/03
    Laser diode TEC(+) Pin 8 Dark Green
    Laser diode TEC(-) Pin 9 Yellow
    Laser diode Thermistor Pin 14 Brown (shared with Crystal Assembly Thermistor)
    Laser diode Thermistor Pin 15 Red
    Crystal Assembly Thermistor Pin 12 Black
    Crystal Assembly TEC (+) Pin 13 Purple
    Crystal Assembly TEC (-) Pin 11 Pink
    Beam Pickoff Photodiode Pin 5 Red
    Beam Pickoff Photodiode Pin 10 Black
    Laser Diode Anode (+) Pins 1&6 Light Green and Grey respectively tied together.
    Laser Diode Cathode (-) Pins 2&7 Blue and Orange respectively, tied together.
    There is a diode in the back where the wires enter the casing that is across the Laser Diode, the cathode of the diode is connected to the anode of the laser and the anode is connected to the laser cathode.
    Pin 4 on the VGA loops to Pin 9 (Yellow)
    Pin 3 on the VGA loops to Pin 8 (Dark Green)

    Be careful on one of the lasers with the same version level the wires to the crystal assembly TEC were switched.

    I hope this helps

  8. #28
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Miami, FL
    Posts
    3,590

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    well I finally got around to playing with mine, would do 2mW no matter what I did... without the pic it would start off at 25mW and I could watch it step down to 2mW... so figure the micro was messing with my life... used a flexmod for the diode and now its doing 15mW stable

    anyone make custom tec drivers for this thing?

  9. #29
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Posts
    2

    Default

    There were some low cost controllers for TEC on Ebay awhile back, around $55 usd and $15 shipping, just type in tec controller. I hope that helps you. I have replaced the diode, realigned it, and changed weak capacitors on the boards and have not been able to get more than 7mw output, but that is stable output. Also if you get a part number LNS-44 from All Electronics, and mount it on the front of the unit it will lower the divergence. It is a Newport PAC046, which I hear is good.

  10. #30
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Miami, FL
    Posts
    3,590

    Default

    I am just using the controller it came with to run the TEC's and the Flexmod to drive the diode... works great!

    will have to add one of those to my next allelectronics order!

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