RGB laser recommendations for £2000

[anderino]

I am looking to find out what people would recommend for RGB lasers to go in my projector.

I am wanting to get:
637nm - 600mw
532nm - 500mw
445nm - 500mw

I have read so many conflicting stories about one make or another in that the quality isn't very good on quad diodes, or beams wandering off etc and if I am to believe everything I am reading, everything has 1 problem or another so my question is, for £2000 does anyone have any recommendations?

I will be using DT40's and FB3 and will be using it for both graphics and beams.

Thanks guys, appreciate any help, my brain is starting to hurt with all this planning!

Andy

[norty303]

Get a bigger blue if you want a good white balance.

[anderino]

Well aparantly with only 600mw of 637 the blue and green are already over powered for a good white?

[Jem]

Hi Andy

Best suggestion I could give is to plan a trip up to the upcoming UKLEM in February. There'll be advice a plenty and you can see other people's rigs first hand to get an idea as to what you'd prefer for yourself.

Cheers

Jem

[edison]

My suggestion would be a good solid case and some heavy powersupplies so that when you upgrade in the future you only have to swap the modules instead of rebuilding the whole projectors. I would recommend 1 watt 445 and and 500mw of green and a 658 module with good specs that you can upgrade to 637nm when you do lasershows and make money. The red is less important in the beginning. Red is expencive and with 658nm you can reduce the cost for the red.

[White-Light]

I would stick with what you've got but upgrade the blue to 1W (the difference is negligible as blue is so cheap - in fact on Kvant modules 500mw & 1W 445nm are actually the same price!).

The line up you will have then almost mirrors the Kvant 2W projector which is:

1W 445
500mw 532
680mw 637

I'm not saying that's perfect, but in you're in ball park with which to start software tweaking.

Amongst modules Kvant and RGB Laser Systems come highly recommended. Laserwave used to although I don't know what they're like these days. However, you can have a problem with any module as my recent Kvant red outage shows. Sometimes is juts bad luck. However, sticking with a known quality brand will go a long way to reducing the chances and Kvant and RGB are amongst the best and Laserwave certainly used to be good.

[edison]

Well I don,t agree with sticking with the familiar brands like RGB and Kvant. First of all Kvant has a divergence of 0.8mrd but stated in half angle so actually they divergence is 1.6mrd for their reds. The reds that i build have 0.65mrd at full angle and the stabilty in allignment is better the a kvant. Also bigger companies are not so flexible if you want something els like. Also a 680mw/637 is 1012 pounds and that is already more then half your budget. Start with a good green and blue with low divergence. Low divergence means higher visability. You want to do graphics also and that means a low divergence is nessesary And a good quality case. Preferable a splitlevel design. Its better the have a good quality green/ blue projector and ad red later then start with an RGB and found out that you could have done better

[anderino]

My suggestion would be a good solid case and some heavy powersupplies so that when you upgrade in the future you only have to swap the modules instead of rebuilding the whole projectors. I would recommend 1 watt 445 and and 500mw of green and a 658 module with good specs that you can upgrade to 637nm when you do lasershows and make money. The red is less important in the beginning. Red is expencive and with 658nm you can reduce the cost for the red.

Cheers Edison, I've looked at the higher wavelength reds but wouldn't I need 1.2w-1.5w for it to match the blue and green and isn't the beam really fat for graphics?

On the subject of power supplies, is it possible to power all the drivers from 1 psu? I know its not ideal for redundancy but I won't be having any paying guest viewing it so it won't matter.

I would stick with what you've got but upgrade the blue to 1W (the difference is negligible as blue is so cheap - in fact on Kvant modules 500mw & 1W 445nm are actually the same price!).

The line up you will have then almost mirrors the Kvant 2W projector which is:

1W 445
500mw 532
680mw 637

I'm not saying that's perfect, but in you're in ball park with which to start software tweaking.

Amongst modules Kvant and RGB Laser Systems come highly recommended. Laserwave used to although I don't know what they're like these days. However, you can have a problem with any module as my recent Kvant red outage shows. Sometimes is juts bad luck. However, sticking with a known quality brand will go a long way to reducing the chances and Kvant and RGB are amongst the best and Laserwave certainly used to be good.

I've heard that the higher power quad kvants have beam wandering issues as does laserwave, then again everything I am reading seems to indicate everything has issues!

Well I don,t agree with sticking with the familiar brands like RGB and Kvant. First of all Kvant has a divergence of 0.8mrd but stated in half angle so actually they divergence is 1.6mrd for their reds. The reds that i build have 0.65mrd at full angle and the stabilty in allignment is better the a kvant. Also bigger companies are not so flexible if you want something els like. Also a 680mw/637 is 1012 pounds and that is already more then half your budget. Start with a good green and blue with low divergence. Low divergence means higher visability. You want to do graphics also and that means a low divergence is nessesary And a good quality case. Preferable a splitlevel design. Its better the have a good quality green/ blue projector and ad red later then start with an RGB and found out that you could have done better

OK, what is the divergence that I want to be looking for; what is ideal?...and I'll see how close I can get with my budget.

I can't seem to find anywhere in the UK that makes a case that would be suitable, I was thinking of getting some alu plate and riveting my own?


Appreciate your help guys.

[anderino]

Hi Andy

Best suggestion I could give is to plan a trip up to the upcoming UKLEM in February. There'll be advice a plenty and you can see other people's rigs first hand to get an idea as to what you'd prefer for yourself.

Cheers

Jem

I was looking at doing that Jem but I don't really have anything to offer, I mean I don't have any technical knowledge to share with anyone there. I don't want to come off as a leech?!

[andy_con]

Where in Essex are you

[anderino]

Where in Essex are you

Sunny Basildon

[Jem]

I was looking at doing that Jem but I don't really have anything to offer, I mean I don't have any technical knowledge to share with anyone there. I don't want to come off as a leech?!

Not a problem at all, and i'm sure you'd both enjoy yourself and benefit from the experience. As long as you have a healthy (or unhealthy for that matter ) interest in lasers you're o.k. with us .

[anderino]

Not a problem at all, and i'm sure you'd both enjoy yourself and benefit from the experience. As long as you have a healthy (or unhealthy for that matter ) interest in lasers you're o.k. with us .

Ha, nice one Jem, it is indeed unhealty, I need to replace my car but spending £5k on one seems a waste of money. Spending it on some photons on the other hand....!

[andy_con]

I'm in Braintree and I use a local metal shop to do my cases

[edison]

I think Andy can mill you a nice case. Since you want to do graphics i would choose a 500mw green from Rob stanwax. good blue,s can be purchased from ROB as well. A low divergence has a higher visability and nicer graphics. Its like drawing with a fineliner or with a Marker. With a fineliner the graphics are more accurate. Because you need also parts like dichromounts and you need to wire the projector Rob is the man to talk too. He has an ildaboard developed that makes wiring a piece of cake and gives you also excellent service. This is his website:

http://www.greenlaser.co.uk/

His ildaboard as also the safety features that you need for making your projector complient with the regulations.


He can also deliver blue modules. Andy build them too I build reds mostly so thats why i suggested to start with 658 and upgrade later. But i can deliver blue modules too.

But Rob is a good start to talk with and Andy too for the case and maybe even a blue.

[anderino]

I'm in Braintree and I use a local metal shop to do my cases

Oh right, that's probably a better idea than making it myself!

I think Andy can mill you a nice case. This is mine:

That's an awesome case, I was looking at your posts about it earlier.

[edison]

Andy can have my previous drawing if he is interested.

I have redesigned my old case. The old version has round profiles. Also a picture of the red module with some beamshots

[sbk]

First of all Kvant has a divergence of 0.8mrd but stated in half angle so actually they divergence is 1.6mrd for their reds.

I think it's actually not true, they state horizontal x vertical divergence, full angle for each. As usually diodes based lasers (especially blue ones) are diverging differently on fast or slow axis... So they are true 0.8 mrad (which I measured and verified on their 1.6W RGB recently).

[edison]

Are you sure? This datasheet says otherwise. I don,t want to be a knowitall i just show what is written

[swamidog]

from the kvant website:

red.ser2.jpg

I think it's actually not true, they state horizontal x vertical divergence, full angle for each. As usually diodes based lasers (especially blue ones) are diverging differently on fast or slow axis... So they are true 0.8 mrad (which I measured and verified on their 1.6W RGB recently).

[sbk]

From Synchrovision website they are telling horizontal / vertical (http://www.synchrovision.co.uk/produ...r-module-kvant).
Well I'm not 100% sure, that's in fact not very clear. We should ask Martin... as 1.6 mrad it seems a big, too big divergence for such modules...

Anyway your modules are 20% better on this spec

[White-Light]

I should have said Edison that the big brands and one or two specialist builders are the way to get quality. I forgot that you and Andy and some others do build so very nice units.

[andy_con]

thanks edison

andy you can either taken edisons case design to the metal place i use and they will do it, or you can just go down and talk to them and they will sort you something out.

last case cost me something like £150 including spraying

[anderino]

thanks edison

andy you can either taken edisons case design to the metal place i use and they will do it, or you can just go down and talk to them and they will sort you something out.

last case cost me something like £150 including spraying

£150 ay, do you have any pictures of your latest case?

Cheers

[andy_con]

some pics here

http://www.photonlexicon.com/forums/...rojector-Build

http://www.laser-man.co.uk/projects/...0-scanner.html