First try of the 642nm !!

[shrad]

first of all, I have to thank drlava for providing the group buy for these 150mW opnext diodes, and Pat for giving the opportunity to buy a double diode setup for hobbyists like me

this evening I have tuned a flexmod for driving one 642nm 150mW opnext diode, hooked it up, and did everything in order not to fry the precious diode

the collimator is not really the best I could have used, but my copper diode mounts and collimators have their barrel blocked hard (don't know why, need to find a tool to unscrew these two-hole rings)

the diode mount I used is a o-like type barrel with standard 3 lense collimator assembly

I have put the crystalaser unit I got from gogu (thanks mate, these are wonderful) and tuned a bit, for comparison

that color is BRIGHT, that's the only word I can say, and I only have one running now so I can't imagine the two diodes running together

here are the pictures!

[Jem]

Very nice indeed , nicely put together as well, those mounts of Pat's are really well finished

You perhaps ought to try combining it with a 660nm for the best of both worlds

Cheers

Jem

[shrad]

I have a second 642nm diode, for the very best of both sides of every world

[Laserman532]

nice go at it there shrad! Well how was the fit on that custom 20mm hole in the holder? You being on the other side of the planet sort of concerned me. I hope it fit in there and things snugged up for ya.

Staying tuned to see it combined and burning tape and poppin balloons!

[shrad]

the fit is nice but I still have to go get some pipe connects to make some rings I intended to put around my 18mm barrels

for now it is... rolled tape lol

I hope to get some rings ready tomorrow afternoon, and the two-compound polyurethane glu is drying around the corners of the cube on the chimney

can't wait until tomorrow afternoon, half a day off before the first family reunions, I think I'll lack the time to get dressed and shaved

a thing I also hope is I'll get enough green to have the red glow a bit of orangeish, because these beasts are BRIGHT... I think I'll have to cube two crystalasers to get decent colour mixing... not to mention blurays (I may toss some more euros in your pockets in the future Pat )

[shrad]

some precisions about the 20mm hole and matching rings... what I wanted was avoiding damages to the collimator barrels from the holding screws, which are annoying when you have to rotate the barrels again

basicly, I have 18mm barrels and I'm planning to add a 1mm layer of copper around it, which I'll make by sawing a portion of copper tube to put around

obviously, without these rings alignment is relatively poor, and my cube sucks, too (over 10% waste beam for one of the diodes)

I still have the diodes coupled nicely, and the thing is bright! you have to use caution when aligning this!

I have mounted a mirror and a dichoic mirror to some mounts I had to have a yellow try, and the mix is almost perfect, which makes me think my crystalaser green is a bit over 100mW

[gogu]

Hey Shrad,
thats a nice yellow you got there, missing the BLUE though.
any progress on that 488 you were talking about previously?
btw. try changing that dale resistor from a 2ohm to a 1.5 it will definately give you a few more mw on the green.

cheers

[Diachi]

That does give a very "golden yellow" ... nice work !

[shrad]

thanks guys

gogu: I'm waiting to get some goggles to protect my eyes, and as soon as I have some more time I'll hook up the KNBO3 and try doubling to blue!

what I have to to now is to move the greenie collimation lens to somewhat reduce divergence and increase beam diameter, or make a custom beam expander out of stock lenses, because it is like 1cm diameter at 4 meters (well it's a SLM labby)

if I manage to go from the initial 0.5mm diameter to a more decent 2mm beam diameter, it would match the red closely... I also have to work a bit on the red, dots are some millimeters apart from each other and the two beams are crossing at mid-distance (like 3 meters)... all that makes the beam yellow 1 meter away from the lasers, and for a length of 2 more meters, after that distance it quickly becomes a red beam in a green torch

anyway, I now want to scan it and will try to find some galvo mirrors... still much work to do, but 642 is a magic potion

[shrad]

ok, some news here

I have matched the divergence of the reds to get same beam size at 10 meters, that's the best I can do now

I had to tweak quite a bit and play two hours on it, but it's now fine! I also glued a small mirror on a small DC motor to make a tunnel effect for you all!

The cat is mad about these fast-moving beams!