That's exactly one of many reasons, why I made my own DPSS driver. Some of you already know, it's called PicoDrive DPSS. A module of my PicoDrive family.
It's very small and also heats the TECs, if necessary. I'm using a CNI laserhead 473nm which is specified with 200mW. I made a lot of measurements and get the best results, as I heated the diode up to 37.5°C! It would be interesting to check it with different laserheads.
With my laserhead, it takes about 1min after startup. Then the temperature of laserdiode and crystals is ready. The driver only starts the laserdiode, when both temperatures are within a small range (+/- 1°C).
You can find a manual here, but it's in German until now. I'll translate it as soon as possible. There is still much work to do for other PicoDrive modules. Well, I translated some things:
- Supply: 5VDC
- Modulation input: 0-5V analog, differential or single ended
- Diode current: up to 8A
- TEC drivers: 2, heat and cool
- TEC current: -2.3A to 2.3A (-5V to +5V)
- Softstart
- Cathode of diode is GND (so it doesn't matter if the diode is electrically isolated to the housing or not)
- Very small and compact design (84 x 73.5mm)
- No fan required up to 6A (for normal use up to 8A)
- It has the same mechanical dimensions like other PicoDrive modules and the same supply voltage
More modules are coming
Regards, Leander