445nm diode with beam correction optics (anamorphic prism pair)

[mccarrot]

I finally put power to my diode tonight and have to say just using a glass colimator for the short 20 feet I project in my house I don't need any optics beyond the collimator. In fact it matches my DPSS green pretty well. I'll have to fatten my red a bit to match but it is extremely acceptable. I have not tried it for beams yet. I also have not driven it beyond 500ma so maybe it gets worse with more power. I'd say try it yourself before you spend a bunch of cash. Heck it even fits on my normal 6800 mirrors. Will the quad red to balance it fit is the issue.

Did anyone notice a ton of crap around the usable beam? Like internal reflections type stuff. It's faint and you don't see it when you scan but thought I'd ask. These are definately not the higher quality diodes I have seen from NICHIA. The good $2600.00 diodes have none of that crude.

Offcourse it will fit the scanner mirrors, the initial beam is small, the problem is the high divergence on the fast axis.

High divergence only is a problem at a far projection distance
If you do the similar test at 200 feet you know why you want to spend a bunch of cash


Also the ton of crap is mainly caused by your optics, if you use quality optics it id not a problem see pictures: