Hi all,
I was just silly dickin around a bit today while I was harvesting diodes out of some 815 sleds + I got a dozen of the 826 diodes in, so I did a little bit of testing (quick tests) and thought I’d share my findings.
My main Interest was the issue power loss after collimation. The graphs were all done with the same diode starting with 100mA in 100mA steps up to 600mA. One graph of raw power (no optics) was done for reference. I forgot to change the legend in the graphs; the Y axis is power in mW.
The 815 and 826 are not the same diode. Raw power measurements of the 2 gave on average max. 250-270mW @ 400mA for the 815 and 390-400mW @ 600mA for the 826. During testing the 815er bit the dust while adjusting up to 400mA. After having read that others have popped the 826 @ 650mA I decided to limit @ 600mA.
I did some measurements with different collis with some amazing results with blue AR coated lenses giving better results than some red AR coated. I got best results with the 405-G-2 with less than 5% loss and with the mccarrot blue with <1% loss? Yeah… I’m still scratching my head on that one, but I double checked it and it’s so. I didn’t do a graph for the Axis red since these showed losses of > 20%.
Taking into account price, beam size/profile (<2mm @ aperture) and power loss I may end up using the 405-G-2 lens in some red setups.