1W 520nm Nichia Laser Diode TEST

[White-Light]

Looks great but the diodes are too expensive so far. Not sure but how great does the orange and yellow look with this diode?

I asked the same questions PJ. I'm told it's the camera rather than the projector although I'd like to hear that from someone independent of a seller of these to be totally happy about it.

If you're going to the Dutch LEM maybe you'll see this in person and so can confirm for everyone.

Also, it will be interesting to see what effect palette training has on this. It's possible to set both yellow and orange as reference points in the Beyond palette, so it will be interesting so see if any issues from 520 can be balanced out via the software route.

[swamidog]

yellow and oranges look fine with in my single mode 520/638/450 projector.

it's just the camera getting confused.

I asked the same questions PJ. I'm told it's the camera rather than the projector although I'd like to hear that from someone independent of a seller of these to be totally happy about it.

If you're going to the Dutch LEM maybe you'll see this in person and so can confirm for everyone.

Also, it will be interesting to see what effect palette training has on this. It's possible to set both yellow and orange as reference points in the Beyond palette, so it will be interesting so see if any issues from 520 can be balanced out via the software route.

[sbk]

From what I quickly observed from a RGB setup with 120mW 520nm diode +638 +445, the yellow is far away to be as good as with 532nm, but the cyans are way better.

[TechJunkie]

Great thread, thanks for posting it.

I'm not going to dig through graphs right now, but if its anything like 9mm 445nm diode you should be able to push it over 2A comfortably. Or at least till the efficiency starts to drop.

If these are going out in projectors in March we should see a significant price drop by the end of summer. Maybe sooner. It all depends on the amount of diodes per projector. Its going to be less than the number of blue diodes obviously.

[lasertack]

As these are engineering samples only the do not tell the whole story. There will be some changes for mass diode production for sure. I also heared that they vary in beam divergence and size. So I was lucky getting one with good specs.
Other people told me that their diodes are much worse as the 1.6W diode.

[DTR]

Thanks for posting these tests. My stock of these should be here Monday and I will set one aside for testing. I will push it all the way to see what they are capable of and post back with the results.

[norty303]

There must be a few of these diodes out there now, Goldenstar released a new price list today which includes a new range of projectors using 900mW 520nm modules (4*2mm 1.8mrad beam which suggests single diode stripe, although could be 6 stack ::: of the smaller diodes I suppose...), and Joost has some modules too.

[lasertack]

Thanks for posting these tests. My stock of these should be here Monday and I will set one aside for testing. I will push it all the way to see what they are capable of and post back with the results.

Pretty brave to stock them at this phase of development.

Hope you get good ones.

[SoulFeast]

So am I the only one that finds it strange that it blue-shifts at higher current? With increased current, there should be increased heat, and thus a red shift. Cooling imposes a blue shift. Or are these diodes just weird?
Or is that supposed to say 1600mA?

160mA --- 520.76nm
312mA --- 518.12nm

I'd also love to see these diodes get super cooled. I am already interested in looking into the possibility of using one of these diodes, cooled for 514 output, and used as a pump source to replace a large framed Ar+.

[ARGLaser]

Thanks for doing these tests!

@SoulFeast, I noticed that as well. Must be a typo, or maybe different operating temperatures?