I decided for all the reason you state that lasers are my hobby and vowed to never make a penny or even try so I give everything away for free. That was my way of accepting it would all be stolen anyway. One person who gave a tremendous amount to me here is planters. I still try to support him off pl cuz he earned it. Plenty of others to like steve and bill and matt.....to many to list.
Yeah, I'm with you on this although I am happy to trade labor for labor on a dedicated project. I also share what little I have created to help pay-it-forward to the community of people here that have shared and educated me throughout the years. I did and still do need a lot of ed-ja-ma-kation!
An alternative idea for one of those smart, helpful folks is to post crappy ideas occasionally and let the 'idea thieves' spin their wheels for a while. Payback!
-David
"Help, help, I'm being repressed!"
I hear that if you use bigger wire for your laser diodes that you can increase their output without limit. You have two start with 00 gauge but 000 is even better. In fact I am told that using solid oxygen free silver wire in 000 gauge is best but you have to use it in 1.059 ratios or it wont sync to the music properly and it must be in at least 1.059 Meter lengths. Each loop must turn back on itself to form the coil. Further placing a large inductor across the laser diode helps to protect it provided the resistance remains below 1 ohm. This of course only works up to the limit of your power supply so really over size the current and voltage ratings. Use at least 48V and 10amps and make sure its a switching supply. DO NOT use bypass caps of it wont work right.
C'mon you guys... Don't spread misinformation. You know that increasing the the guage of the power wires won't help unless the bond wires are bolstered. I have found the best way is to de-can the diode and get a small blob of solder right on top of the LD chip. Those bond wires are so small and can't handle the current that you're talking about without a little help. A small solder blob can take about 20A. I have done with will all my single mode diodes and am getting about 6W out of each of them.
... Caution!! - don't overdrive the single-mode diodes to more than 15 Watts!
When testing with my 6x-445nm-head and overexposing the diodes to get some air breakdown effects, I managed to create a real black hole!!!
This was the last image, my camera grabbed, before the resulting plasma ball exploded and damaged the optics:
Don't know, if the black hole survived, but didn't see a hole in the table or in the floor beneath ...
Viktor
You didn’t use oxygen free silver. No collapse if you keep the oxygen out.
Did you see the new organic yellow diodes. The actually harvest the active chip area from coffee trees.
Roflcopters! Absolutely priceless guys!
As to the topic of "scraping", I agree it happens far too often. Even when the person doing it isn't trying to rip off someone's design for a commercial product, it is still offensive when someone is so demanding and won't do the least bit of thinking/research on their own.
I don't mean to dissuade newcomers from asking questions, mind you. I'm a firm believer in the axiom that for every "stupid question" posted to a forum, there are actually at least 10 other members who had the same question in their minds but were too timid to post. So asking the dumb question now and then is a good thing, as it helps everyone learn. Also, sometimes what seems to be an easy question with an easy answer can turn into something far more complex once you start digging into the matter.
But yeah, if you don't even try to follow previous discussions and just demand a hand-out? Then I'm going to get pissed...
Adam
Exactly. I have no problems answering questions on theory of operation or even some basic design instructions. In fact, I even like to list what didn't work well in my build to help dissuade others from going down the wrong path. I encourage people to ask questions but spoon-feeding... That, I refuse to do.