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Thread: Hello everyone....again.

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Wellsboro, PA
    Posts
    71

    Default Hello everyone....again.

    So its been about 12 years since I was last on here....seems the laser world has changed a bit...
    I pulled my homemade projector out of storage and blew off the dust and fired up the FB3 just to see if it still worked....it kinda sorta does...everything is dirty and out of alignment but there are three colors showing.

    I have decided to rebuild and upgrade the homemade blue to something a bit more powerful. My question would be " where to start?, I'm a bit overwhelmed on what's available from across the pond".

    Should I buy a ready made 405 and or 450? Or should I revamp my original? I would like to buy one but the flood of products makes it almost impossible to know for sure if I would get one thats worth anything.

    Does anybody have any suggestions on who might sell a decent quality blue? Im thinking I would enjoy mixing two 400 somethings and see what I can get. I might also get crazy and upgrade the reds and the green as well.

    This is just for hobby use and there are no desire to show anybody the end results but at the same time I want something that shows decent beams. Im going to keep my budget for now under 500 and focus on the blue (s).

    Anyway, its good to see some of the ol' timers are still here, the help I received on my build was paramount from these guys.

    Thanks, Chuck
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  2. #2
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    1 hr from everything in SoCal
    Posts
    2,753

    Default

    I guess it depends on what power level you're looking for. The reason being, you could mix 450nm and 488nm but the caveat is; 488nm diodes are around 50mw while 445~450nm diodes are in the multi-watt range. There are 465+nm diodes out there as well. I actually find 405nm to be a very harsh color. The apparent brightness is not there as well as hovering at the near end of the visible spectrum, making it hard to see in general. For high power, 450nm and 465nm would get you a great dark blue/blue combo.
    If you're the smartest person in the room, then you're in the wrong room.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Cleveland Ohio
    Posts
    2,599

    Default

    I find 462nm to be the sweet spot between color and brightness.

    642/525/462. 500mw/1w/2w. But run as 500mw/100mw/250mw. As usual red is the most lacking.

    the newer 506 compact scanners with digital Mach drivers are the best around now. Cambridge is dust.

    for 500.00 just change out the diode. Will be more like 50.00

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Wellsboro, PA
    Posts
    71

    Default

    Thanks for the good advise, 462 does seem to be a nice visual blend of blue.
    Im going to start simple with the 450 and then go from there. I bought three 450 modules for the case and power supply's. A hand full of optics to combine and clean up the beam. Some 25mm dichro's and a xtra pbs.
    If I can get a decent beam from that then I might reorder and pick up a couple of 462 diodes. The package is on a slow boat from China so Im going to strip down my homemade projector and clean everything. I have enough extra parts that I might build another one more compact and keep the first one for experimenting. I would like to get near three watts after the optics.

    Thanks again
    Chuck

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