S-KY 150mW 473nm Blue DPSS laser

[Dr Laser]

S-KY and laserbtb is the same company.

[drlava]

S-KY and laserbtb is the same company.

Yes, that's in the first sentence.

[mixedgas]

not many of us own a PXI bus card and labview, but job well done. I think we can see a need for light feedback!

Dr lava is 45-0 miles from me, so I will do my light feedback board this weekend and hook my yag up to it, then he could plop it on his test bench.



Steve

[buffo]

I don't need Lab view to do the tests... I can use my Oscilloscope for that. True, I can't post the output, but I can at least verify the performance of my own lasers.

I agree that if you're going to do a review, it's better to have the software, as it's nice to have the traces for everyone to see.

Adam

[heroic]

I don't need Lab view to do the tests... I can use my Oscilloscope for that. True, I can't post the output, but I can at least verify the performance of my own lasers.

If you have a digital camera and a tripod you can take trace images. I have a recipe I use when I'm trying to capture scope display. I turn the room lights down (but not all the way), put the camera about 4ft from the scope display, line it up, zoom about halfway in, and set the camera to "close-up mode" (it's not really a macro setting) and the lowest ISO setting.

Then set up the display on the scope the way I want it and use the self timer on the camera to eliminate that pesky hand wobble. Works a treat!

[buffo]

Good point, Heroic! Since I've got an older scope anyway, I can probably turn up the brightness and get a decent image. Might have to give that a try... Thanks!

Adam

[The_Doctor]

I don't need Lab view to do the tests... I can use my Oscilloscope for that. True, I can't post the output, but I can at least verify the performance of my own lasers.

I agree that if you're going to do a review, it's better to have the software, as it's nice to have the traces for everyone to see.

Adam

It is said that the camera never lies. While it takes a bit to set up a good shot, a photo of an analog scope is often a more convincing record of events. And if you publish it, no-one can claim it as theirs and post it on some web site without it being obvious to anyone who saw yours.

Edit: Go with Heroic's methods. Works for me too, very similar setup. Just go easy with brightness, you'd be surprised... A clean thin line shows better than a bright fat one, it's way easy to saturate the cam.

[drlava]

While taking photos of scopes with polaroids has been the 'traditional' way of data capture until the 90s, do you really find my DAQ captured data any less convincing? It sure is a lot less time consuming. Plus with many old scopes they don't show the DC offset (position) and/or gain on screen so all you have of record is the squiggly line and no data values, they must be manually written down.

[buffo]

do you really find my DAQ captured data any less convincing?

Quite the opposite. I think your results are *more* convincing. The problem is that not everyone has the software to do it, thus the "imperfect" solutions of using a camera.

Plus with many old scopes they don't show the DC offset (position) and/or gain on screen so all you have of record is the squiggly line and no data values, they must be manually written down.

True. This is where trust in the reviewer comes in. And since I'm not likely to purchase Lab View anytime soon, trust is all I have to go on.

Adam