Quick note! On this laser head I did not set the current lower before installing the new laser diodes. This is because the new laser diodes have a higher current rating than the drivers where set to for the old laser diodes. If you have little experience then set the laser driver current to the lowest set point before connecting your new laser diodes. I'll discuss this more on the next video when I set the laser driver current.
Thank you very much for this very informative video. I started myself to build and rebuild lasers a few years ago, and if I ever reach only 10% of your knowledge level I would be a happy person. Please keep on with what you are doing!!
Markus, I am glad you are enjoying the content. Keep on learning and doing, you will get to most points you want to. Hopefully I will be working with optics and lasers for many more years to come and able to help and inspire more individuals!
I’m Sorry it’s going to cause more trouble for you, but I’m actually stoked that you’ll be showing the more in-depth Repair! It’s going to be great to watch!
As I continue doing this stuff I want to really get more of a solid professional/informative feel in my content. I figure that if I am going to show repairs on this stuff it will pay off to be more thorough.
@@Zenodilodon oh….I didn’t mean you weren’t professional or anything like that… you have the perfect mix of banter and comedy in your videos. Let’s look at the channel “tech ingredients“ as our example… I absolutely love his channel and his confidant. Dude is a obvious genius, and a wonderful teacher! But even when he’s discussing topics that interest me… I could fall asleep! He’s an awesome dude and i’ve seen enough of his content… To know he’s actually a funny guy. But he keeps his videos super dry… basically like college lectures. So I think you found the perfect mix of professionalism, clarity, and comedy in your content. Don’t ever lose the goofy banter
@@hullinstruments Yep, Tech Ingredients is one of my favs, too. Total nutty professor/engineer, with lasers, solar powered catamaran, experimental rocket engines, explosives, what's not to like? Except that I'm totally jealous of Tech Ingredient's work shop/lab. But, you're right about Zen's entertaining banter and subtle humor being a joy to watch. Great personality that comes across so naturally. I wouldn't change a thing, except I'd like to increase his subs by a factor of 10.
OHH the hours i have spent trying to find lenses that don't self destruct their coatings or melt (acrylic with even the slightest particle of muck) these days i just use crystal polished glass and suffer only minor losses at anything over a watt and what's a little spherical aberration between friends! Great vid as usual MrZ!
I hate plastic lenses. it's amazing how good the plastic forming and optical quality has gotten in some of them though, but still there is something mighty satisfying with glass.
Those are anamorphic prism pairs. They are for beam correction and you can learn more about them here. www.edmundoptics.com/knowledge-center/application-notes/optics/anamorphic-prism-pairs/
impressive rebuild, but also very fiddly. Gotta admit Im curous about a rough estimate of cost and what such a repair build would set a given client back. anyway after watching a few of your videos, you certainly landed yoursef a new subscriber.. as its just up my interest's alley..
Thanks! I saw your questions on converting a laser to run on batteries but they seem to vanish when I click on the menu to reply. Rough estimate on a rebuild is about $50 a diode in labor + parts to rebuild. To answer about batteries. Yeah you could use DC-DC converters from like a 48V batter pack stepped down to the needed voltage rails. Isolation diodes of a fairly high current would also be needed, though you could probably set up mosfets and get less loss. The voltage rails are usually 12/5v for signal stuff and laser drivers, 24-v and 24+v rails are also needed. This gets tricky because they need to share a common pin. It would take some strategy, but it's very possible to set up.
A couple of curiosities. Is the brass plate resting on the warm side or the cold side of the peltier cells? Is there any reason the diodes aren't kept independent that way rather than soldered to a pcb? Sorry, for "language" problems, with the automatic translator I found it very difficult to understand, but it was very useful to see how it is built. A thousand thanks.
The brass optical table is on the cold side of the TEC, usually kept at 20C. The main reason the diodes seem to all be individually installed is serviceability. Laser diodes do fail and need replacing which is easier without a shared PCB. Some companies such as OPT do use a shared PCB for the laser diodes. Very high end lasers have small PCBs with 3 pin sockets for the laser diodes.
Very nice instructions, from beginning to end. Thanks, Zen. Covers just about everything I've had to do over the first few months of projector rebuilds. Need to grind out the middle of my short wide blade screwdriver. Still need to add Lasorb protection to my LDs, too. Looking forward to seeing the difference in build quality of the PD3000- RGB OptLaser projector. Out of the box, I shouldn't need to do most of the mods I'm having to do with the cheaper projectors. After the add-ons and mods, both cost the same. The cheap route has been a good learning experience (how not to do it), but paying a little extra up front for off the shelf quality saves a lot of frustrations, plus having mfr specs and user guides makes a world of difference for maintenance. "Ya gets whatcha pays fer. Know what I mean, Mate?" How can anyone hope to become a fine artist with only a 4 inch wide paint brush, right? Looking forward to Part 2 of fine tuning everything and learning what you find out about those fried lenses. Crackled AR coatings on the inside planer surface, while protected from environmental contaminants? 🤔
The cheap route will teach you a lot, which helps when you do get into the more expensive stuff and then know how to work on it. The toasted AR coating it on the outside of the lens. You'll notice the back of the laser head isn't sealed by the connector and the TECs are set really cold. The other thing to note is the damage looks to be progressively worse the closer to the back of the laser they are. My thoughts at the moment are TECs set too cold + improper seal +condensation +hygroscopic AR coatings = lens death.
@@Zenodilodon Thanks for the reply, Zen. Yes, I understand that AR coatings are on the exterior surface of the lens. By 'inside' I meant inside the LD mounting assembly, within the sealed area between the lens and LD, as opposed to the convex surface that's more exposed to external contaminates. Judging from your pics, I don't see any damage on the 'outer' convex surface. Seems counterintuitive to me, unless the AR coating was already soiled or defective. Your suspicion reminds me of crackling glass marbles when I was a kid by putting frozen marbles in a hot skillet or was it the other way around? (Too many years ago.) But, it also sounds like the most probable cause, IMHO. Looking forward to your final verdict in Part 2.😎
@@TheOleHermit The damage is on the outer convex surface. This is a crown and flint merged lens. The surface ROC is pretty large for it's overall focal distance because of the geometry between the joined glass elements of the lens. The side facing towards the LD output window are fine from what I can tell. I used to also break marbled with heat. I would get them hot on the stove and drop them into ice water. :P
@@Zenodilodon Well that sheds a whole different light on what I thought I saw. Could have sworn the damage looked like it was on the back planar side of the lens. Must be one of them thar optional collusions, like that feller El Salvador Daily.🤷♀️ But, after your clarification and doublechecking, apparently I need to ease up on the ole vaporizer. 😜 Wasn't aware of the lens being merged crown/flint, either. Reminds me of the miniature quartz rod lenses with parabolic refractive indices, when I was attempting to collimate the output of a 100 um fiberoptic into a scannable beam from a remote truss mounted scanning head (1980, pre-laser diode). Thanks!👍
There are many types of mounts, for lasers of this size you can find mounts on www.live-lasersystems.net/. There are lots of mounts in the kinematic style as well of which can be found second hand online too. As far as how to make optical mounts. That's an open ended and often application specific process. Most of it is done with CNC in quantity but you can machine mounts with hand tools if need be. In the DIY department a rotary tool is your best friend.
hi, i have a basic question, I have read that one can not add two lasers of samel frequency using polarized mirrors... how is it possible that u added the power of laser diode. I wanted to do the same bu stopped when i read that its not possible with dame wavelength laser.
You can add 2 alike laser diodes together, but only once. Hence why you see only one polarized beam splitter/combiner per color in laser head. ( in this laser it's joining 4 beams on 4 beams each of the 4 being joined once with polarizing optics ) If you are joining say just 2 of an alike color you can either use a wave rotator plate for one before using a polarizing beam splitter/combiner or you can rotate one of the laser diodes 90 degrees compared to the other. The reason you can do this, but only once goes like this. You can have only efficiently have 100% pass or 100% reflect with optics that use polarization depending on the lights e field angle ( Polarization ) interacting with a polarizing optic, unlike color. I can explain more in detail if you have a facebook or discord if you're still confused as it's a bit complicated to fully understand.
I want a laser power meter 😢 Those power supply connections, I think they're called LP4, one of mine the power keeps coming loose causing the hard drive to keep on making a ticking sound, you have any recommendations on fixing those? Why replaceall diodes at the same time
Hmm, it could be just a crap brand of connector. You can try to put more clamping power on the female connectors by sliding a small pin around the circular metal end on the inside of the plug and pressing the metal in to form a tighter contact on the pins when inserted.
@@phonotical It will be fixed, that's the important part :P . The lesson to be learned is that next time don't wonder what the sound is, you go and hunt it down like the member of the apex predator species you are.
Good job! but... you can use a tool with hole in his center for better see the beam collimation it's much more practical and you save time to adjust the collimation
Hey mate, good to see you drop by! If you have a tool you like using for collimation I would like to see it. I have been working to optimize my work flow a bit more.
Do you ever use indium foil instead of thermal compound? Considering it solve the issue of thermal compound heat creep, and there are now readily available “Heath Springs” made of thermal foil… which I’ve had the pleasure of using and they are wonderful! I was just curious. I love the stuff… And I especially love avoiding thermal grease when optics are involved!
Good question. I'm getting ready to use double sided thermal tape to attach my TEC to the module block, as well as the heat sink to the other side of the TEC. Never heard of indium foil Heath Springs, but I'll check them out. Thanks for the tip.👍
I have not used indium foil, I will have to look into that. I have used the thin graphite ones though. It would be nice to have foil inside overall since it can't break down and release chemicals.
Just found Indium Corp's site, selling 20 * 1" sq. x .004" thick Heat Spring sheets for $295. 🤯 Seriously? Edit: Amazon @ $10.95 - 99.99% High Purity Indium Sheet Foil (50mm x50mm x0.1mm) for CPU Heat Sink, Bonding 😊
@@TheOleHermit indium foil is incredible. It’s what’s used in the semiconductor, laser, and photonics manufacturing industries. For me it stands head and shoulders above thermal paste… Especially considering there’s no heat creep, no messy stuff around optics, and it performs better. It’s literally the worst thing if you happen to get a little bit smeared on your optics. Because it is very abrasive. It’s an extremely fine grit, but it cuts extremely fast. very similar to 0.5 to 1.0 µm Diamond abrasive paste. Which translates to approximately 60,000 grit, on your standard “sandpaper scale” of Abrasives.. It makes a wonderful polishing paste though! I get large amounts of it, when rebuilding massive motor drives, or huge power inverters used in electric forklifts and cranes… I’ll get a big jar full of thermal paste off of the heat sinks. According to the size of the device… The heat sinks range from 50 to 250 pounds. Needless to say there’s a shit ton of thermal paste coupling the heat sink to the devices. And the abrasive is such high-quality! Ground to such a perfect and consistent grit. It’s very similar to the super expensive diamond particle lapping paste that I’ve purchased in the past. No way I would just throw it away! I use it on leather stops for honing woodworking tools… And also on some of my lapidary wheels…. used for cutting and polishing optics. I use regular indium foil most of the time. I get it dirt cheap from eBay and other sources. I specifically try and find the stuff that’s been milled particularly for use as thermal transfer material. This is really important, it has to have the right temper and perfect amount of work hardening… Or it won’t fill the tiny microscopic gaps. But pretty much… 99% of Indium foil is made for this purpose. So if you find a super thin foil for sale online… It’s a good chance it’s perfect. I do use indium “Heath Springs“ in certain instances….With specialized projects or really expensive parts where perfection is needed. They really are incredible! But this is just a hobby for me… No way in hell I could afford the lasers, optics, and stuff like heat springs if I had to pay the real prices! Most of my stuff is found on eBay or at local government auctions, for pennies on the dollar. Jesus Christ optics and lasers equipment is the most expensive shit I’ve ever seen 😂 and that’s crazy coming from someone like myself who is addicted to Metrology grade test equipment 😂 The indium heat springs are really great… And you can find scraps on eBay from time to time for dirt cheap. Plenty big enough to do laser stuff. If you check out that same Company and their UA-cam channel you mentioned… They have something that’s essentially a flash foil made of indium… it’s the most incredible shit, and I’ve got to use it on a few separate occasions. Simply Apply a slight current (like a shorted 9 V battery… ) And it instantly flashes to 1500°C. And can bond materials that normally would be impossible. I’ve used it to bond things like glass to aluminum, or ceramic to silica… Crazy shit like that. And it is a permanent melted/welded bond. Very similar to “explosion welding“… which if you haven’t seen I highly suggest you Google and watch videos. Of them welding stuff like hardened steel to nickel and copper and stuff like that… using massive explosions of C4 on top of two plates of dissimilar and un-weldable material. Even though the indium flashfoil reaches 1500°C… And melts the pieces together… it won’t damage anything, and it’s safe to use with even glass… Without cracking it from heat stress. It’s safe because it happened so quickly, and dissipates heat so quickly that it transfers no thermal stress into the parts.
@@hullinstruments Hey, that's a lot of great info to share. Thank you very much for the generosity of your time! Used to be a tool & Die Maker in the aircraft industry, during the 1970's. Very familiar with diamond lapping compound to hone out carbide dies within .0001 in dia. But, the stuff you're doing makes that seem primitive. Think I'll pass on the C4 welding, though. In 1978, I landed a job doing Laseruim after being blown away by their show at Griffith Park Planetarium. A few years and many optical tradeshows later, I put my machinist skills to work and started developing my own projection systems. If you think today's optical systems are expensive, the ion gas lasers, 3 phase power, water cooling, custom road cases, and controllers were ~10 times as expensive as today's laser diode projectors. That's why I couldn't resist getting back into the artform. Currently, I'm completing a rebuild of 2 cheap Chinese projectors by adding a 40mm X 40mm TEC + the same size heatsink to a 3 watt RGB laser diode module. The OEM had built the projector with the unsealed 3 watt module inside an enclosed aluminum case with only 3 X 30mm 12 VDC fans. Obviously, that's not going to last long. So basically, I'm trying to turn a pig's ear into a silk purse. Zen's been great for guiding my path forward and bringing me up to speed with the newer technology. Yes, I agree that thermal paste and optics don't play very well together. That's why I chose to try out thermal tape, which looks too similar to double sided foam mounting pads, for my liking. That's why I quickly jumped on your indium foil suggestion. I see that Heat Spring is designed to be compressed in between the heat source, TEC, and heat sink under 30-100 PSI. Since I can't drill screw holes through the TEC, I'm not sure how to make that happen, unless I use a larger heatsink to position fasteners around the edges. With regards to less expensive indium sheets, i see many 99% indium sheets @ .1mm thick, same as the expensive ones at Indium Corp's website. I assume that they are just as effective and will follow your lead to ebay alternatives. Otherwise, another $22 per projector won't break my piggy bank. Wasted more than that on the roll of 2" thermal tape. Perhaps it's not too late to return it to Amazon. Anyway, i sincerely appreciate your input, suggestions, and great chat. BR! 😎
I am betting the lenses where pretty good for the time they where made. I got a hold of the OEM and learned this laser head is very old, like 10 years. it's a mix of the poor sealing on the laser head and the length of time they where ran in that condition.
Hey dude I am sort of like you not as proficient but have 27 808nm lasers from a few watts to 160 watts. I have a coherent industrial laser about 96k dollars I bought for 500 repaired for 250. Anyhow Im an electronic tech my knowledge physics optics pretty limited. I have a yard square laser table. I bought 100s and 100s surplus laser parts at one time. I own a pangolin laser projection controller. Ok point of all this would you advise me in optics to lase a surplus gold plated water cooled thermister equipped yvo4 xtal with 808nm to produce 532nm. The gold plated water cooled yvo4 bridge I believe came out of a maybe 40 watt but at least probably 10 watt airport green laser. Thanks regards from a once obsessed laser nut. Oh I have a refrigerated laser cooler. Would be sweet to get a 10 to 40 watt green laser up. 😷
Hey David, I would like to see exactly what you have already and it's configuration. Figure though you would need to set up a temp controlled resonator and get LBO/KTP for the SHG of 1064 to 532nm if you only have the ND:YVO4. I have only personally worked on DPSS 532 up to 3W output but I have also seen larger systems such as the laser scope systems. I'll get a better idea of what you can and can't do when I see what you have. My E-Mail is Zenodilodon@gmail.com
Back when I would put black tennis shoes in front of a fan and crank up various medical industrial 808nm diode lasers to make them explode in flames on youtube.
@@Zenodilodon your the best I may for help send you a thermoelectrically cooled compact about 12x12 808nm laser I think like 20 to 30 watts I picked up 3 at one time. Back when I bought and resold 100 lots 40 watt water cooled medical lasers. One thing I picked up you should get your hands on. Very rare is a 100 ampere variable like 3 to 5 vdc power supply I would hang some industrial welder diodes and a ballast resistor in series. Stuff is bloody dangerous I used to play with. 😭
@@davidrouse3157 12x12, I am assuming there is another axis of measurement somewhere in there lol. I just picked up a 20W fiber coupled 976nm for a project/experiments and a 40W FAP800 for a replacement in another 355nm laser I have here to work on. We have a few high current CC/CV PSUs at work. I forgot how high they go ( we have quite a few ). I got a 25 A/30V linear CW/CV PSU recently for home and a 50 A V unknown CC/CV PSU to get going. I think there is an issue with the high side driver IC. Little by little I am getting there with using more powerful NIR lasers for pump diodes in DPSS stuff. Usually I end up working with visible laser diodes 1.5>W because they are most commonly used in the show laser industry. Occasionally DPSS/OPSL comes in but very rarely which is sad in it's own way because those are the fun ones to work on :P
Quick note! On this laser head I did not set the current lower before installing the new laser diodes. This is because the new laser diodes have a higher current rating than the drivers where set to for the old laser diodes. If you have little experience then set the laser driver current to the lowest set point before connecting your new laser diodes. I'll discuss this more on the next video when I set the laser driver current.
Thank you very much for this very informative video. I started myself to build and rebuild lasers a few years ago, and if I ever reach only 10% of your knowledge level I would be a happy person. Please keep on with what you are doing!!
Markus, I am glad you are enjoying the content. Keep on learning and doing, you will get to most points you want to. Hopefully I will be working with optics and lasers for many more years to come and able to help and inspire more individuals!
I’m Sorry it’s going to cause more trouble for you, but I’m actually stoked that you’ll be showing the more in-depth Repair! It’s going to be great to watch!
As I continue doing this stuff I want to really get more of a solid professional/informative feel in my content. I figure that if I am going to show repairs on this stuff it will pay off to be more thorough.
@@Zenodilodon oh….I didn’t mean you weren’t professional or anything like that…
you have the perfect mix of banter and comedy in your videos.
Let’s look at the channel “tech ingredients“ as our example… I absolutely love his channel and his confidant. Dude is a obvious genius, and a wonderful teacher! But even when he’s discussing topics that interest me… I could fall asleep!
He’s an awesome dude and i’ve seen enough of his content… To know he’s actually a funny guy. But he keeps his videos super dry… basically like college lectures.
So I think you found the perfect mix of professionalism, clarity, and comedy in your content. Don’t ever lose the goofy banter
@@hullinstruments Yep, Tech Ingredients is one of my favs, too. Total nutty professor/engineer, with lasers, solar powered catamaran, experimental rocket engines, explosives, what's not to like? Except that I'm totally jealous of Tech Ingredient's work shop/lab.
But, you're right about Zen's entertaining banter and subtle humor being a joy to watch. Great personality that comes across so naturally. I wouldn't change a thing, except I'd like to increase his subs by a factor of 10.
“The lenses are FUUUUU…..FRIED” 😂
The way you said that at the end was hilarious. I thought you were getting ready to drop the F bomb
OHH the hours i have spent trying to find lenses that don't self destruct their coatings or melt (acrylic with even the slightest particle of muck) these days i just use crystal polished glass and suffer only minor losses at anything over a watt and what's a little spherical aberration between friends! Great vid as usual MrZ!
I hate plastic lenses. it's amazing how good the plastic forming and optical quality has gotten in some of them though, but still there is something mighty satisfying with glass.
15:56 - great explanation, what does the two triangle prisms do on the top right?
Those are anamorphic prism pairs. They are for beam correction and you can learn more about them here.
www.edmundoptics.com/knowledge-center/application-notes/optics/anamorphic-prism-pairs/
impressive rebuild, but also very fiddly.
Gotta admit Im curous about a rough estimate of cost and what such a repair build would set a given client back.
anyway after watching a few of your videos, you certainly landed yoursef a new subscriber.. as its just up my interest's alley..
Thanks! I saw your questions on converting a laser to run on batteries but they seem to vanish when I click on the menu to reply. Rough estimate on a rebuild is about $50 a diode in labor + parts to rebuild.
To answer about batteries. Yeah you could use DC-DC converters from like a 48V batter pack stepped down to the needed voltage rails. Isolation diodes of a fairly high current would also be needed, though you could probably set up mosfets and get less loss. The voltage rails are usually 12/5v for signal stuff and laser drivers, 24-v and 24+v rails are also needed. This gets tricky because they need to share a common pin. It would take some strategy, but it's very possible to set up.
A couple of curiosities. Is the brass plate resting on the warm side or the cold side of the peltier cells?
Is there any reason the diodes aren't kept independent that way rather than soldered to a pcb?
Sorry, for "language" problems, with the automatic translator I found it very difficult to understand, but it was very useful to see how it is built.
A thousand thanks.
The brass optical table is on the cold side of the TEC, usually kept at 20C. The main reason the diodes seem to all be individually installed is serviceability. Laser diodes do fail and need replacing which is easier without a shared PCB. Some companies such as OPT do use a shared PCB for the laser diodes. Very high end lasers have small PCBs with 3 pin sockets for the laser diodes.
Very nice instructions, from beginning to end. Thanks, Zen. Covers just about everything I've had to do over the first few months of projector rebuilds. Need to grind out the middle of my short wide blade screwdriver. Still need to add Lasorb protection to my LDs, too.
Looking forward to seeing the difference in build quality of the PD3000- RGB OptLaser projector. Out of the box, I shouldn't need to do most of the mods I'm having to do with the cheaper projectors. After the add-ons and mods, both cost the same. The cheap route has been a good learning experience (how not to do it), but paying a little extra up front for off the shelf quality saves a lot of frustrations, plus having mfr specs and user guides makes a world of difference for maintenance. "Ya gets whatcha pays fer. Know what I mean, Mate?" How can anyone hope to become a fine artist with only a 4 inch wide paint brush, right?
Looking forward to Part 2 of fine tuning everything and learning what you find out about those fried lenses. Crackled AR coatings on the inside planer surface, while protected from environmental contaminants? 🤔
The cheap route will teach you a lot, which helps when you do get into the more expensive stuff and then know how to work on it. The toasted AR coating it on the outside of the lens. You'll notice the back of the laser head isn't sealed by the connector and the TECs are set really cold. The other thing to note is the damage looks to be progressively worse the closer to the back of the laser they are. My thoughts at the moment are TECs set too cold + improper seal +condensation +hygroscopic AR coatings = lens death.
@@Zenodilodon Thanks for the reply, Zen. Yes, I understand that AR coatings are on the exterior surface of the lens. By 'inside' I meant inside the LD mounting assembly, within the sealed area between the lens and LD, as opposed to the convex surface that's more exposed to external contaminates. Judging from your pics, I don't see any damage on the 'outer' convex surface. Seems counterintuitive to me, unless the AR coating was already soiled or defective.
Your suspicion reminds me of crackling glass marbles when I was a kid by putting frozen marbles in a hot skillet or was it the other way around? (Too many years ago.) But, it also sounds like the most probable cause, IMHO.
Looking forward to your final verdict in Part 2.😎
@@TheOleHermit The damage is on the outer convex surface. This is a crown and flint merged lens. The surface ROC is pretty large for it's overall focal distance because of the geometry between the joined glass elements of the lens. The side facing towards the LD output window are fine from what I can tell.
I used to also break marbled with heat. I would get them hot on the stove and drop them into ice water. :P
@@Zenodilodon Well that sheds a whole different light on what I thought I saw. Could have sworn the damage looked like it was on the back planar side of the lens. Must be one of them thar optional collusions, like that feller El Salvador Daily.🤷♀️
But, after your clarification and doublechecking, apparently I need to ease up on the ole vaporizer. 😜
Wasn't aware of the lens being merged crown/flint, either. Reminds me of the miniature quartz rod lenses with parabolic refractive indices, when I was attempting to collimate the output of a 100 um fiberoptic into a scannable beam from a remote truss mounted scanning head (1980, pre-laser diode). Thanks!👍
What a great video. Just subscribed.
Wait wait wait... What's an electron?
What kind of mirror mounts does exist and how to build one yourself ?
There are many types of mounts, for lasers of this size you can find mounts on www.live-lasersystems.net/. There are lots of mounts in the kinematic style as well of which can be found second hand online too.
As far as how to make optical mounts. That's an open ended and often application specific process. Most of it is done with CNC in quantity but you can machine mounts with hand tools if need be. In the DIY department a rotary tool is your best friend.
Personally I would have used tweezers and needle nose pliers for most of this rebuild 😅
Yeah, I have to eventually pick myself up some nice ceramic tweezers. They are very good for inserting diodes.
hi, i have a basic question, I have read that one can not add two lasers of samel frequency using polarized mirrors... how is it possible that u added the power of laser diode. I wanted to do the same bu stopped when i read that its not possible with dame wavelength laser.
You can add 2 alike laser diodes together, but only once. Hence why you see only one polarized beam splitter/combiner per color in laser head. ( in this laser it's joining 4 beams on 4 beams each of the 4 being joined once with polarizing optics ) If you are joining say just 2 of an alike color you can either use a wave rotator plate for one before using a polarizing beam splitter/combiner or you can rotate one of the laser diodes 90 degrees compared to the other. The reason you can do this, but only once goes like this. You can have only efficiently have 100% pass or 100% reflect with optics that use polarization depending on the lights e field angle ( Polarization ) interacting with a polarizing optic, unlike color. I can explain more in detail if you have a facebook or discord if you're still confused as it's a bit complicated to fully understand.
I want a laser power meter 😢
Those power supply connections, I think they're called LP4, one of mine the power keeps coming loose causing the hard drive to keep on making a ticking sound, you have any recommendations on fixing those?
Why replaceall diodes at the same time
Hmm, it could be just a crap brand of connector. You can try to put more clamping power on the female connectors by sliding a small pin around the circular metal end on the inside of the plug and pressing the metal in to form a tighter contact on the pins when inserted.
@@Zenodilodon that or I'll solder the living shit out of ot👀 sit there wondering what that irritating sound is before realising I've lost my z drive
@@phonotical It will be fixed, that's the important part :P . The lesson to be learned is that next time don't wonder what the sound is, you go and hunt it down like the member of the apex predator species you are.
@@Zenodilodon haha I did find it 😛
interesting ch for sure.
I try to post content that is unique and informative!
awesome video again will be good a new eventualy im sure
It'll be better than new!
Good job! but... you can use a tool with hole in his center for better see the beam collimation
it's much more practical and you save time to adjust the collimation
Hey mate, good to see you drop by! If you have a tool you like using for collimation I would like to see it. I have been working to optimize my work flow a bit more.
Very interested in such a tool! any info?
@@Masterpj555 I may look into making some more custom laser tools. If you're up for it we can discuss some ideas.
Do you ever use indium foil instead of thermal compound? Considering it solve the issue of thermal compound heat creep, and there are now readily available “Heath Springs” made of thermal foil… which I’ve had the pleasure of using and they are wonderful!
I was just curious.
I love the stuff… And I especially love avoiding thermal grease when optics are involved!
Good question. I'm getting ready to use double sided thermal tape to attach my TEC to the module block, as well as the heat sink to the other side of the TEC.
Never heard of indium foil Heath Springs, but I'll check them out. Thanks for the tip.👍
I have not used indium foil, I will have to look into that. I have used the thin graphite ones though. It would be nice to have foil inside overall since it can't break down and release chemicals.
Just found Indium Corp's site, selling 20 * 1" sq. x .004" thick Heat Spring sheets for $295. 🤯 Seriously?
Edit: Amazon @ $10.95 - 99.99% High Purity Indium Sheet Foil (50mm x50mm x0.1mm) for CPU Heat Sink, Bonding 😊
@@TheOleHermit indium foil is incredible. It’s what’s used in the semiconductor, laser, and photonics manufacturing industries. For me it stands head and shoulders above thermal paste… Especially considering there’s no heat creep, no messy stuff around optics, and it performs better. It’s literally the worst thing if you happen to get a little bit smeared on your optics. Because it is very abrasive. It’s an extremely fine grit, but it cuts extremely fast. very similar to 0.5 to 1.0 µm Diamond abrasive paste. Which translates to approximately 60,000 grit, on your standard “sandpaper scale” of Abrasives..
It makes a wonderful polishing paste though! I get large amounts of it, when rebuilding massive motor drives, or huge power inverters used in electric forklifts and cranes… I’ll get a big jar full of thermal paste off of the heat sinks. According to the size of the device… The heat sinks range from 50 to 250 pounds. Needless to say there’s a shit ton of thermal paste coupling the heat sink to the devices.
And the abrasive is such high-quality! Ground to such a perfect and consistent grit. It’s very similar to the super expensive diamond particle lapping paste that I’ve purchased in the past.
No way I would just throw it away!
I use it on leather stops for honing woodworking tools… And also on some of my lapidary wheels…. used for cutting and polishing optics.
I use regular indium foil most of the time. I get it dirt cheap from eBay and other sources. I specifically try and find the stuff that’s been milled particularly for use as thermal transfer material. This is really important, it has to have the right temper and perfect amount of work hardening… Or it won’t fill the tiny microscopic gaps. But pretty much… 99% of Indium foil is made for this purpose. So if you find a super thin foil for sale online… It’s a good chance it’s perfect.
I do use indium “Heath Springs“ in certain instances….With specialized projects or really expensive parts where perfection is needed. They really are incredible! But this is just a hobby for me… No way in hell I could afford the lasers, optics, and stuff like heat springs if I had to pay the real prices! Most of my stuff is found on eBay or at local government auctions, for pennies on the dollar. Jesus Christ optics and lasers equipment is the most expensive shit I’ve ever seen 😂 and that’s crazy coming from someone like myself who is addicted to Metrology grade test equipment 😂
The indium heat springs are really great… And you can find scraps on eBay from time to time for dirt cheap. Plenty big enough to do laser stuff. If you check out that same Company and their UA-cam channel you mentioned… They have something that’s essentially a flash foil made of indium… it’s the most incredible shit, and I’ve got to use it on a few separate occasions.
Simply Apply a slight current (like a shorted 9 V battery… ) And it instantly flashes to 1500°C. And can bond materials that normally would be impossible. I’ve used it to bond things like glass to aluminum, or ceramic to silica… Crazy shit like that. And it is a permanent melted/welded bond. Very similar to “explosion welding“… which if you haven’t seen I highly suggest you Google and watch videos. Of them welding stuff like hardened steel to nickel and copper and stuff like that… using massive explosions of C4 on top of two plates of dissimilar and un-weldable material.
Even though the indium flashfoil reaches 1500°C… And melts the pieces together… it won’t damage anything, and it’s safe to use with even glass… Without cracking it from heat stress. It’s safe because it happened so quickly, and dissipates heat so quickly that it transfers no thermal stress into the parts.
@@hullinstruments Hey, that's a lot of great info to share. Thank you very much for the generosity of your time!
Used to be a tool & Die Maker in the aircraft industry, during the 1970's. Very familiar with diamond lapping compound to hone out carbide dies within .0001 in dia. But, the stuff you're doing makes that seem primitive. Think I'll pass on the C4 welding, though.
In 1978, I landed a job doing Laseruim after being blown away by their show at Griffith Park Planetarium. A few years and many optical tradeshows later, I put my machinist skills to work and started developing my own projection systems. If you think today's optical systems are expensive, the ion gas lasers, 3 phase power, water cooling, custom road cases, and controllers were ~10 times as expensive as today's laser diode projectors. That's why I couldn't resist getting back into the artform.
Currently, I'm completing a rebuild of 2 cheap Chinese projectors by adding a 40mm X 40mm TEC + the same size heatsink to a 3 watt RGB laser diode module.
The OEM had built the projector with the unsealed 3 watt module inside an enclosed aluminum case with only 3 X 30mm 12 VDC fans. Obviously, that's not going to last long.
So basically, I'm trying to turn a pig's ear into a silk purse. Zen's been great for guiding my path forward and bringing me up to speed with the newer technology.
Yes, I agree that thermal paste and optics don't play very well together. That's why I chose to try out thermal tape, which looks too similar to double sided foam mounting pads, for my liking. That's why I quickly jumped on your indium foil suggestion.
I see that Heat Spring is designed to be compressed in between the heat source, TEC, and heat sink under 30-100 PSI. Since I can't drill screw holes through the TEC, I'm not sure how to make that happen, unless I use a larger heatsink to position fasteners around the edges.
With regards to less expensive indium sheets, i see many 99% indium sheets @ .1mm thick, same as the expensive ones at Indium Corp's website. I assume that they are just as effective and will follow your lead to ebay alternatives. Otherwise, another $22 per projector won't break my piggy bank. Wasted more than that on the roll of 2" thermal tape. Perhaps it's not too late to return it to Amazon.
Anyway, i sincerely appreciate your input, suggestions, and great chat.
BR! 😎
Jeez, they didn't give that good lenses at all did they!
I am betting the lenses where pretty good for the time they where made. I got a hold of the OEM and learned this laser head is very old, like 10 years. it's a mix of the poor sealing on the laser head and the length of time they where ran in that condition.
@@Zenodilodon is this from a full colour machine or just a blue projection only one? Maybe the cooling isn't enough for the machine
Hey dude I am sort of like you not as proficient but have 27 808nm lasers from a few watts to 160 watts. I have a coherent industrial laser about 96k dollars I bought for 500 repaired for 250. Anyhow Im an electronic tech my knowledge physics optics pretty limited. I have a yard square laser table. I bought 100s and 100s surplus laser parts at one time. I own a pangolin laser projection controller.
Ok point of all this would you advise me in optics to lase a surplus gold plated water cooled thermister equipped yvo4 xtal with 808nm to produce 532nm.
The gold plated water cooled yvo4 bridge I believe came out of a maybe 40 watt but at least probably 10 watt airport green laser. Thanks regards from a once obsessed laser nut.
Oh I have a refrigerated laser cooler. Would be sweet to get a 10 to 40 watt green laser up. 😷
Hey David, I would like to see exactly what you have already and it's configuration. Figure though you would need to set up a temp controlled resonator and get LBO/KTP for the SHG of 1064 to 532nm if you only have the ND:YVO4. I have only personally worked on DPSS 532 up to 3W output but I have also seen larger systems such as the laser scope systems. I'll get a better idea of what you can and can't do when I see what you have. My E-Mail is Zenodilodon@gmail.com
Btw cant imagine today what surplus out there when I was playing 2 decades ago 1000 watt 808nm solid state laser parts were appearing on ebay.
Back when I would put black tennis shoes in front of a fan and crank up various medical industrial 808nm diode lasers to make them explode in flames on youtube.
@@Zenodilodon your the best I may for help send you a thermoelectrically cooled compact about 12x12 808nm laser I think like 20 to 30 watts I picked up 3 at one time. Back when I bought and resold 100 lots 40 watt water cooled medical lasers. One thing I picked up you should get your hands on. Very rare is a 100 ampere variable like 3 to 5 vdc power supply I would hang some industrial welder diodes and a ballast resistor in series. Stuff is bloody dangerous I used to play with. 😭
@@davidrouse3157 12x12, I am assuming there is another axis of measurement somewhere in there lol. I just picked up a 20W fiber coupled 976nm for a project/experiments and a 40W FAP800 for a replacement in another 355nm laser I have here to work on. We have a few high current CC/CV PSUs at work. I forgot how high they go ( we have quite a few ). I got a 25 A/30V linear CW/CV PSU recently for home and a 50 A V unknown CC/CV PSU to get going. I think there is an issue with the high side driver IC.
Little by little I am getting there with using more powerful NIR lasers for pump diodes in DPSS stuff. Usually I end up working with visible laser diodes 1.5>W because they are most commonly used in the show laser industry. Occasionally DPSS/OPSL comes in but very rarely which is sad in it's own way because those are the fun ones to work on :P
So complex
It's deceivingly complex in it's own way.
Your soldering iron, the poor guy looks like he jumped into a sugar bowl!
The soldering iron sometimes takes on other tasks not quite meant for a soldering iron lol.
@@Zenodilodon don't I know it!