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240 mW laser pointer for $189 - what do you think about it?

Posted by Howie 
Just as a quick update. I did a few tests of my 1mW laser focused on to an 0201 thermistor.
I basically saw about a 1 degree centigrade increase in the temperature of the thermistor.
At some point I will get a 5mW laser and hack a 250mW dvd laser diode to repeat tests, but I have to
get some safety goggles first.
sid
Re: 240 mW laser pointer for $189 - what do you think about it?
July 11, 2009 11:30AM
Quote

...safety (goggles) first
Quote

THANK YOU!

And no, I won't say anything about the laserdiodes again, I've already did grinning smiley

'sid

PS what's that with little boys and fancy coloured lasers anyway?
yo dude howie get a really laser like a 500 mW thats a real laser burns thru anything even my desk at school got it noob?
I have been collecting scrap dvd writers for the diodes, I managed to get one to scorch paper using the lens from the dvd writer, would it be possible to combine say 5 or 6 such diodes into one beam and have more power??, or will it not work like that.
VDX
Re: 240 mW laser pointer for $189 - what do you think about it?
December 21, 2009 09:06AM
... it would work, if you manage to focus all beams in one spot - then you'll add up all the power spinning smiley sticking its tongue out

I had to build an justage-stage for ring-focus-lasers ... here they combined 80 diodes with 20 Watts power each to a 'single' 1600 Watt-laser grinning smiley

Viktor
Dvd writers are now more common in the scrap bin, they seem to be around 100mw power from what I can make out, the write speed seems to be an indicator of this, so far I have collected 4 but will wait for another 2 at least, one thing springs to mind, the spot power could be controlled by switching diodes on and of perhaps,
as in 6 = full power, 3 = 50% power, although I have a feeling it may not be this simple.
Re: 240 mW laser pointer for $189 - what do you think about it?
December 22, 2009 05:06AM
This was somewhat interesting:
[adsabs.harvard.edu]

Laser cutting of paper is widely used in the paper conversion industry. CO2 lasers are well suited for this type of applications. Desktop printing is a large market both for digital photography, document management and graphics applications, but it still lacks advanced cutting and scoring ability, and CO2 lasers seem costly to be integrated in mass-market printers. For that reason, mass-scalable and low-cost semiconductor laser diodes would be very advantageous to add paper cutting and scoring features in desktop printers. However, common paper can not be cut properly using visible or Near Infrared (NIR) laser diode since it has a very poor absorption at these wavelengths. We report here an innovative solution to achieve paper cutting or scoring using a 1 W single emitter NIR laser diode, within an inkjet printer. A special ink that absorbs the NIR light, and that penetrates all through the paper, is first disposed on the lines to be cut. Then, the laser diode goes along the lines to be cut. We show that a cutting speed of 2m/min can be achieved on 80g/m2 conventional paper. The influence of the optical properties of the ink on the cutting speed are discussed, as well as focussing issues. In particular, we show that invisible inks are suitable, and very clear-cut edges can be obtained. The perspective of this technique are discussed.

So we could do ten 100mW lasers in order to develop 1W of power, but I'm not sure what we'd do with it. Based on the massive interest in the cricut thread, there are people out there who _really_ want to cut paper, though. If we weren't already running plastic extruders, I'd suggest paper LOM (laminated object manufacturing) with laser cut paper and glue.
What about 3d embossing powders, my wife uses an old toaster to fuse it, I have not done any tests but it does not seem to need much energy for it to fuse, the strength may not be of the highest and it is expensive, laser toner may also be a candidate??, not sure how many we would need to melt solder paste but pcb making?, etching and marking, out of all the cd and dvd writers I have dismantled the diode has always worked and they contain some useful optics, although some are difficult to extract.
Sorry I just realised that this has all been said elsewhere, I should have read more before posting.
VDX
Re: 240 mW laser pointer for $189 - what do you think about it?
December 23, 2009 03:00AM
... a diode-laser with 1 Watt power won't cut white paper!

You have to use dark/absorbing paper or plastic-sheets - for this common cutting systems (or LOM) uses CO2-lasers.

It's the wavelenghth: - diodes are between 800nm and 1070nm, CO2 emits around 10064nm, what's very good interacting with organic materials and metal.

I have a 975nm-1Watt-diodelaser with atached glass-fiber+optical head and a resulting focus of 60 microns (much better than most common optics) and have trouble cutting white plasticsheets or paper eye rolling smiley

With my 50Watt-fiberlaser with 1070nm and a spot around 20 microns i can cut white paper with 2Watts power setting, but not really fast eye rolling smiley

So for a cutting system you need much more power or you're limited to dark materials only ...

Viktor
Victor
Just thinking out loud here, does that mean that if we had white paper and printed on it a gradient from white to black, and as the beam travels across it would not effect the white area but at some point would mark and then cut as it gets nearer to black?, in effect a mask that modifies absorption, also could some sort of surface coating be used or does the paper or part need to be dark throughout?.
VDX
Re: 240 mW laser pointer for $189 - what do you think about it?
December 23, 2009 04:41AM
... it's something more complicated eye rolling smiley

White paper is diffuse reflecting most of the radiation.

When the energy is high enough (or long enough present), the paper changes colour to brownish ... then you have much better absorption ... so when going over a specific absorption-rate, it's burned away at once.

It's something of a 'drastic overreaction' at an relatively undefined point when the absorption changes with time.

When applying constant energy, the brown/black area absorbs nearly all present energy and burns much wider than the diameter of the laserspot eye rolling smiley

So you have to apply pulses instead of CW or you can't handle it precise enough between "no cut" and "burn a big hole".

On the other hand it should be possible to draw/print a black line on the paper and scan over the paper or better follow the line with the pulsing diode ...

Viktor
Thinking about the bubblejet principle where a bubble is created by electrical heaters, could we have a laser addressing an array of tiny receptacles creating the heat to form the bubble, I have probably not explained this very well. confused smiley
Re: 240 mW laser pointer for $189 - what do you think about it?
July 16, 2010 05:10AM
240 mW laser pointer for $189? now,200 mW 532nm laser pointer only for $53.99? you can have a look for Amazon and Electronic Gadgets.>grinning smiley<

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/10/2010 07:09AM by howard.
Well... if you go to www.farnell.com you'll have laser diodes up to 25w (and 40w if i'm not mistaken at 25 - 60 € ..! wavelenght is about 808nm... how bad can that be??
VDX
Re: 240 mW laser pointer for $189 - what do you think about it?
August 27, 2010 04:32PM
... this are pulsed diodes with duty-cycles of 0.1%, so you have to divide the average power by 1000 ... it means a "pulsed 25Watt-LD" emits only 25mW optical power when averaged eye rolling smiley


Viktor
--------
Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]
Re: 240 mW laser pointer for $189 - what do you think about it?
August 28, 2010 04:17PM
240mW for $189?

I have some 25Watt, yes, 25000mW smiling smiley diodes for sale ... just 250$ plus shipment ...

You can see it in action here:
25W laser diode
VDX
Re: 240 mW laser pointer for $189 - what do you think about it?
August 28, 2010 05:38PM
Hi RedRap,

i'm interested in the 25W-Diode - can you give me some specs?


Viktor
--------
Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]
Re: 240 mW laser pointer for $189 - what do you think about it?
August 29, 2010 03:47AM
Hi Viktor,

see the requested spec's here:
Coherent FAP 81-25c-800 testresults
Re: 240 mW laser pointer for $189 - what do you think about it?
August 29, 2010 12:28PM
... different cooling options available:


Re: 240 mW laser pointer for $189 - what do you think about it?
September 03, 2010 11:45AM
Some videos where you can see the laser-diodes in action:


laser-diodes in action
VDX
Re: 240 mW laser pointer for $189 - what do you think about it?
September 03, 2010 04:04PM
Hi RedRap,

... you should post this videos in the medical/surgery area and for preventing laser-accidents ...


Viktor
--------
Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]
Hey all,

I have a small project going and used a 2 Watt Diode with a 1 watt driver. Here is the results [www.youtube.com] as you can see, It does indeed engrave plastic. Contrary to this post, this laser does also burn paper. It can do a surface burn at about F 250.00 and it cuts around F 150.00000 so for VDX, my laser is a much shorter nm hence more energy. If anyone is interested in replicating my results, I can suggest this two items + a CPU heat sink if you have one laying around.

It can also etch plywood thought it has difficulty with the tree rings as it moves from dark to light. Nothing a 3 pass system won't fix. Hope this helps you out


Related Links
Didode in Question
[www.ebay.com]
Driver for Diode
[www.ebay.com]
VDX
Re: 240 mW laser pointer for $189 - what do you think about it?
December 13, 2011 03:36AM
... yes, with 445nm you can cut paper with powers below 1Watt, while the 975nm-diodes needs much more power, as whit paper won't absorb the IR-wavelengths.

For shielding you can try with orange coloured PA or Acryl - i have some pieces that are used as UV-blockers, they're shielding nearly all the blue light (see the images with the blue diode): [objects.reprap.org]


Viktor
--------
Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]
I brought this blue laser pointer from LAZERER and it cost me less than $100, 500mW also
Re: 240 mW laser pointer for $189 - what do you think about it?
November 06, 2014 09:20AM
Quote
VDX
... it would work, if you manage to focus all beams in one spot - then you'll add up all the power spinning smiley sticking its tongue out

I had to build an justage-stage for ring-focus-lasers ... here they combined 80 diodes with 20 Watts power each to a 'single' 1600 Watt-laser grinning smiley

Viktor

Is this the sort of product you were involved with?

[www.ringfocus.de]


Kalle
--
Lahti, Finland
The only stable form of government is Open Source Government. - Kalle Pihlajasaari 2013
VDX
Re: 240 mW laser pointer for $189 - what do you think about it?
November 06, 2014 11:23AM
... no, I then had to design the manufacturing/aligning/adjusting rig for the diodes for this company, but even then I found this type of bundling much too inefective and expensive eye rolling smiley

My bundling heads are much smaller and simpler -- and I can combine some hundred fiber-ends in a grapefruit-sized package with a single optical head to receive the same overall energy on a much smaller spot too winking smiley


Viktor
--------
Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]
Re: 240 mW laser pointer for $189 - what do you think about it?
November 07, 2014 06:03PM
And the URL to the repo with the CAD drawings and documentation for this bundling head? smiling smiley


From FreeCAD To The Real World- Demo video using FreeCAD and featuring the Smartrap 3D Printer
VDX
Re: 240 mW laser pointer for $189 - what do you think about it?
November 07, 2014 06:13PM
... classified eye rolling smiley


Viktor
--------
Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]
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