Hello again LPF!
Today I'm sharing pics of my new 487-492nm diodes by Sharp.
I have 3 of them put together at the moment, and I plan to make one more once I get my hands on a hot glue gun to keep the clicky button in place on a pen build... (below: 485, 487, 488, 488, 492, 495: 495nm from the first batch, 485 PLT5-488 in the pic below, and my friend's sanwu pocket 488 on top of the 3 I will be sharing here)
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So far, there have been two iterations of these sharp 495nm diodes, the first batch being 492-495nm, and the second being 487-492nm from Paul's measurements. It's amazing how these diodes spread so much in color:
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On to the builds...
First up was something a little weird for me to make. I decided to make a little homemade labby out of the 487nm diode. I purchased a 532nm labby w/ fan from laserlands expecting an easy stop 'n' swap out for the 12mm module. For the most part it was :)
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Most part... I had two little annoying things to work out. First off, there was a lens glued to the front of the module I needed to get out. Acetone and vice grips tend to make this easy.
The other problem is that the set screw was in the back of the module, meaning I couldn't have a good heat spread to the outer module using the extended back... or the driver attached straight outward. Instead, I needed to desolder the driver (sorry Paul!), and re-solder it to the diode diagonally to fit the cavity in the heatsink:
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And with that, put some thermal paste on the copper module, put it into the heatsink and screwed the fan back on.. aaaand... we were done :na:
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The fan doesn't move a lot of air, but I did leave it on for a half hour without any noticeable increase in temperature. Guess it does its job pretty well :D
After those 30 minutes, still going strong
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Next up is a ~492nm build (I assume after heat/extra current) in a C6 host
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And vs the 487 labby:
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___
And finally, what might be my new favorite laser: a teal powder coated host by Rich with the lowest WL 488nm diode of my 25 inside:
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Which lies close to the labby from before (it is being driven a little harder):
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I'll cut to the chase. What makes this one REALLY stand out (other than the fantastic host!). When you put it through a diffraction grating, this does something no other laser I've ever seen does:
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This thing has a good 10nm spread, all of it with a speckle to it. It gets very visibly deeper blue.
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Whereas the other diodes don't do anything close to it:
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From a little bluer than my 480nm, to a little greener than the labby above. Crazy. And all of the output is fairly bright. I just hope this isn't a defect that will shorten the lifespan...
Anyway, that's what I have for now! As always, I add to the albums over time and there will be more pics over on imgur.
next on the list is the 565...
Today I'm sharing pics of my new 487-492nm diodes by Sharp.
I have 3 of them put together at the moment, and I plan to make one more once I get my hands on a hot glue gun to keep the clicky button in place on a pen build... (below: 485, 487, 488, 488, 492, 495: 495nm from the first batch, 485 PLT5-488 in the pic below, and my friend's sanwu pocket 488 on top of the 3 I will be sharing here)

So far, there have been two iterations of these sharp 495nm diodes, the first batch being 492-495nm, and the second being 487-492nm from Paul's measurements. It's amazing how these diodes spread so much in color:

On to the builds...
First up was something a little weird for me to make. I decided to make a little homemade labby out of the 487nm diode. I purchased a 532nm labby w/ fan from laserlands expecting an easy stop 'n' swap out for the 12mm module. For the most part it was :)

Most part... I had two little annoying things to work out. First off, there was a lens glued to the front of the module I needed to get out. Acetone and vice grips tend to make this easy.
The other problem is that the set screw was in the back of the module, meaning I couldn't have a good heat spread to the outer module using the extended back... or the driver attached straight outward. Instead, I needed to desolder the driver (sorry Paul!), and re-solder it to the diode diagonally to fit the cavity in the heatsink:

And with that, put some thermal paste on the copper module, put it into the heatsink and screwed the fan back on.. aaaand... we were done :na:

The fan doesn't move a lot of air, but I did leave it on for a half hour without any noticeable increase in temperature. Guess it does its job pretty well :D
After those 30 minutes, still going strong


______
Next up is a ~492nm build (I assume after heat/extra current) in a C6 host


And vs the 487 labby:


___
And finally, what might be my new favorite laser: a teal powder coated host by Rich with the lowest WL 488nm diode of my 25 inside:

Which lies close to the labby from before (it is being driven a little harder):

I'll cut to the chase. What makes this one REALLY stand out (other than the fantastic host!). When you put it through a diffraction grating, this does something no other laser I've ever seen does:


This thing has a good 10nm spread, all of it with a speckle to it. It gets very visibly deeper blue.


Whereas the other diodes don't do anything close to it:

From a little bluer than my 480nm, to a little greener than the labby above. Crazy. And all of the output is fairly bright. I just hope this isn't a defect that will shorten the lifespan...
Anyway, that's what I have for now! As always, I add to the albums over time and there will be more pics over on imgur.
next on the list is the 565...