I haven't really looked at my 520nm build unfocused, it's either been focused to burn or focused to infinity. I took a look at the diode output w/o the lens, take a look at what I found.
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I've tried to get it out with one of those compressed air can cleaners, didn't help at all. Here's what the beam looks like focused through a 3-element:
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It's not easy to see a part of the beam missing, in fact I would've never noticed it if I didn't take a look at the beam's raw output, simply because of how bright this thing's beam is already at around 800mW.
It's honestly no big deal to me, I originally intended on this build (my first) to be a "wow look at that" kind of project, with no relative or practical purpose, so I don't mind if it stays as I can hardly see it at all. Also the last thing I would want to do is damage the diode further by trying to get rid of this... Any ideas of how to get rid of it safely? How to clean the raw diode? Thanks.
I've tried to get it out with one of those compressed air can cleaners, didn't help at all. Here's what the beam looks like focused through a 3-element:
It's not easy to see a part of the beam missing, in fact I would've never noticed it if I didn't take a look at the beam's raw output, simply because of how bright this thing's beam is already at around 800mW.
It's honestly no big deal to me, I originally intended on this build (my first) to be a "wow look at that" kind of project, with no relative or practical purpose, so I don't mind if it stays as I can hardly see it at all. Also the last thing I would want to do is damage the diode further by trying to get rid of this... Any ideas of how to get rid of it safely? How to clean the raw diode? Thanks.