New Leadlight APC - Modders beware of new luckyduck, bigha and jasper lasers.

[stevetexas]

Re: New Leadlight APC deconstrucetd - beware of new luckyduck, bigha and jasper lasers.

I think the info by Dr. Lava is informative and accurate.

I also think that the LuckyDuck laser is a good deal for the money and performs as described.

I agree with Dr. Lava, I would gladly pay an extra $10 for a moddable laser. (You can only use so many 5 mW unmodded lasers, but we will, very likely, buy many more from LuckyDuck if we know they are moddable.)

 

[noah]

Re: New Leadlight APC deconstrucetd - beware of new luckyduck, bigha and jasper lasers.

The MCA comes from yet another supplier. The spec is the same as always 1.5mm x 1.5mm, but they're tested based on efficiency/stability and not size. The manufacturer of this component could have decreased the size but quality should be the same or greater than before.

Electronic components are ever-decreasing in size and ever-increasing in capability. It's no surprise that certain components are physically smaller than they were just a year or two ago. But the output should be the same or greater than before.

They say yield of modules with greater than 5mw potential is greater than ever. But the design is for <5mw and anything that meets that standard is shipped. Therein lies the risk of modding - some modules have greater potential than others and it's kind of a luck of the draw scenario. That someone is unable to modify a laser to his liking is not indicitive of a product of decreasing quality. It's more likely that you were simply unlucky this time in the potential of the modules which you were shipped - and lucky in your previous attempts.

Modules are factory tuned to meet the <5mw spec regardless of their operating current. Some may be at the high end of 250mA while others are under 150mA. If modules were set within the max operating current rather than max legal power, power yield would look something like this (this should tell you about the potential for modifying):

5mw neighborhood: 63%
<10mW: 10%
<20mW: 24%
<30mW: 3%

 

[Corona]

Re: New Leadlight APC deconstrucetd - beware of new luckyduck, bigha and jasper laser

The area of the MCA is directly related to power capability. Period. The conversion efficiency losses from the IR energy through the MCA has to go somewhere, this energy is dissipated as heat in the MCA and the less area, the higher the energy density in the MCA crystals.

This is simple physics and no amount of clever marketing talk can repeal the laws of thermodynamics.

The surface area difference between a 1.7mm² and 1.2mm² MCA is more than it might appear - a 1.2mm² part is only 50% of the area of a 1.7mm² part. Again, simple mathematics.

Higher MCA temperature will lead to lowered efficiency at higher output powers and reduced lifetime of the laser - no matter what the output power is.

And - what IS the spot size of the IR energy on the MCA aperture? This is before any collimation... I'm not saying this is the case without inspection of the assembly, but it is POSSIBLE that not all of the IR energy even passes through the MCA. For the same reason, the alignment of a smaller MCA is more critical.

Who remembers the "old days" of CB radio when all a guy needed was a pot tweaker to bump the output power of his radio up by a few hundred percent? The FCC came down hard on the manufacturers - and the design community solution to that was detuning, cheaper parts, adding negative feedback (ALC)...etc. The option? Be put out of business and/or heavily fined for selling non-type compliant product.

Sound familiar?

If I might be blunt, my suspicion is that the "real reason" behind the design changes is to lower cost AND to approach a condition that consistently meets the FDA/CDRH regulations for this laser class, both being goals of this industry, due to internal business forces and external pressure from customs agents etc.

It's nice to see the APC circuit redesigned to prevent current runaway though.

 

[pseudonomen137]

Re: New Leadlight APC deconstrucetd - beware of new luckyduck, bigha and jasper lasers.

Good tips for anyone looking to mod their lasers. I gotta say though in the manufacturers defense, you can't really say "beware" of them because they made it harder to illegally mess with your laser just as you can't discount a car simply on the merit that the trunk won't hold enough bodies (yeah, a little more extreme case but you get the picture). Just not a laser to recommend to someone wanting to try a pot mod.

 

[dr_lava]

Fair enough. The post was geared toward modders, and I think the text shows that, but I changed the title to be clear.

 

[luvlasers]

Great, a really informative post dr lava, especially with replies from Noah.

What brand or make of 5mW or less laser pointers would you recommend for modding now?

 

[dr_lava]

Right now it looks like the best bang for the buck mod would be to get a powerful dealextreme laser and mod it by adding an IR filter

 

[liveforphysics]

Dr. Lava- Amazingly, and appearently not even DX knows this, but it seems that the new high power newish stuff DOES have IR filters allready!!