I try! I thought this was in interesting topic to do. The drop in quality is something that goes unnoticed by nearly everyone who buys them unless you have experience with how they where over the years.

Glad you're having fun with viewing the content! While others might say " Burning Laser Pointer ", I say " Learning Laser Pointer " :P

Glad you found the comparison fascinating! The 593.1 is still SFG, it's just done with a self frequency doubling (SFD) crystal. I have been working on testing and gathering SFD stuff for the last 2 years. I think I have 3 of the 558-561nm SFD crystals, I also have a 565nm, a few 574nm, and at least one more 593.5 with hopefully more to test stuff on. It's been one of the slowest and most expensive projects but it should make an excellent video when I get enough data and parts together. You're bound to enjoy that rabbit hole!

Yes, the color color turned out well!

Gold plating the pointer host actually. It turned out really well and looks sharp! Thanks for the compliment :P

@@Zenodilodon oh damn even better 👍 Definitely a sick piece in the end 💯

are you high right now

@@Zenodilodon I've never been high

@@Zenodilodon I've never been high

Having the laser off for a portion of the time does help, but all in all there isn't all to much heat produced vs the mass of the module. Probably very similar to the energy in this video. As for the driver. They need to be constant current calibrated for the laser diode. You can use a dummy load like decently powerful LED to make sure the driver is set to it's low point. Then you connect the laser diode and set the current point. You could be over or under driving the laser. The junction voltage is typically 1.8V so testing across the output of the driver with the laser connected will show you that voltage. You can calibrate to that voltage as well, but no higher. 350mA would also work. Use the meter in Amp DC mode in series with the load similar to how to check current in this video or how I calibrate current in my other laser builds.

The Nd:YVO4 is pumped by particular wavelengths. A CD laser diode from a burner is 780nm which isn't suitable to pump the Nd:YVO4. You will need 808nm Laser light. Secondly the diodes from a CD burner is for semi-pulse operation and usually maxes out around 150-170mW for continuous wave use and isn't really enough power to pump the Nd:YVO4 even if it was the right wavelength.

Oh I totally missed the goal of doing a complete swap and making it red, brain fart on my end. Yes you can absolutely do that! You will need to lower the driver current though. Check out my Bare and Basic DVD/CD Laser video for all the information you need! You will need to change the lens to fully collimate the beam so keep that in mind.

thank you a lot! I just saw your guides to dvd diodes, laser drivers and green lasers, absolute masterclass ​@@Zenodilodon

@@Zenodilodon i Opened like 3 DVD players (that are made by LG company or whatever) and the diode was aluminum-infused.. i was really sad because i couldn't put it in my pet 5mW laser :( you didn't talk about those aluminum-infused diodes in your video, it was like a heatsink, but infused with the laser diode... and i tried to remove the aluminum but i ended up breaking 2 of them (the 3rd one is also gone) because it (the thing that outputs the laser) was inside the wierd looking diode. also it (the diode) had a diffraction grating directy above the protective lens, i was able to remove it with sharp tools (it was a glass-like material that shattered and broke) and i didn't damage the diode at the same time!!! edit: 52:06 the thing inside the aluminum-infused diode looked like that but thinner also, what is the power of that golden laser? it looks very amazing!

They were sold by CNI and a company out of Russia in the 90s, though several companies made modules back then. Price was scatter plot, 20 bucks and up to hundreds. Edmund did have them and they were rebranded CNI lasers. I gutted a few cni lasers for the ktp crystal for keeping show lasers alive if a ktp burned up. They used a discrete HR and OC mirror, a C or B mount laser doode and a basic collimator, though better ones had a beam shaping assembly to deliver the pump beam to the crystal more efficiently. ❤

@@christopherleubner6633 hmmm interesting. I will subscribe to your newsletter. haha

Great news for you! 593nm modules can be bought for as low as $50 on eBay! Currently there is a huge burst of new colors for under $100. 561,555,575,593nm! Yellow has never been more achievable!

@@Zenodilodon oooo! oh, I have one of those 50$ lasers on the way. I considered taking that a part even, its too much to do that just yet, and also its part for my dad too, not all mine to tinker with. Im looking up 575...... I only know tinkerlasers to be selling those for a bit too much. after seeing your video if I could make one 590+- out of those cheap pen cases like here, it would be way more gratifying to have by building it myself. looks like an awesome laser you made btw

You will need to case isolate the diode host and will need to manually run a connection from the positive of the housing of the torch case to the driver. There isn't a good way around this and you will have a direct short otherwise. Kapton tape works pretty well, but you may have to carefully sand your diode host down thinner to make it fit.

Thanks! Is there any other way to do it. Because, the diode module fits tightly to the torch case that I cannot isolate it from the case and also the switch of the torch is at the back of it

@@c4land6 No, I have had to isolate all my diodes that are case negative. You cannot use the case for positive because that will cause a short and regulation almost always happens on the negative which means an attempt to use the case as negative will completely bypass the driver regulating the current to the diode. Isolating the diode host from the case is to my knowledge the only option you have.

Can I Isolate the the back cap of the torch instead? And bring another isolated connection for it?

If you have an idea you can try it. I have always isolated the host from the case, Not really tried anything else. I can't really recommend a better option as the one I use seems to have a 100% success rate.

That's for a future video where I discuss a range of SFD Laser crystals. I am still collecting parts and running tests on that and it will be some time. It's one of those mega projects though and there is a bunch to still do.

@@Zenodilodon Would it be similar to sodium's 589nm emission? That would be very handy!

@@SarahC2 There are 589nm Lasers but I have yet to get one. I have tried 593nm in some sodium line stuff such as black fire and it doesn't work.

No, people (lay persons) just want to buy the cheapest ones. Not enough people who are buying these pointers would understand what makes a good pointer and why. I knew this guy who would abuse the on\off cycle times recommended for his 450nm pointer until the module got hot enough to be mildly uncomfortable. Then the pointer would fail not too long after, and he'd buy another one and do the same thing to break it. He could not be bothered to care about what causes diodes to fail, and why. He just would not listen to care and safety, and he'd also buy solely on eBay, where they would sell him a $150 pointer with a plastic lens that would melt. People want "toy" lasers, and they want them as cheap as possible, no matter what. This is best witnessed by the complete lack of IR filter on 90% of Amazon\eBay DPSS pointers. People are dumb. And these pointers are manufactured by so many companies, with only 1% putting an actual brand name on their products, there is zero chance of budget laser pointer manufacturers making their products better, and if they DID (and chose to attach a brand name to their products, so you would know which pointer is made well) then every cheap Chinese manufacturer would just change their pointer's LOOKS to appear as if they were the high quality pointer. Cheap lasers lost their identity decades ago, when the companies stopped using brand names, and every manufacturer just decided to call it a "301" or "303" based on the lens threading style. If you want a decent quality laser, you have to know what to look for from companies that only sell optical products, and \ or read a lot in Laserforums.com and stay far away from eBay and Amazon (and wish and Temu) where you can't even find out the brand name of the laser manufacturer. Good companies don't hide their brand names.

@@Boogie_the_cat are you high right now

I do like both. Why not do both at the same time? Excellent question in context to your proposal. Is this vertical like a helicopter or vertical like a Ferris wheel? Just give me the rotational axes in x or y. Making a frame that wouldn't flex in that circumstance would be an absolute nightmare. Locating bearings would also be nearly impossible. Interferometers measure very subtle changes. It would be like trying to measure something in micro grams while on a freight train. To much vibrations from the bearings. Optical gyroscopes don't actually spin at all. Using magnetic levitation is also pretty much out as a fully decoupled system usually a switching electromagnet and that could induce a lot of noise into the system. Mode locking is also an issue with interferomters. This is where the interference doesn't change because of special photonic physics. They using something called dithering motors to physically move the optical assembly to prevent that, and well that isn't exactly easy. There really isn't any good reason to even make that device honestly.

@@Zenodilodon Yes, change history.

Edmund Optics sells a complete cage Michelson interferometer, and I think someone with your talent would come up with a clever way to rotate a heavy setup like that. Let's split the Nobel Prize. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/bbpgl5qgnb6WXXk.html

@@Zenodilodon kzfaq.info/get/bejne/bbpgl5qgnb6WXXk.html