~ Honorably bows ~

Thanks! I am planning on bringing back some of the music this summer to videos. I currently am working with local artists for more tracks as I post this. The next video should be in this similar format and about how Argon Ion lasers work. it should be up in about a week! Glad you enjoy the content.

@@Zenodilodon hell yea! looking forward to it :3

I have been there, I actually got super frustrated trying to narrate this video. For me easier said than done doesn't apply.

Oh it is watch maker's level of intricate and I absolutely love it. The technology is amazing.

@@Zenodilodon definitely and its funny to see how some components although miniaturised have still remained the same over the years unlike microchips or circuit boards getting smaller and smaller with newer parts of electronics doing the same function but built smaller and different then there originals ,its the parts of the actual laser head that always fascinated me because i have easier time understanding what they do when put together than electronics or the drivers etc but yes these are on the level of finesse found in older wound time pieces ,i have a few of those i worked on ,another amazing design there too , i love fixing things as well around the house ,appliances and such ,smallest thing was an electronic wrist watch where i had to solder the fine copper fibre wound on the quarts to make it work, i was proud of that one ,but about our prolonged exchange dont worry about having to reply right now and please dont feel like you are obliged to reply fast on anything,take your time if you need to sleep or whatever

It's one of the best things I have come up with, The little window and cover really make this laser unique and quite a marvel.

@@Zenodilodon it really is! How much would one have to pay for such a thing I wonder 😏😆

Your in good thinking, I was thinking the same for a wood rasp recently with a bad jig-saw.

Already have, and they love it! There has been a few people trying to figure out how to do this. That's a lot of why I included everything in the video. No point on being on-top of a mountain alone right? lol

The subs will slowly grow. I don't do videos for entertainment so a lot of it gets filtered out by the algorithm since it's somewhat boring to a lot of people who just want to see things burning.

@@Zenodilodon yeah but you been around for 14 years ,lmao at "subs will grow",, you are def patient ,well for us nerds this was def entertaining :) but honestly i prefer less crowd and more attention to myself :) tihii hii so lets keep it nice and small im good like that too

Thank you for your comment! If you're teaching yourself stuff on lasers this is the right channel to learn on and I hope you have been inspired to keep on with doing more!

It sure is amazing what you can do with the monkey hands when you have the inspiration to make something!

I thought about some of that and how the outside would look, I have some forming on non-plated lasers and it doesn't look bad at all. That's a lot of why I did the rose gold as well on parts, I felt like if it was all a solid color it would look absolutely dismal.

Pretty sure it's just the result of acids at play. Could end up with some really cool layered patterns by exposing select areas at a time.

Looks like I am just going to have to make more fancy lasers, it's the only logical thing to do. I'd like to make my own DPSS 473nm pointer eventually as well, maybe I'll look into some crazier finishing options.

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed the video. If you enjoy lasers and want to get into working with them more on a practical level then you found the right channel. Despite what you said about not being able to do something like this, well I say you can if you want and that's why I post up videos on these sorts of things. My goal is to help others accomplish cool things with light!

@@Zenodilodon Thanks for the reply and encouragement. I hope you don't mind a question: do you find heat gun soldering to be any easier than soldering irons? Do you see it as more or less possibly damaging to electrical components? I'd never heard of heat gun soldering before i saw your video. I'm really a soldering novice, so I apologize if these are obvious questions.

@@Boogie_the_cat Heat gun soldering or using a reflow/tow air station is very common in SMD ( surface mount device ) soldering. The majority of the components can take a crazy amount of heat during soldering. Usually there are ramp up/ramp down times to make sure the parts don't break due do things like thermal expansion ( like glass work ). Doing SMT work with hot air can be much easier when you get the hang of it, but also tends to require more pricey tools respectively. Like anything else it mostly depends on skill and practice.

Much Thanks!

The robots aren't stealing my job lol

It certainly is a one of a kind item :)

Thanks for the comment! Glad you enjoyed :P

Thanks! I was really happy with how this turned out.

Hey man., i was wondering if you know of a buy sell or trade place??? Where someone might be interested in a helium neon laser?

@@jamesmccrary6886 You can check out some of the online forums like Laser pointer forums or photonlexicon. There is also a Laser discord server. I do know my friend in Greed wants one eventually. He is a good study and is extremely limited on what he can get both do to being 14 and in Greece. Other than that I'd try ebay you may get a buyer there depending on the specs. There isn't all to much interest in HeNes otherwise that I know of.

Thanks!

Older green laser pointers did in fact tent to have an output monitoring system in the front. This was feedback to the driver for stability. I have noticed most green laser pointers now they did away with that set up. It might be do to refinement in the MCA process or just in general cutting costs. My very first green and a few others I ran across had that set up.

I'll let Peter know you enjoyed his music :P

No thermal compound, that was glue you saw to hold the laser head onto the aluminum mount. I am very glad I inspired you :) Make what you want happen happen!

relatively so yes! the PTC element does seem to stabilize in temperature pretty well.

Yeah, I imagine it should be ok as long as there's no air currents over it. I imagine the current draw would be a little high for a laser pointer, but probably not too insane. I don't own a lathe, or I'd have done this too. I own a few full size OPSL units, and they're great lasers.

@@r100curtaincall The current draw isn't all to bad surprisingly enough but the battery is quite low capacity. About the only downside is it's delicate nature. Getting a lathe is a choice you can never regret! I have heard so many good things about OPSL but really have yet to get into them, even broken ones are relatively expensive. I was looking at maybe getting a defunct Coherent Sapphire eventually. There is certainly a lot for me to learn about them yet.

Zenodilodon i’d be happy to teach you about them sometime. They do you have some pretty distinct advantages over a typical yag laser. Sapphires have definitely been coming down in price a bit.

@@r100curtaincall I would love to learn more on them, I have been researching the physics for quite a while and understand a lot of the fundamentals already! Yea the prices are starting to come on down, I believe the OPSL patents are almost up as well so we could be seeing other manufactures make OPSL soon too!. I cannot wait for that. It's all the future things to see and learn that keep me going no matter what! I want to see them all and I am running out of retinal cells lol. Laser and lighting is my passion and one I enjoy sharing. Do you have FB at all?

They can often be found on eBay, but they are tricky to use.

I certainly do! When the weather warms up again I will be able to gain access to a large machine shop which I am very much looking forward too. I'll be making some very crazy stuff in no time at all.

@@Zenodilodon BTW where did you get the OPSL unit?

@@georgeyork8975 i got it from a seller on eBay named HoloKidd. Currently there are no PL530s for sale on the market but the are listed every once and a while for $30-$40 ish.

Thanks! There is a draw back to working with lasers, they destroy cameras sadly so this channel is powered by the many donations of broken cell phones from friends. it's just the nature of the beast. I considered a Patreon, I may make one one day but in the same aspect being a content creator isn't my main focus in life. I freely share knowledge more to help/inspire those on a path to accomplish similar things that have to do with laser tech more than make money. This comes from realizing how difficult it was for me to learn how to do what I do now and I have been fortunate to have wonderful friends and opportunities to learn and do so I pass it on. If anything else I would like to focus on that aspect. There are many projects that I would love to share. Things like making your own rainbow laser pointer, TEA laser pointer, laser heads, optical systems and so on. The concern in having a Patreon is also a knowledge that sometimes things don't always end up happening, some projects hit walls and i would feel mighty bad if I had people invest in something that never ended up happening. I try to be honorable in that aspect if that makes sense. If you read this maybe share some insight on your thoughts as a reply now that you know some of my thoughts.

​@@Zenodilodon Well, my first thought is that you deserve _something_, even if its just a stellar human award, maybe in the form of beer if you ever find yourself in the bay area (hit me up!). I think your motivations are precisely what makes for the best youtube channels- your primary goal being quality, which means taking risks, which means you can't promise a regular schedule. I completely applaud that. Of course, quality isn't free- you spent years, i'm sure, learning and refining the skills you are showing off here, collecting parts, etc. I would in no way want to dissuade you from sticking to your goals, so maybe an approach is to take donations from time to time for specific projects instead of a regular patreon? First off, maybe a decent set of lights and maybe a decent, simpler camera that is a couple of generations old, like a gopro 7 which is 10MP and about $200 right now. So, if/when you fry it, it's not too expensive to replace? I guess i don't know how quickly you go through cameras. Anyway, I love what you are doing, and the ethos behind your work couldn't be more spot on. Your work is so visual that nicer image quality could really go a long way in getting you the audience you deserve. If you can find a way to raise a little money from the community without it effecting how your approach your work (seems totally reasonable to me), i'm in.

@@theIntuitionist Which bay area, I may do some road trips eventually just because there are so many people I have to meet in my industry that require some sincere handshakes of appreciation. If you want to donate in general there are always projects that funding would help. I am completely transparent with my own priorities. I have a pair of yellow lasers here that are 567nm and 574nm that I got and they are broken. and require new pump diodes at best. My thoughts are exactly this in priority Yellow lasers on average camera > not yellow lasers on excellent camera. Contact me through email if you agree and want to know more and donate.

@@Zenodilodon Email headed your way

Machine shop skills are awesome. I love being able to make a part when I need. Now I just need to get up to speed with 3D modeling and take advantage of the CNC stuff at the shop next to our laser repair shop.

I am unsure if they make these anymore, I have posted a link where you can purchase one of these modules as well. There is a little bit of the history in other comments on these. OPSL on a larger scale is becoming quite big in laser show applications due to their color and beam characteristics, but those are much larger.

808nm laser diode rated for 2000mw output, proper host, most likely for a C-Mount package. a focusing lens/corrective optics depending on your beam parameters. Proper cooling ( fan,TEC or large passive heatsink ) depending on your duty cycle needs. Lastly a driver capable of running the chosen laser diode at a stable constant current suited to the laser diodes power requirements.

Thanks! The laser heads sometimes pop up on eBey, they are usually $25 to $40 usd. currently there are none that are posted. If you go to the link I pinned and message the seller he may have one laying around still.

@@Zenodilodon Oh I'll try that.

@@Zenodilodon I see no pinned link.

@@simont3686 Ah it wasn't pinned, apologies. here is the seller who has them at times www.ebay.com/usr/holokidd

Also love your laser projector videos. I produce shows myself and your videos are great!

The largest advantage is a much lower bandwidth as these are single longitudinal mode or very close to single longitudinal mode. Great for things like holography and interferometers.

No speed control, gearbox, or proper axis mounts. I want to get a CNC/mill eventually.

Sadly not, these modules where only made due to there being no green laser diodes during the production time of the device it came from. This was made by Osram for the Microvision ShowWx laser pico projector in 2009, whilst the green laser diode was produced in 2010. There are sometimes whole RGB laser sleds from these sold as white light engines. They have one of these OPSL modules and a red and blue single mode lasers.

Zenodilodon that’s too bad but it makes sense. It seems that development of this stuff only occurs when there’s direct consumer demand. I have seen some specialized OPSLs from Coherent at a trade show including a gorgeous orange unit. They were much bigger and no doubtably much more expensive though.

I used a gold, and rose gold electroplating solutions. They are very easily found. Here is a bunch on eBay. www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=gold+electroplating+solution&_sop=12

The secret was following the instruction manual lol

Thanks! The output power is 50mw. Only one was made and it is not for sale. It's a personal build for my collection of wavelengths.

@@Zenodilodon I have a green laser, that of the Chinese, I saw your video all, and I loved the details, the aesthetics, I am Italian, from Palermo, you could sell it 1 to me ,, an exception you could make me .. Thanks

@@mastermixification This is not a normal green laser and uses a complex system in comparison to traditional laser pointers. I don't plan on making or selling a duplicate, even if I did the laser would probably be quite expensive to purchase.

@@Zenodilodon You're absolutely right, I understand it's your creation, but could you increase the power? I have seen lasers that blow up balloons from 10 meters away .. But how much would it cost?

@@mastermixification I have a video on making a high powered 525nm green laser on this channel. I do not sell laser pointers due to restrictions. A green laser in parts would typically be around $100 USD for 1 w, blues are cheaper and can be made for half the price with more power. Reds and violets are usually .9-1.2 watts ranging from $75-$150 USD in parts. There are also other videos by other people who make lasers. These prices are for DIY builds and not prices for anything I make. You will most likely have to make your own high powered laser pointer.

Yup! If you want to know a little about the PL530 history/where they come from check out the video on the ShowWX I did.

Oh wow! I had thought you made your own entire optical assembly in your RGB, did you use one of the Pico Light Engines from the ShowWX? I have often wondered if anyone had.

@@Zenodilodon I use the dichros and diodes along with a temperature control system. The output power of the green was not very stable, so I tec'd all 3. This not only keeps the output power of the green stable, but also keeps the diodes wavelengths in check, mainly the red.. At the time the only other option was dpss and keeping alignment in such a small layout proved quite tricky. The 530nm outperformed any dpss I tried.. both foreign dpss modules and my homebuilt ones. On the first I used the showwx optical bench which I later changed because aligning the thing is a challenge and complicated the build. Your pen is the first I've seen using the 530nm.. Did you add any form of temperature control?

@@ZeroMass No closed loop feedback was used. I looked up what others have done and the characteristics of the PTC. I thought about trying to use PWM in conjunction with a small PIC doing resistance/temp checks during off times but I ended up running the PPNL a bit warmer then it's used in the projector but it stabilizes pretty well after a few seconds. I could see where DPSS could of been tricky, but given your skill set nowhere near impossible. I got into making RGB lasers a bit before I learned about laser pico projectors and have come up with some clever designs, my current skill pushing laser pointer goal is to make an RGB handheld in a metal e-cig tube 8.8mm by 50mm. It's certainly pushing the envelope of possible but I just have to do it :P

@@Zenodilodon interesting.. And looks like there is some competition for the small builds.. Good to see.. 😜🍺 I was messing with an rgy in a standard leadlight pen.. Now I have the 520nm 450nm, and 640nm in 3.8mm, just never got around to an rgb in such a small form factor.. I found the trick with those 530nm units is to set a constant voltage on the heater and tec its base. IIRC I set the tec to 5 celcius, sealed the inner housing under vacuum and got nice efficient output. No dust, no moisture.. Was going to move to nitrogen gas fill, but never got around to it. With the colder internal temp, the heater always finds its mark with a set voltage... Mind you this way is not the route you'd want to go in a super small build..

@@ZeroMass I have another PL530 here in sealed storage, I heard from another laser expert that they have been driven up to 200mw output. That's a screaming pump diode lol. In laser shows 200mw is not all to much output so the build was much more a novelty than anything else. It turned out well though. I have looked into making my own 473nm pointer one day like you did from some B&W Tek parts. Those certainly need a lot of temp control. I don't want to use the original resonator block so that's going to be tricky. You mentioned RGY?? I only have the 5 mw 589nm from CNI, I hope to acquire a few more in the yellow rang. Do you have FB? if so you are welcome to find me /Zenodilodon.

Yes, but It's not new, on the LPF forums they have been out a while from what I can tell. I think they where possibly made before direct diode became available/economic friendly. The OPSL has a great deal more stability then DPSS as well so I can see where they would of chosen to use that at the time for a pocket video projector. As far as what projector it was originally used in, this I do not know.

@@Zenodilodon Oh.but what about the on/off duration of your laser ? Have you tested it?

@@TiNredstoner There is a warm up time once there it is for the most part stable, more so then I would of expected. I don't know how idea it is yet simply because I made it in winter and summer can be wamer, if it's a problem I have a consideration of mounting a thermistor on the cystal oscillator for feedback. I am betting they had a configuration where as it was pulsed and during pulse cycles the resistance of the PTC heater was read by the system and used as it's own sensor feedback. That would be a bit to put in a laser pointer.

Also.Your voice like a robot xD .

@@TiNredstoner I feel a channeled my true persona, for this one lol

Thank you fellow laser and light wizard. Not only do I hope you to make one, I also hope you to make equal one day or better. As far as what is the OPS chip. I made the guess based on what parts seemed to have a PTC for temperature stability. I am still uncertain as to every part, it's my first OPSL laser and certainly hope to get more. Some people think this might just be a PPLN laser as well. I wish there was a bit more info on these little laser heads, regardless they are adorable as heck. I looked at your videos and it looks like you are majorly into light as well, so you're bound to make a whole bunch of fun things.

@@Zenodilodon These little heads have been figured out they are OPSL using a PPLN rather than LBO. A lot of miss information on LPF as most of the inelegance has left over drama :( (including me I had my account terminated) a lot of us are now on a laser discord group if you interested I can give you an invite? A lot of pics and information on these pl530's were posted back a few months ago.

@@lazerman121 You came to the same conclusion on the design I did 100% I am on LPF but do not post to much, as far as in invite to the discord group, honestly I am much more into the show laser tech and find being in groups frustrating. It's kind of like joining a pissing match on who has what rarity or who can set something on fire the fastest. Neither of which I really am concerned with. I am content doing my builds and repairs for the time being. I hope to start production of high quality laser heads eventually and might join more groups at that point.

​@@Zenodilodon ​ Sounds like you would fit right in LOL xD what you described is more LPF than discord. Lots of good info an knowledge shared there. Here is some info on the OPSL lasers for you optoengine.com/images/Documents/OEMLasers/PL530.pdf and genis.ca/documents/lasers/osram/OsramOPSL-ResearchPaper.pdf and here is a better diagram of how they work. There is a more accurate one somewhere but I could not find it. postimg.cc/wypTfzWn

Thanks! I would love to eventually make something like that. I am currently studying the resonant based MEMs/MMD from Show WXs. In addition to that I have been researching the fabrication of very small electromechanical devices. I have made RGB laser pointers before and have experimented with DIY galvos utilizing microdrive arm actuators with relatively good success in open loop, however they are still sluggish for anything complex. I have considered using tunable astable oscillators for axis control, but it's still quite large and rudimentary. I need to get my hands on much better tooling for fabrication before I can accomplish the miniaturization and precision I am looking for.

I will have to look up Igor Negoda. Jet engines are nuts. About the closest thing to those I have worked with are turbo-molecular pumps. It's crazy the kind of things humans are putting together these days!

Hello! I understand your need for a very stable laser source for holography. The PTC is best regulated by current from what I have seen, I just used constant voltage i this project because it was all that I could fit into the laser unit. I have found that the laser drivers for green work for driving both the OPSL pump diode and even the PTC heater. The pump diode of the OPSL can run at 400-500ma pretty well, the PTC heater is a little bit more of a trick to calibrate, it takes about 80ma to run at optimal conditions however this can accidentally be exceeded really easily. The PTC has various temperatures it can run at as the PPNL crystal will operate at lengths corresponding to the input light, you will see this during calibration ( It will get bright, dim, bright ) as you adjust the power. If you want maximum stability consider getting a cheap thermally controlled relay kit off ebay and using this to power a TEC to keep the OPSL laser at it's own stable temperature along with using the PTC. To do this you would place the thermal sensor in a block of aluminum and than the OPSL laser on top of that than finally place that on a TEC and small heat sink. The OPSL cna be sensitive to environmental conditions and this will help that, it's also best to set the temperature controller to a short response range +/- 1 degree and have it set for around 55F/13C. For the red laser diode in the white light engine, this you can use a low power red laser driver or green laser pointer driver, anything that is not a boot style, the voltage and current are both very low and this diode is extremely sensitive. The input current max is only 150ma and can easily be accidentally exceeded. In the CD/DVD laser video I show how to modify green laser drivers or you can purchase them pretty easily. The blue laser diode is a little more forgiving, you can use a small boost mode laser driver like a 405nm laser pointer, I have actually driven mine using them. How to adjust current can be found on my shunt mod video, or you can purchase a low powered boost driver for laser diodes 5 to -200mw. The current for the blue diode is 165ma max on the spec sheet, but they are more forgiving as I have seen people push them up to 400ma, however it's best not to. Thanks for the comment if you have additional questions please feel free to reply!

@@Zenodilodon Thank for your fast reply, Just one more question, could you please share with me the doccument or web site from where you got the data about the 80mA for the PTC?

@@artemiofava5754 This was a suggestion for using the OPSL laser from the ebay seller Holokidd, he has the nominal current ratings for all the laser diodes and PTC on his listing for the white light engine. www.ebay.com/itm/White-Light-Laser-Engine-RGB-Holography-W-Green-OPSL/233431309977?hash=item3659971e99:g:ARcAAOSwa3FcEn9i

That's what I ducking thought too, the birch turned out well.

Not for sale.

That was the 2 halves of the metal that was spun down on the lathe taped together.

@@Zenodilodon But I mean the purple flash.

@@dirkvenezuela7387 Oh that's a little LED flashlight I made with a one watt pink LED. It was the most visible color I had for seeing through the paper. You cinf find the LEDs by searching 1 watt pink LED bead on eBay.

@@Zenodilodon Awesome! Thank you! That looks crazy on camera!

@@dirkvenezuela7387 The crazier looking the better.

This is a hand made unit, one of these if made and sold would be very expensive. I don't know where the price would sit but probably above $500

Where you using the PS3 405s? I heard a lot of people got their start in the violet pointers with those.

These cannot be made into 589nm