This laser thingy I built is terrible but it was fun :]

Hi everyone. I’m a physics PhD student and I’ve built a CW Ti:Sapphire laser in my lab, but I’m having a hard time actually getting it lasing (pumping at 6 W of 532 nm). I’ve attached a schematic and a couple of photos for reference. The optics are all coated appropriately and free from dust/damage. There are two pump steering mirrors not shown in the diagram; they’re aligned parallel to the table and at a straight line through the crystal. The beam waist in the crystal is ~37 um. Both curved pump mirrors are on translation stages with micrometer knobs, and all mirrors are in mounts with high precision tip/tilt control. The crystal is fixed at the brewster angle and the pump light is polarized to match. I’ve gone through my geometry a number of times and I don’t see anything that should prevent lasing. Ive gone through the standard “make adjustments to the HR and OC, use an alignment beam fed backwards through the cavity, adjust pump mirror positions relative to the crystal…”. Visually, the fluorescence reflections from both arms overlap on themselves. I’ve tried a CCD camera, IR card, and power meter after the OC to view the fluorescence profile/observe power while making adjustments to the HR, OC, and pump mirrors. I’ve gotten the raw fluorescence power up to around 850 uW but have not seen any lasing action. Does anyone have any experience aligning a cavity laser from scratch? Any tips or tricks or ideas as to why I haven’t been able to achieve lasing? I have experience working with commercial laser alignment but that is vastly different because the positions of the optics are already established. I would appreciate any help or advice. I feel like I’m going crazy! Thanks y’all!

Looking for a laser to be used for alignment of construction equipment. Will be mounted on a push cart to follow chalk lines or painted road markings. Needs to have a continuous duty cycle. Distance from observer to point is ~2m. Needs to be visible in direct sunlight.

I have a laser that runs off a 16340 battery that works well. However, it is so old I can’t identify brand or model. Looking either for direct recommendations, or power and wavelength guidelines.

I have a mint condition wicked lasers spider 3, it’s a 3 watt handheld laser, it freaks me out and holding it is worse than a live grenade, who can I ethically sell soemthing that powerful to?

Scored this from our Lab. It was inside of our MALDI TOF - so basically that thing was able to fire 150kW for nanoseconds. It seems it is a 808 (3W Jenoptik - blue box) pumped YAG with attenuator. Any Idas how to repair it - RS232 is silent and the main board morses "SOS" with LED. Could I just drive Jenoptik without the Mainboard?

We are starting the next fourth of July fireworks proposals and I want to make a change. I think we should invest in lasers rather than in drones. Since there would be plenty of smoke in the air from the fireworks, I figured that would give something for the lasers to show up in. I need to put together some recommendations for this. Total project proposals need to stay south of 4 million dollars, so I'm thinking that I can get more bang for my buck by buying fewer lasers then using the extra on more rocket/shells rather than buying 80 drones.

I think a setup of 4 sets of 4 lasers in each cardinal direction off the launch barge should allow us to light up the smoke no matter which way the wind blows.

So I need 16 lasers for a package that is less than 600k USD. Any recommendations?

I Bought a 15W 980nm medical laser off Ebay for around $65 a few months back, the unit was severely proprietary and had a LOT of lockouts, so i wanted to build a new driver for it, i am a bit new to building custom laser drivers (although i can follow a schematic perfectly), im just trying to figure out how i should drive it aswell as keep it cool with the built in TEC & Fans and also power the 635nm 5mw Aiming Laser, this will be for a Laser Engraver, i have a CNC controller board that i can program that will send a fire signal and i was thinking of using a Mosfet Based Driver and an Arduino to monitor the Temps and also light up a 12v LED when its in standby and firing, and yes, i have Wrap around Goggles rated for the wavelength and power levels

Hello boys and girls 👋

Long story short: I went to the dumpster to throw out some electronics… and left carrying home a fiber laser someone had chucked in the trash pile. The guy running the place was more than happy to see it go, so I didn't hang around to let him reconsider straight into the car it went.

Got it home, cracked it open, but had no docs, nothing. I dug around online and found some docs hinting at an RS-232 interface, but no matter what I threw at it, the thing stayed dead silent.

So I went the hardcore route:

•  Dumped the firmware straight off the MCU via JTAG
•  Decompiled it
•  Reconstructed the UART protocol from the disassembly

…and now I technically have "control" over it. Air quotes very much intended, because nothing actually works yet.

Here's the wall I've hit: a status request ($4) comes back as status 32 (0x20), which the V2 docs say is a Housekeeping supply error — except this laser doesn't even have that hardware. 🤨 So it's clearly something else masquerading behind that code.

The catch: that status byte is decoded from a packet coming off the onboard Altera FPGA, and reversing that is a whole different beast than the MCU was.

So I'm throwing this to the hive mind: is anyone here up for helping me decode this slab of black magic and aluminum? This is genuinely my last-ditch effort before I give up and strip it for parts.

All my work + sources so far are here if anyone wants to poke at it:
👉 [https://github.com/lollokara/Laserone](about:blank)

Cheers, and thanks again!

I was on the xTool site and noticed a refurbished S1 20 watt for $800. So which one should I get? That or the M2 20 watt version. I have zero use for the printer and all that fluff stuff. Just looking for a good beginner laser.

I’m interested in learning about lasers and possibly building one in the future to cut metal. That’s way ahead of where I am right now.
Can anyone direct me to guides or some good educational resources that can start me out with learning about lasers and safety before I even think about attempting to build one?

Before anyone comments rude unneeded comments about how I know nothing about lasers consider this. At one point in your life you must have not known anything about lasers either. I’m just trying to educate myself instead of finding a cookie cutter guide to a diy laser and just building one. If you have anything rude to say please don’t bother because I won’t read it. I’m just here trying to learn not cause mayhem.

Yes I know lasers are extremely dangerous and lasers are not toys.

Red Power: 1000mW Configuration: 2 x 500mW Wavelength: 637nm

I’m am a 21 year old South Asian girl who got burned by cooking about 11 months ago. I decided to get pico laser done for the burn mark which is flat just hyperpigmented. It was red for a few hours and now is back to the same as it was before. I was using hydroquinone for a few months beforehand but noticed little to no change. Anyone done pico for flat burn PIH? Please let me know any thoughts or if anyone has advice or done anything like this that has worked!!!!

Im working on a 405nm project, that needs a clean 45 degree fan and attenuation built into the end of the module. Im going with a powell lens, and looking at linear polarization filters for attenuation, but i cant seem to find both options in standard m9 mounts so i can stack the lens holders. Im pretty sure I need 6mm diameter for both to fit in an empty lens holder, But why arent "m9 accessories" more common. Its kinda wild every site offers G2/G7/G8 lenses and coatings, but thats it.

Should I just put an adapter and step up to some other optic holder format? Google is killing me with this whole tailored stuff, I know other people can get different search results. I just seem to be locked into thorlabs and Edmund results. Definitely trying to keep it all under $100.

Hi all

I’ve just picked up a new galvo fibre laser and my orientation on lightburn doesn’t match what the laser outputs, is there a way of changing it so it matches what I see on the screen?

Cheers
Lucas

This is my first time posting about my lasers. I started collecting about 15 years ago. I’m somewhat of an enthusiast (been a fan of Styropyro since he was a small channel)

2010- 100mW 650nm (no brand $56) —pops balloons!
2012- 1W 445nm (O-like $168) —first burning laser
2015- 50mW 589nm (Spartan $445) —rarest color
2015- 100mW 532nm (Lazerer $58) —smallest
2023- 5mW 510nm (Aliexpress $20) —minty color
2023- 15mW 488nm (Aliexpress $40) —favorite color

I’ve excluded the 1W blue laser in some of these photos because it washes out the others.

My two absolute favorites are both the yellow and cyan colors. If I mix them together it creates stark white!

Hope you enjoy!