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Registered Member #56
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:02AM
Location: Southern Califorina, USA
Posts: 2445
Well, as some of you know that I am just kinda sorta a laser nut. And that I have taken up mounting high power laser diode bars.
Well, this doesn't require too many tools (compared to other laser related things), but you do need a hotplate. It doesn't need to be all that fancy, it just needs to keep the laser at about 110c to melt the solder while I do my magic.
But, I didn't have any hotplates. So originally I took a 2" peltier and thermal epoxied it to a smallish CPU heatsink, and a piece of aluminum. Hooked it up to a source of 12v/3a and it worked great for the first ~25hrs. But then something bad happeend and it stopped working, wouldn't draw any power. So I took it apart and messed with it for a little while, and it worked for another hour or so. And then died again, so I did a little surgery and managed to get 3/4 of it working. But the truth was that it was dead.
So then I tried the peltier again, but this one only lasted about an hour.
So, since I try not to kill >2 pielters in a 20hr period, (and didn't have any more) and I still had 8 hours left on the extended weekend (presidents day) so I started looking around in my room to see what I could make a hotplate out of. I had my thermal epoxy, computer psu, and then I noticed some typeK thermocouple wire. So I read the resistance on that and it turned out to be prefect (about 1ohm/foot) so I decided to get to work.
First, I took some teflon insulated wire I had, (no melting wire for me this time) and soldered it to the thermocouple wire (2 elements, a 30w and a 150w for heatup and keeping it warm) and since I couldn't find my kapton (high temp electrical tape that sticks to everything) tape I wrapped the joints in some plumber teflon tape. Then I used some CA to hold the wire down to the hotplate from my peltier experiments, and some loctite 384 thermal glue stuff (it is supposed to soften at 90c, so the CA is there to hold the wire in place) was applies liborously, while putting cellophane tape as I went to keep it in place and allow me to work it in. Once I was done I sandwiched it between another 1/4" aluminum plate and clamped it between 2 small vices, and hooked up the 1ohm winding to the 12v rail of a computer psu. Then I had the insight to embed a small tpyeK thermocouple in with the power wires so I could keep an eye on the temp.
So after letting it bake at 220f for 20 minutes (one tv show minus commercials) I pulled it all apart, took off the tape, and cleaned it up a little
And the only thing left to do was attach it to a heat sink (since if it was out in the open it would take FOREVER to cool down from 240f to 140f when I could touch it again) but I wanted to keep the heatsink somewhat cool so I could move the assembly around. So I ended up loosely taping the plate down to a cpu heastink.
hotplate with a 50w 808nm diode that is in the process o being soldered up, and a shot of the finished laser with 50a running through it shining into an (uncalibrated ) power meter. Those 14awg wire start to smoke after a few minutes, I need to find a way to connect some #6 wires to the #2 screws before I can really test out the diodes.
And I managed to mount up not one, but 2 more diodes before dinner I could have fit 2 more in after, but I ended up writing this, doing homework, and hopefully making some new cables for the lasers. peter
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DIY hotplate
) power meter. Those 14awg wire start to smoke after a few minutes, I need to find a way to connect some #6 wires to the #2 screws before I can really test out the diodes.
I could have fit 2 more in after, but I ended up writing this, doing homework, and hopefully making some new cables for the lasers.