mysteries of laser diodes - unanswered questions.

[Ben Robertson]

I’m hoping this is not considered off topic for this area. Please accept my apologise if this is the case.

I have just stared to dabble in this field and am interested to see if there are some easy answers to a few questions i have. I understand some of these questions may be very obvious but i beg your forgiveness for my ignorance.

1 - Difference between analogue modulation and TTL - which is better? is one better when trying to obtain a 24 Bit pallet of colours?

2- TTL modulation 2 KHz - 30 KHz. when buying a diode what does this frequency in effect mean? what is a good number for use in entertainment lasers?

3 - Warm up time - dose this just refer to having the diode powered, powered and blanked or powered and emitting a beam?

Any answers or links to where i can find answers to these questions would be greatly appreciated.


Cheers

[Tim Walsh]

Ben -

1 - Difference between analogue modulation and TTL - which is better? is one better when trying to obtain a 24 Bit pallet of colours?

TTL is either on or off - you will only get an 8-color palette of colors when using these. Definitely go for analog to get your 24 bit pallette.

2- TTL modulation 2 KHz - 30 KHz. when buying a diode what does this frequency in effect mean? what is a good number for use in entertainment lasers?

This means how fast it will turn on and off - you need as fast as possible for entertainment lasers. 30KHz is much faster.

3 - Warm up time - dose this just refer to having the diode powered, powered and blanked or powered and emitting a beam?

I believe the diode will turn on, but after the warm up time will be at specified power and performance (might be low power before the end of the warm up)

- Tim Walsh

[Ben Robertson]

Thanks for the heads up, I really appreciate your help in clarifying the questions i posted. There is such a huge amount of very technical information out there, that it can at times be hard to find answers to what are pretty basic questions.

I recently had a 200 mw green ILDA controlled laser drowned at a venue (how dose a laser get drowned in the roof of a venue?) and am looking to use the insurance money to build a small YAG bed, by purchasing the right components I am hoping to build a low powered RGB laser that can deal with a 24 bit pallet.

Cheers