Come join the insanity. More fun than a bag of cats.
I haven’t been spending as much time on the Laser Project as I once did. Life, it turns out, often has other priorities. Still, I’ve furthered my understanding a bit.
It’s spring 2024 and the laser work marches slowly on.
A quick update and demonstration of how critical keeping the KTP a constant temperature is.
My MATLAB laser simulation makes some predictions.
So I built a laser last year. It worked but didn’t perform great. Let’s find out why.
I’m going to start digging more in to the physics part of my laser project and for this I will want to be able to render some math.
Cole took Beginning Film last quarter and had to create a short film. It’s with great pleasure that we give you “Peeled”.
It’s time to build a chassis and case for the laser.
Now that I have proof I can make the laser work, it’s time to tackle getting the Z-Fold cavity to lase.
Getting my homemade laser to lase.
So far I’ve had a lot of posts describing the electronics if this project, but the real meat of the thing is the physics and optics. It’s time to start digging in.
I’ve finished the control board for The Laser Project. This is a small AVR-based microcontroller board with a simple OLED screen and a rotary encoder for making selections.
I needed to revise the power board I’m using for driving the pump laser diodes. The current power board is still a little noisy — it doesn’t work at all if you don’t have an EMI filter on the data bus, and it will stop working if you turn the current up too high. Also, since I designed it I changed how the bus interface connector is going to work. Time for another revision!
The final TEC board is done and appears to work great.
My second prototype TEC controller was a bit of a failure but the same circuit on a real board fares much better.
I redesigned my TEC controller to use the LTC1923 chip so I can use higher powers on the outputs.
The next board to design is a TEC controller board to control temperatures of the laser.
A lot has happened since I “finished” the power supply I plan to use for The Laser Project. It turns out I wasn’t as done as I thought.
Summary of my custom designed power supply.
I’m going to start a series of posts chronicling my attempt to build a laser…mostly from scratch.
In the next series of “stuff I have to build so I can build a laser” is a meter for measuring the output power of lasers.
A recent electronics project I built shows I’m way too immersed in my hobbies.
Protesting the outcome of the election means to protest democracy, and Americans are better than that.
There's a problem that's been nagging me since Apple got rid of Aperture and iPhoto and merged them into the mess that is Photos.
A full day for us at Universal Orlando. From roller coasters to butter beer, we tried it all.
For Cole's spring break we went to Florida to hit both Disney World and Universal Studios theme parks. For the last two days we've been exploring Disney's Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom parks.
The castle, in all its glory.
I've caved completely and moved my entire blog to SquareSpace.
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Today at work some of the design team was passing around an email about color, and someone linked to a color survey done a while back.
Grady is moving to Manhattan soon so Squirrel of Shame played one last gig at Kells with Grady as drummer. Attendance was pretty good considering it was the day before new year's eve, and the drinks were flowing as always.
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A full day for us at Universal Orlando. From roller coasters to butter beer, we tried it all.
For Cole's spring break we went to Florida to hit both Disney World and Universal Studios theme parks. For the last two days we've been exploring Disney's Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom parks.
The castle, in all its glory.
In August we took a trip to the east coast to see the sights and visit relatives. It’s been several years since we were out that way.
A couple of months ago the whole family loaded into a 747 and headed for Belgium. We have friends who are staying there for a year, and they were naive enough to share their address with us. This was our first long flight with Cole. Thanks to the ten hour battery life of the iPad, he did just fine.
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I like cats, really I do. They’re quiet, warm and soft, and they generally take care of themselves. Then they get old and weird, and gross things happen.
A while ago we acquired a second cat, "Sly". Now, most people get their cats from Paws, the Humane Society, or even breeders. Not us. We steal 'em.
Frankie was chosen to be the model du jour for our Christmas cards. Here is the final card, formatted for your viewing pleasure. Like most models, Frankie was fussy from the start. Check out the pictures to see the sordid details of Frankie's first foray into modeling.
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I’m going to start digging more in to the physics part of my laser project and for this I will want to be able to render some math.
In the next series of “stuff I have to build so I can build a laser” is a meter for measuring the output power of lasers.
There's a problem that's been nagging me since Apple got rid of Aperture and iPhoto and merged them into the mess that is Photos.
more…
Cole took Beginning Film last quarter and had to create a short film. It’s with great pleasure that we give you “Peeled”.
One bathroom and a partially finished basement. It was only a matter of time. This year we decided it was time to do some remodeling on the house. By "some remodeling" I mean a whole lot of remodeling.
The existing exterior.
April means the Easter Bunny, bad hats and flowers. As is our tradition, we headed out to northern Washington to view the tulips.
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Lytro calls this the “Picture Revolution” and if they can make it marketable they’re right.
Then I saw the Leica Digilux 2. It's small. It's fast. Most importantly, it behaves like a real camera.
For Sri Lanka I'm taking a page from the boy scout handbook: I'm going to buy a wide angle lens and a compact zoom with image stabilization. Or, so I thought.
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Protesting the outcome of the election means to protest democracy, and Americans are better than that.
Last week I got a call from someone from “Albion PC Care” claiming that they are calling on behalf of Microsoft and had a report that my PC was running slowly. They were here to help! Thank God.
One of the features that came standard on our new vehicle was a Sirius satellite radio and a free trial subscription. We had no idea what we were getting into.
I haven’t had a good rant in a long time. Trust me, I’ve had plenty to bitch about but I’m old and tired, and Cole keeps me occupied enough that I just don’t feel like spending the time. But, after moderating another round of spam comments I thought I’d pipe up.
I've seen a lot of stuff in the blogosphere lately (Mini has a good roll up) about Microsoft's horrific working conditions
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You know it’s a bad sign when my “hobby project” has quarterly updates….and has now been going for five years. But I learn a little each day. Let’s recap some of my recent knowledge.
I haven’t been spending as much time on the Laser Project as I once did. Life, it turns out, often has other priorities. Still, I’ve furthered my understanding a bit.
A quick update and demonstration of how critical keeping the KTP a constant temperature is.
more…
You know it’s a bad sign when my “hobby project” has quarterly updates….and has now been going for five years. But I learn a little each day. Let’s recap some of my recent knowledge.