Now that I have proof I can make the laser work, it’s time to tackle getting the Z-Fold cavity to lase.
$\setCounter{0}$
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.
$\setCounter{0}$
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.
$\setCounter{0}$
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!
$\setCounter{0}$
My second prototype TEC controller was a bit of a failure but the same circuit on a real board fares much better.
$\setCounter{0}$
I redesigned my TEC controller to use the LTC1923 chip so I can use higher powers on the outputs.
$\setCounter{0}$