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Different colored strips of glass can be placed in the same frame, allowing both subtle and vivid multicolor effects. You could even create a simple color changer.

Laser Power Meter is Eyes and Ears of any Laser builder. It is always good to know how powerful Your laser is. But moreover in some cases (e.g. see CO2 laser) You only can tune up Your laser with a help of some measurer, sensitive in desired spectrum range. In these special cases if You have no suitable power meter You are just unable to make Your laser to lase.

If the measurements are made not by 'lazy shortened' version but on the contrary – with calibration, zero settling, and double or triple repeat with subsequent averaging, then measured power will differ from the one been measured with a high grade professional device less than by 10..15%. Needless to say that if You have a professional device You may also measure the bias due to non 100% absorption by the blackened surface. However with good blackening this correction is really small.

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Primitive. But easy and effective. The 'skilled in the art' may replace the multimeter with a small board with a ADC chip and microcontroller (PIC or Atmega), organize USB interface, write some code for auto calibration, error analysis, and… and… sell it for 1000 USD as a professional device.

If the toad does not suffocate, You may expend some more money for a second Peltier element and connect both into a balance scheme (e.g. the bridge scheme). Then if mounted on the same heat sink one of the elements can be measurer and the other is compensator. It will help much in struggle with draughts. However it is rather hard to find a good pair of elements. In fact we usually deal with a low quality Peltier elements having a number of microcracks inside their crystals. These microcracks cause different internal resistance and voltage losses and their number and influence are random. In order to get a good pair of Peltier modules with the same parameters You either have to buy expensive high quality modules or need to search thoroughly through quite a number of them. Of course digital technique of data processing can save situation even for two random modules, but this approach from no point does resemble making simple handy device in 5 minutes.

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The main errors are due to drift of zero value. On the photos You can see the drift of about 0.5 mW that corresponds to 3 mW. That means You can sense the 5 mW laser pointer but You can't measure it. The error would be too high. Zero drift is mostly due to draughts. When calibrating and measuring "close all windows" and doors too. And try to not disturb the air without a very necessity. If You fail to stabilize readings – measure the zero drift amplitude (subtract minimal zero readings from maximal ones) and treat it as additional measurements error.

Why exactly calorimeter? Isn't it simpler to take a photodiode or photoresistor? The short answer – nope. There certainly are some semiconductor sensors suitable for our purposes. But they are extremely rare (photon drag detectors), insensitive to interesting wavelengths (usual photodiode or photoresistor), or either very unusual in maintenance (cryogenic ones).

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Devon® colored filter glass is a collertion of high quality colored glases gathered from around the world, giving an unparalledled range of shades and hues. Devon® color will not fade or shift with prolonged use. Devon® filter is perfect for stage lighting and other theatrical lighting applications, which can be cut to fit most luminaries including fresnel lenses.

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Also it happens that multimeter sensitivity does float. Especially if this is a cheap one. Here You will need to redo the calibration (part III). Yes we all are lazy ones, but You really need to recalibrate after the multimeter battery was changed, after heavy weather changes, after each renew of blackening layer on the Peltier module… and simply from time to time.

For blackening of the working area one should never try to use inks, markers, pens and so on. Generally one should avoid any paints except ones based on graphite or soot. The root of evil is in the fact that most dyes have spectral selectivity – You may sense the ink as black, but exactly at the wavelength of Your laser it may have very low absorption.

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So whatever the distribution of wi is the Umeasured is proportional the total heat power W going through the Peltier module. Of course (see note above) in real case things are not so good due to the fact that columns are not so similar to each other, but here helps the ceramic top of the Peltier module that has high thermal conductivity and equalizes the heat distribution. In practice there was not ever noted any dependence of the sensor's calibration coefficient to the position of ray spot. (In limits of measurements errors of course.)

If we assume that all silicon columns in the Peltier element are similar (and this is true due to the fact they are machine made) then the readings of the measures are independent of the position of laser spot on working area. Indeed: thermal voltage of each column is , where – is a specific thermal voltage of this column, – thermal drop on this column. Then , where – thermal resistance of the column, – amount of heat (power) coming through this column. What we are measuring is the sum of all voltages:

On the other hand calorimeters are easy to make and calibrate, sensitive to all radiation that produces heat (i.e. to ALL radiation of suitable power), and easy to use. The very drawbacks are:

The most spread laser power meters are utilizing principles of thermoelectric calorimeter. Way earlier it was too hard to build such a gauge on Your own. (You'd get crazy on welding several hundreds of thermocouples, installing and wiring them and providing good heat sink where it is needed.) The output would be several millivolts per watt of accident laser power. It was needed to use a good and linear amplifier. Nowadays 90% of work is done for You. You only need to buy a Peltier cooler. (They exactly are a stock of thermocouples and based semiconductors, not on metal pairs.)

The last note at last. With this device You can discover many unusual things about Your favorite lasers. You should be ready to accept them. For example You may find that 1 W rated diode laser emits only 600 mW in its beam. And other 400 mW (and often more) goes as diffuse halo (being not captured and focused by lense). You may find that DVD drive diode that eats 300 mA (and so You thought it to emit 300 mW) gives only 160 mW and on remaining voltage it hoots. (Note that when carefully focused it takes only 50..60 mW to burn a match.) The other exciting discoveries are left to be done Yourself.

Unlik dichroic glass, Devon® colored glass is ideal for floodlighting becase it does not product a secondary color towards the edges of a wide beam, and it will not reflect heat back on to the lamp.