Needs input to decide between light commander and light crafter

Hello Bing,

Welcome to the DLP section of the TI-E2E Community.

I have some of quick questions that will help me give more "coherent" input to your decision [pun intended]. 

What is the repetition rate for the pulsed operation, and do you plan to use the whole area of the DMD?  It is the power density that is the issue.  If you plan to use the same spot size on either one, then the the heat dissipation is the primary issue.

Either way the LightCommander's DLP5500 DMD has better heat dissipation.  For the CW operation you list, 0.3 Watts is not high power in terms of heat.

Last, what is the wavelength of laser you are planning to use?

Fizix

Thanks a lot for the information.

We will use either green laser (532 nm) or blue laser (406nm).

The pulse repetition rate may be between 500Hz  to 300KHz.

As for CW laser, either light crafter or light commander will be ok? Can it sustain power >1w?

Also, is there any extra optical components needed for using external power for both these options?

Thanks again

Hello Bing,

I calculate that at 5 kW peak power and 300 kHz rep rate you will be at 6 W of average power.  There are two things to consider:

1. Areal Density -- how big of an area are you going to spread the power over. You should not exceed 20 W/cm² of power density.
2. Heat Dissipation -- The overall power will produce heat at the DMD.  You can look at the datasheet for each DMD as to how to estimate the array temperature for a given flux.  The total power is limited by the array temperature.  The LightCommander has better thermal characteristics than the LightCrafter and the LightCommander kit has a much larger heat sink.

Overall, I think the LightCommander Kit will be easier to work with for an experiment.  It is designed modularly with mounting holes that will line up with a standard optical table/bread board with 1" spaced holes.  You can easily separate the illumination module and insert your laser. 

The LightCrafter will require removal of the green (or blue) LED to insert the laser.

I did want to mention that 406 nm is outside of the datasheet range for these DMD's.

Fizix

Dear Bing,

I agree with Fizix that the larger device area of the DLP5500 chipset will serve you better. I'm personally not too worried about the wavelength affecting device lifetime, but it could affect long-term device lifetime since it is outside of TI's spec' range.

You may want to look at our X3-PM55 platform, which implements the DLP5500 chipset. The DMD board is separate from the main control board up to 24" using some cables. You would need to use a mount to hold the board onto the optical table and align the DMD to the incoming light bundle. The system is compatible with TI's control software. I'm not sure what control interface your laser supports, but there should be a way to use one of the X3 control ports to manage that if desired.

You can find some info at the following link: http://www.keynotephotonics.com/products/flexlight-x3-info.html and see some pictures of it on our eStore here: http://keynotephotonics.3dcartstores.com/X3-Machine-Vision-Solution-with-DLP-5500-X3-PM55_p_14.html.

- Adam

Keynote Photonics, A DLP Design House

Fzix, Adam, Thanks a lot for the help. 

BTW, Adam, it is really nice to hear from you. Don't know if you remember me, I was with DLP algorithm team till 2009. Now I am onto a quite different adventure, lol.

Bing,

I remember, good to hear your involved in a new venture. Feel free to call me if you have any other questions.

- Adam