Ortur LU2-10A 10W laser module issues and measuring laser power

Ortur LU2 10A laser module review

Karl here and I will keep this short for you. First I will share my experience installing an upgrade module for the Lasermaster 2 Pro, the Ortur LU2-10A. The LM2Pro came with a 5.5w laser module and this upgrade brings the power up to approximately 10w optical power. Spoiler, I am not happy with the kit. [Update (CNXSoft): The company has put us in direct contact with Ortur engineer, and they’ve promised to help us fix the issue. We’ll update the post if/once it is resolved]

Ortur LU2-10A laser module specifications Ortur La_Conv_V1 controller board

The Ortur LU2-10A kit comes with a very simple adapter board that appears to do two tasks. 1 is to adapt wiring, and 2, inject additional power for the higher power laser module. It looks like the board will adapt to a lot of different connection types.

I followed the instructions and the first time I plugged everything in the laser came on full power for about a second. I was like WTF and it scared the hell out of me. I got very lucky I didn’t burn anything or myself. I had a cork mat down and saved my tabletop. Strike 1.

Then after some time, I found out that pressing the reset button on the LM2PRO turns on the laser module. This happens every time. Strike 2.

I thought I maybe got a bad board so I contacted “Madethebest” who kindly sent over the sample for review. After some back and forth I was unable to get them to understand so I made a video to show what I was experiencing. At which point, they remained silent for almost 2 weeks. Then I get an email asking when I would be done with the review. I was upset at this point and here we are now after returning from vacation.

While I was waiting I found one Italian YouTuber with the kit and after some crude translating on my Pixel 6, I believe our kits are behaving the same. I think he says that he did not use the included power adapter because the cooling fan stays on all the time. I was unsure of following his method because it goes against the instructions and I was afraid it would pull too much power directly through the original main board and overload something. I did eventually try this and omitted the additional power supply and everything seems to work as intended. But, I have not done any long burns.

I don’t think this upgrade is ready for prime time. The laser module appears to be strong with the limited testing I have done, but the upgrade execution is poorly done and is too dangerous in this state. I am really surprised with Ortur, and I hope they either discontinue the LU2-10A upgrade or resolve these issues. If something changes I will post an update at the end.

Laser Power measurement

While waiting, I did extensive testing with measuring laser power following this blog post. In the blog, he explains about heating up a known substance with a laser for a known amount of time to calculate power. I am super impressed at how repeatable this method is as long as you follow a few rules.

3D printer-board laser power measurement

laser power measurement

I did some initial testing with an old 3D printer board and a thermistor attached to a piece of aluminum encased in cork and was blown away at the repeatability of the testing. I used Repetier host to connect to the 3D printer board and graph the min/max temperature, manually read the temperatures and document it. My initial tests were rudimentary, so I moved on to prototyping on a microcontroller. I now have a microcontroller and a temperature sensor doing all the calculating and continue to be impressed.

That is all for today. I will share the meter progress later. I have some stretch goals and would like to get a few higher-power lasers and a professionally calibrated meter and that will take money and time. They have 20W optical power diode modules, and I would like to test against a 40+W laser tube.

Share this:

Support CNX Software! Donate via cryptocurrencies, become a Patron on Patreon, or purchase goods on Amazon or Aliexpress

ROCK Pi 4C Plus
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
The comment form collects your name, email and content to allow us keep track of the comments placed on the website. Please read and accept our website Terms and Privacy Policy to post a comment.
5 Comments
oldest
newest
anne
anne
1 year ago

Time to invite Ortur people to some reading, they should know them well now 😉

Willy
1 year ago

Hi Karl, Your measurements are interesting. I did something similar in the past, and very non-scientific, to compare some of my modules, and found that they were roughly of the advertised power. I also tried to use a solar panel behind a lens to widen the beam. That was less reliable because the power depends on the beam’s surface and it’s hard to have a constant one with different modules. Regarding the fact that at power up the board turns the laser on at full power, I’ve faced a similar issue in the past on my Eleksmaker board and I… Read more »

Josh
Josh
1 year ago

Karl, were you ever able to get the issue sorted out. I got my LU2 upgrade over the weekend and had the same issue except my laser stayed on until I pulled the power and nearly started a fire but luckily the fans blew it out. I am trying to get made the best to get me a return label as I don’t think the upgrade is safe to use but they aren’t being overly helpful.

Karl
Karl
1 year ago

No. I tried working with them but got no response.

nikola
nikola
10 months ago

Hi Karl. I do not know if you solved the problem, but does your 24V module has small switch for fan mode (auto/always on)? Or they put it only on later versions as mine…

Khadas VIM4 SBC