This is how diode lasers work. There are multiple diodes that are combined to focus power. When you have them high up like you do you can see the separation.
When the laser is focused (the right height) over the material the width of all of those diodes is about .007" so it becomes a dot
Thank you, so during the XY offset. I will need to manually lower the z so they line up. Right?
There are actually 2 sets of 4 overlaid on that laser. If you have the power switch on the laser in the low power position, only 4 will be turned on. They are never perfectly aligned (yours is pretty good).
It looks white because of the high intensity, but it is actually 450nm (blue). If you raise the laser up more you can see the image better and it will become more blue.
This is why optics are more complicated on a diode laser than a CO2 laser, because the light is not a round dot, and furthermore, the divergence in the X and Y directions are very different, so its challenging to shape the beam into a uniform dot, especially over a long distance.
Amusingly, I get so used to watching my laser through the safety glasses - where the spot is a dim yellow - that I forget just how blue it is. Then I notice the parts of the room I can see around the edges of my safety glasses are flashing bright blue from the reflections.
I tried taking a video of the laser while it was cutting (and I have a webcam there too) and the sensor just gets overloaded from all the blue - which triggers the nearby red and green cells too, giving white for the spot - and everything around it is just unreasonably blue.
Maybe we need a new shade of “WHY DO MY EYES BURN BLUE” ?
