Lucian
0
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2012
- Messages
- 44
- Points
- 0
My first laser I owned that wasn't a pet store one equivalent came from Wicked Lasers. I'm not going to lie, I started off interest from seeing a you tube video showing how powerful they were, and were basically light sabers. I waiting over 6 months before ordering. I was waiting for the comments to change from "Still haven't received after 9 months of waiting" to "Wow, I actually got it in a couple weeks". Great, I felt it was safe enough to order one now... but I had to clear it with the Wife.
Absolutely no arguments, or questions, she asked me why I wasn't already ordering one (Life is Good). I had been reading about how dangerous they could be for eyes and whatnot well before this point. I chose the Spyder Arctic III <1W 445NM. I think it took 4 weeks before clearing customs but managed to make it. Wanting to know whether or not the rectangle could be made less fuzzy or if that was even normal (it did come from China) for the lasers. After all none of my red ones ever looked like that
I found LPF looking for an answer and realized I didn't want to own lasers... I wanted to BUILD them. My true new hobby was born.
After doing what I thought was an amazingly large amount of research on LFP (but later turned out to be the tip of the iceberg). I started reading around the forums to see who could make a heat sink, how hard it would be, who was reliable, what hosts did I want to use, what batteries did I want to use, whether or not it was feasible to make my own current regulator chip from a schematic and realizing that I didn't know shit about them I had slowly picked all my parts. *Breathe* I didn't want to buy an "already done for you kit" But I didn't want to start trying to mount my own diodes and and lenses and making a Driver with no soldering experience. So I did the next step and chose my own host and design but without doing any of the micro work. Everyone has all been wonderful and helpful but I do have to say I found jayrob's heat sinks amazing. Just gonna toss a vouch that way because I love the handiwork. I also like that the micro details were done by people who I had been reading through their tutorials.. makes it feel a little special as a first build since they had gotten me interested in the hobby. In order to make myself see a project through I traded my Arctic Spyder III to my older brother for a shotgun. I made him read some of the horror stories of people losing eyesight from messing around with it first. He made me learn how to clean the shotgun properly. It was a good trade.
---
DTR whom I found on ebay: SoJ 6x Blueray 445 NM, Mounted in aixiz module with lead wires soldered on, G-2 Lense with Focus Adapter; Casio Projector (Up to 2A) 445nm Diode (The 2nd model I think), Mounted in aixiz module with lead wires soldered on, G-2 Lense with Focus Adapter.
Flaminpyro: Wiring Kits, 1x 500mw Micro Boost, 2x 900mw Micro Boost
Lighthound: 2x Solar Force Flashlight Hosts, 2x Cranium Bezels, cases, 8x 1650 Protected Cell Batteries, Chargers, and a very special Host I decided to make as my third project, which will come after these 2. 2x Solar Force Belt Clips
Jayrob: Heatsinks with contact board (I actually waited months to order these to finish my college year out).
---
I took advice from an early post I made and made sure to take my time with everything. I practiced on red diodes I had peeled out of cheap flashlights and luckily we have a store around here that sells 1mw red diodes for like 20 cents a piece. I blew a lot of them, mostly just to see how hard it was... it wasn't. After verifying with Flaminpyro and Jayrob the proper way to wire that particular driver with a host negative supply I made my friend come over today and we sat down and very poorly (but effectively) soldered the wires on the 445nm diode to the lower power Micro Boost (but top of Blue Ray range at 500ma) then soldered on the contact board and installed the module into the heat sink and sealed it all up. I couldn't remember if the driver had reverse polarity protection or not so I assumed not, and looked up the proper way my unmarked battery should be facing (no + or - marked on it confused me at first). It turned on, just and I felt a HUGE satisfactory feeling. I took half a year to do it and didn't rush through it because hobbies are okay that way.
I couldn't get it to focus though, and soon the collimator lens fell out. I took the one off the 445nm lens assembly and used it instead. I installed some thread tape the next day to make it so it was still adjustable but would better hold the position I set it to. The laser was exceptionally potent. I accidentally burnt a spot in my white wall while adjusting it...
---
I've since ordered some custom hosts from Sinner; a new 1.8A driver from Lazereer; and a replacement G-1 collimator lens from Jayrob.
Absolutely no arguments, or questions, she asked me why I wasn't already ordering one (Life is Good). I had been reading about how dangerous they could be for eyes and whatnot well before this point. I chose the Spyder Arctic III <1W 445NM. I think it took 4 weeks before clearing customs but managed to make it. Wanting to know whether or not the rectangle could be made less fuzzy or if that was even normal (it did come from China) for the lasers. After all none of my red ones ever looked like that
I found LPF looking for an answer and realized I didn't want to own lasers... I wanted to BUILD them. My true new hobby was born.
After doing what I thought was an amazingly large amount of research on LFP (but later turned out to be the tip of the iceberg). I started reading around the forums to see who could make a heat sink, how hard it would be, who was reliable, what hosts did I want to use, what batteries did I want to use, whether or not it was feasible to make my own current regulator chip from a schematic and realizing that I didn't know shit about them I had slowly picked all my parts. *Breathe* I didn't want to buy an "already done for you kit" But I didn't want to start trying to mount my own diodes and and lenses and making a Driver with no soldering experience. So I did the next step and chose my own host and design but without doing any of the micro work. Everyone has all been wonderful and helpful but I do have to say I found jayrob's heat sinks amazing. Just gonna toss a vouch that way because I love the handiwork. I also like that the micro details were done by people who I had been reading through their tutorials.. makes it feel a little special as a first build since they had gotten me interested in the hobby. In order to make myself see a project through I traded my Arctic Spyder III to my older brother for a shotgun. I made him read some of the horror stories of people losing eyesight from messing around with it first. He made me learn how to clean the shotgun properly. It was a good trade.
---
DTR whom I found on ebay: SoJ 6x Blueray 445 NM, Mounted in aixiz module with lead wires soldered on, G-2 Lense with Focus Adapter; Casio Projector (Up to 2A) 445nm Diode (The 2nd model I think), Mounted in aixiz module with lead wires soldered on, G-2 Lense with Focus Adapter.
Flaminpyro: Wiring Kits, 1x 500mw Micro Boost, 2x 900mw Micro Boost
Lighthound: 2x Solar Force Flashlight Hosts, 2x Cranium Bezels, cases, 8x 1650 Protected Cell Batteries, Chargers, and a very special Host I decided to make as my third project, which will come after these 2. 2x Solar Force Belt Clips
Jayrob: Heatsinks with contact board (I actually waited months to order these to finish my college year out).
---
I took advice from an early post I made and made sure to take my time with everything. I practiced on red diodes I had peeled out of cheap flashlights and luckily we have a store around here that sells 1mw red diodes for like 20 cents a piece. I blew a lot of them, mostly just to see how hard it was... it wasn't. After verifying with Flaminpyro and Jayrob the proper way to wire that particular driver with a host negative supply I made my friend come over today and we sat down and very poorly (but effectively) soldered the wires on the 445nm diode to the lower power Micro Boost (but top of Blue Ray range at 500ma) then soldered on the contact board and installed the module into the heat sink and sealed it all up. I couldn't remember if the driver had reverse polarity protection or not so I assumed not, and looked up the proper way my unmarked battery should be facing (no + or - marked on it confused me at first). It turned on, just and I felt a HUGE satisfactory feeling. I took half a year to do it and didn't rush through it because hobbies are okay that way.
I couldn't get it to focus though, and soon the collimator lens fell out. I took the one off the 445nm lens assembly and used it instead. I installed some thread tape the next day to make it so it was still adjustable but would better hold the position I set it to. The laser was exceptionally potent. I accidentally burnt a spot in my white wall while adjusting it...
---
I've since ordered some custom hosts from Sinner; a new 1.8A driver from Lazereer; and a replacement G-1 collimator lens from Jayrob.
Last edited:
