First DIY Laser – Success! (mostly)

Hey all, I thought I'd share my satisfaction with the rest of you good people: my first DIY laser build is complete! I used the basic template of lazeerer's guide, but a different host. Instead of the Cree C3 flashlight, I went with a really cheap one I found of Dinodirect: the Small Sun ZY-203. I do have one small problem, however. Everything with the construction seems to have gone fine, and the laser works reliably, but for some reason it does not seem to be putting out the full 100mw I was expecting. In comparison to my somewhat overspec ebay 405nm laser, it is definitely brighter... but not by that much. Also, it does not seem to want to light a match: it'll smoke all it wants, but never combusts. Overall, I'm happy with it as my first build. See the attachments for some pics. (Note the tissue in the end is a temporary spacer until I find something else to hold the laser module more securely to the batteries.)

Nice One. :gj:

What are you running it At.?

Also depending on how many mW your ebay laser is, the PHR will not be that much brighter if it was only ~30mW difference.

Are you focusing the laser correctly.? Have you tried to light a match from about 6inch to a 1 foot away.

A PHR should light a match pretty fast up close.

You might have a low efficiency diode.:thinking:

Yeah, I'm thinking I probably messed up somewhere. But hey, I'm very happy with the results for it only costing ~30 and being my first build. The focus of the beam does seem a bit weird, however. As seen in the pics below, the beam has two deviations going in opposite directions. The photo with the blue dot is with one deviation facing up and one down, and the other pic is with them facing out to the sides I'm wondering what might cause this? Also, thank you very much, lazeerer, your guide was extremely helpful when building my laser. :thanks:

GREAT first build I say!

That strange things you have on your dot is dust IMO. Have you tried cleaning up with isopropyl and some cotton?
(you can get isopropyl on some electronics store: alcohol for cleaning audio/video tape head, >99% and no glycerin pls)

Leodahsan said:

GREAT first build I say!

That strange things you have on your dot is dust IMO. Have you tried cleaning up with isopropyl and some cotton?
(you can get isopropyl on some electronics store: alcohol for cleaning audio/video tape head, >99% and no glycerin pls)

Click to expand...

I cleaned it with some 70% I had laying around (no glycerin), but no avail. I'm also noticing some additional focusing issues: when focusing to a fine dot, just before it reaches it's smallest size, there seem to be two additional focus points forming just next to the main one, one on each side. Could this also be dust?

two dots? Can you fully remove the lens and point the laser 1m away from a wall and take a picture of the "spray" of light?

Here you go. Doesn't look screwy to me, but heck, I'm a noob...

:thanks: