The XBOX 360 HD-DVD high power laser thread

[Glaserfan]

Flogged, what settings are you using on your camera to get those shots? My 803T bluray@100mA does not show a beam like that under lighting conditions represented in your pictures..

I am guessing long exposure?

 

[flogged]

Flogged, what settings are you using on your camera to get those shots? My 803T bluray@100mA does not show3 a beam like that under lighting conditions represented in your pictures..

I am guessing long exposure?

Oh yeah, it's long exposure. The pictures are good as far as a relative comparison, but the 1-2 second exposure - and a touch of smoke - really exaggerate the beam brightness. In reality the beams do not appear so bright.

I'm tempted to turn up the power more on my 803t pointer,, but since I'm using a nine volt battery I don't want to turn the current up past 50mA - about the limit for a nine volt battery. I'm quite happy with it at 50mA, I'll leave it there. So I've got two pointers using xbox diodes, one at ~25mW, the other 50-60+ mW..

 

[Glaserfan]

Interesting idea about the 9v battery.. My bluray has an 803T diode, and rkcstr driver set at 100mA- powered by a 9v battery, a cheapo rayovac at that..

After about 1/2 hour of runtime my battery is still at 8.52v..

What you are saying is that I need a more dependable power source? :-/

EDIT: Kinda figured about the long exposure.. the surrounding scene in those shots has the same look as some of my 65-second exposure shots taken at 3am.. Interesting what laser writing looks like on that kind of exposure . The outdoor scene looks like twilight in those shots(similar to the room lighting in yours).. even though it was 3am on a cloudy night with a first quarter moon

In case anyone is wondering how on the 65-second exposure.. My camera is a Canon A650IS with the CHDK hack loaded [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

 

[flogged]

Oh no, a nine volt battery is fine, it's just at 100mA it will not last long before the voltage sags. The question is how low the voltage has to drop before the diode will not work. Depends on the regulator. As an an alkaline battery ages it voltage drops. A fresh 1.5 volt cell will measure around 1.55 volts, however by the time the voltage has dropped to 1.2 volts over half the capacity of the battery is gone (edit, internally a nine volt battery is comprised of six small 1.5 volt alkaline cells).

Basically alkaline batteries last much longer, and are better suited for low drain devices. I believe the 'nominal' current for a nine volt is around 15-20 mA. 100mA is pushing it. At 35 mA I got many hours of use from my pointer (using a 9-volt), and at close to 50 mA it hopefully will hold up for at least a couple of hours.

Look at the graphs on this page to get an idea how long a nine volt battery will last at different discharge rates:
http://www.duracell.com/oem/Pdf/new/MN1604_US_CT.pdf

 

[Glaserfan]

Pretty much what I expected.. about a 1.5-2.5 hour battery life..

Sometime I'll have to get the 3.6v aaa-size batteries and a mxdl host(or the 2x cr123 version with a Lavadrive).. for now though this is a nice introduction to bluray for me

Right now it is in the smallest version of the radioshack project box(~3x2x1")

 

[flogged]

I used 6 AA cells, to get nine volts, for my latest 803t based pointer. They will hold up much longer at 85mA than a nine volt battery would. Basically a nine volt battery is made up of six small 1.5 volt alkaline cells internally.

 

[Glaserfan]

Yup.. I looked at the posibility of a 9v rechargeable. Nope.. it's only 7.2v. From what i remember the mAh rating was very low also.. like 800mAh.

I know there are lithium 9v batts out there. Probably two of them will last until I get a new host and batteries

 

[cbrian4]

Pretty much what I expected.. about a 1.5-2.5 hour battery life..

Sometime I'll have to get the 3.6v aaa-size batteries and a mxdl host(or the 2x cr123 version with a Lavadrive).. for now though this is a nice introduction to bluray for me

Right now it is in the smallest version of the radioshack project box(~3x2x1")

Thats the size of project box i'll be using, it fits very nicely in your hand too!

 

[IgorT]

Yup.. I looked at the posibility of a 9v rechargeable. Nope.. it's only 7.2v. From what i remember the mAh rating was very low also.. like 800mAh.

I have 9V Ni-MHs, that are made of seven 1.2V cells, making them 8.4V nominal and 10V when full. And they can handle 100mA. But they will last under 1.5 hours. Maybe even under 1 hour, even tho their capacity can be up to 250mAh in the best ones.

I have also seen a 9V rechargable Lithium i think, but it was quite expensive. But if it's made of only two Lithium cells, it won't be enough.

 

[Glaserfan]

Well here is my build.. oversize pics and all. There is just enough room in there for everything. What is nice is that with the 9v sitting the way t does, the lid tightens right down onto it, meaning NO rattles whatsoever. the foam is in there for good measure to protect the diode and driver while changing the battery. Everything is overly-epoxied in there also..kindof messy, yes, but functional

There is no heatsink, but before I built it onto the project box, I ran the diode for 5 minutes straight in just the AiXiZ module, and the module was only quite warm to the touch, not hot I stick to a no more than 1-minute-on duty cycle, especially since that is a momentary switch on there. The rkcstr driver is set as I said earlier to 100ma. The lens is a clear acrylic from a Sure electronics module.

 

[Glaserfan]

Pic 2(outside, lid still off).

 

[flogged]

Nice! You managed to squeeze everything into a small package. My 811 based pointer is in at least the next box size up from that I think - not as hand holdable. Does the housing ever get very warm?

 

[Glaserfan]

Thanks!

Nope.. not any warmer than my hand itself I was pleased to find out that the module itself still does not get beyond only pretty warm even with all that epoxy around it, and having been on for 2 mins [smiley=thumbsup.gif].

It has a nice comfortable weight and solid feel in my hand too. The switch requires a a full push down to activate, so it won't light itself in my pocket, but isn't tiring to hold down either

I am quite happy with it, especially for my first build

 

[Glaserfan]

IgorT,.. Come to think of it the mAh rating on that rechargeable 9v was that low.. which, besides being 7.2v, was the reason I steered clear of it. With the rkcstr driver, I cannot run at any less that 7.5v..

 

[IgorT]

Well, i have several, and they range from 150, 170 to 200, and i have seen 250, but not more.

Anyway, a PHR803T diode at 100mA dissipates only 0.4W of heat.
A 16x DVD diode at 300mA dissipated 0.7W of heat. And yet the AixiZ housing alone is enough to protect it from overheating in a couple of minutes.. I have left them on for 4 minutes at a time, sometimes more. Then they would get up to 60 or even 70°C...

But a Blu Ray will not get that hot, due to lower heat dissipation. At most it gets luke warm. But it does lose a few mW of power because of it.

 

[clajef]

Hi to all. I'm new here and will be trying my first DIY that has a chance at success soon. I have a high power blu ray diode from a PHR-803T from the Geeks.com HD-DVD drive and a lavadrive on the way. It appears that this combination should work with a 3xAAA based host, but as a rank newbie I wanted to make sure. In addition, what methodology should I use to test for output mw from the driver before I connect the LD? Build a dummy load from diodes and insert a digital VOM meter in series? Thanks,

JeffP