UPDATE: The pinout on the voltage regulator in the upper right hand corner is has a mistake in the silkscreen and thus many of the shipped regulators have failing voltage regulators.

Note that this only can hurt the IC/voltage regulator itself and will not be the cause of any laser diode damage.

Here is the 7085 data sheet so you can see the correct pinout of the regulator itself.
http://61.222.192.61/mccsemi/up_pdf/...5BP(TO-92).pdf

Here is the fix:
Desolder the 7805 voltage regulator and re-solder it with the pins in the following holes (shown as the appear if the driver is facing like the pictures below:
----3-----
--2---1--

New user manual: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&p...NjY4NDBl&hl=en

I have been working on a full color PWM driver that is very similar to the one FML was selling a while ago. At the time I was building my RGB setup, I was unable to buy one of his drivers, and so I designed my own. These past few months I have been designing an official version of the driver I built to sell on LPF and here is what I have come up with:



This driver has the following features:
-3x DDL drivers, each custom set to the desired maximum current
-Multi-turn potentiometers to adjust color balance
-32 different programs (ranging from psychedelic color strobe through smooth colour morphing)
-2 buttons to change programs
-Memory saves the last program
-16 million+ possible colors
-Reverse polarity protection
-Input voltage of 9-12V
-Works with both 405nm and 445nm
-Outputs of up to 1.5 Amps! (See note at bottom)
-Dimensions of 39mm x 53mm (1.25” x 1.925”) -- insanely small to fit in portable units!
-High quality professional PCB design

I have several max currents available. Below I've posted the current ranges that are available (the multi-turn pots are used to adjust the current). Instead of opting for a narrow range of color adjustment, I decided to leave a large range to allow for the user to swap out diodes in the future or greatly decrease/increase the brightness of their entire setup. With 25 turns on each pot, you should still have excellent control on each laser's current!
56mA - 101mA
63mA - 125mA
68mA - 152mA
77mA - 202mA
83mA - 251mA
89mA - 303mA
92mA - 350mA
95mA - 405mA
98mA - 446mA
100mA - 502mA
103mA - 595mA
106mA - 702mA
108mA - 791mA
110mA - 893mA
111mA - 1008mA
113mA - 1190mA
116mA - 1524mA



They cost $70 US each plus $5 for shipping to the US (one shipping charge per order). For international shipping contact me.

I have created a google form to handle my orders:
http://tinyurl.com/3q6ahqp

Feel free to ask any questions you may have

Looking forward to making these,
-Alex

Note: for high outputs (>500mA) I have found that the LM338's (higher current versions of the LM317) get hot and need some heat sinking. I recommend heat sinking them if you plan on running them at such currents. On my RGB setup I have my 445nm diode set for the range that allows the max current, and when properly heat sinked it works flawlessly. It is also important to know that each LM338 must be heat sinked individually - you CANNOT put them all on one big heat sink. They need to be electrically isolated! There is a workaround using non-conductive thermal paste and then mounting all on the same heat sink, but use at your own risk. Also - if someone has a need for an output greater than 1.5 amps, this can be arranged. The circuit can handle up to 5 amps, but I just don’t stock the resistors needed for such outputs.

Reserved space for updates and such

Update:

Building Instructions (still making more complete as I remember little hints and such. Feel free to ask questions)

Please follow the more detailed building instructions here: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&p...NjY4NDBl&hl=en

The pinout mentioned was never attached, but it can be found here: http://gaussmarkov.net/parts/opamps/dip8-pinout.png

The Effects:
The program button switches through the various programs and the option button cycles through sub-programs within each program.

There are four colour palletes used:-

Primary. A fixed selection of saturated primary colours.
Vibrant. A stunning range of saturated colours.
Bright. A range of bright saturated and pastel shades.
Full Spectrum. Every colour that can be achieved from black to white.


The programs available:-

1. Morph and hold with vibrant colours. (Hold delay adjustable in 3 second increments.)

2. Morph and hold with bright colours. (Hold delay adjustable.)

3. Morph and hold with full spectrum colours. (Hold delay adjustable.)

4. Red marker to help you find your way through the programs.

5. Sweep continually between vibrant colours.

6. Sweep continually between bright colours.

7. Sweep continually between full spectrum colours.

8. Green marker.

9. Indie dim with each colour "rambling" independently.

10. Indie dim pastels (all colours 25% min).

11. Blue marker.

12. Rainbow. Can be stopped and started on any colour using option button.

13. Rainbow continuous. (Speed adjustable)

14. Black marker.

FX routines below can only be accessed when unit is in FX mode.
To lock and unlock FX mode, hold both buttons in for about 15 seconds until the output changes from blue to either red (locked out) or green (unlocked).

15. Colour burst with vibrant colours. (Speed adjustable.)

16. Colour burst with bright colours. (Speed adjustable.)

17. Colour burst with full spectrum colours. (Speed adjustable.)

18. Cyan marker.

19. Colour plasma lightning. (Speed adjustable.)

20. White plasma lightning. (Speed adjustable.)

21. Colour strobe. (Speed adjustable.)

22. Windswept flame effect. (3 independent.) (Speed adjustable.)

23. Subtle flame effect. (3 independent.) (Speed adjustable.)

24. Rainbow trail. Fast cycle of primary colours to create a colourful trailing effect on fast moving reflective objects or water droplets. The colours cycle so quickly that the output appears to be static white. (Speed adjustable.)

25. Jewel fountain. Similar to rainbow trail but with random vibrant colours, especially designed for fountains to make the droplets of water sparkle with random colours. Best used where the light is not directly viewed due to a shimmering effect. (Speed adjustable.)

26. X-Fader. A standard speed adjustable cross fading effect between the red and blue channels.

27. Peppers Ghost. An automated cross fade with hold delay adjustable in 16 3-second increments.

28. Juddermeister. A wild psychedelic effect which alternates rapidly between pairs of random colours.

29. Hazard. Specifically designed for LED hazard warning lights. This effect strobes alternately between the red and blue channel with 8 speed options in one style and 8 in another style.

30. Random fixed full colour. (Reselectable with option button.)

31. Random fixed vibrant colour. (Reselectable with option button.)

32. White marker.

If both program and option buttons are pressed together briefly the unit will revert to program 1.

After any buttons have been pressed the changes will be stored to non volatile memory and the unit will power up in that mode until further changes are made.

Here is some media of the prototype of my driver in action.
Please excuse the unfinished setup. I was excited to get my RGB and new driver to work and wanted videos/pictures so I had a photo-shoot with some makeshift dichro mounts As such, alignment is not perfect and it's not super pretty. It shows that it works though.
Not all the cool effects are shown - I originally took this video just to prove my lasers worked :P









I would love to make some high quality videos of the final product, but am in need of some more lasers with which to build another RGB.

-Alex

What are the dimensions of this unit?

Edit: oops, sorry, just saw it.

I'm definitely buying one of these but might not be able to until my next pay check (I get paid this Saturday, but I just returned from Hawaii and gotta pay off some of my bills first). I'll get paid again on the 23rd. Do you have a large quantity of these for sale?

I teased this a few months ago in your previous thread, but take a look at this design:
Community Focus Knob - Group Buy - 2 packs left

Basically, the first piece is a housing for 3 aixiz modules. The second piece is a dichro mount, with adjustment taps on the top (They're in the wrong place on that rendering. They shouldn't be in the corners, they should be centred along each edge)

At any rate, dichros would be attached to the dichro mounts, and then the two dichro mounts would be attached upside down into the housing. Once secured in place, you'd have micro-adjustment ability via the taps in the dichro mounts.

The project was too pricey for me to pursue on my own after spending ~$500 on my MOD9 eMachineShop order, but if there were 3 or 4 other people interested (perhaps some people who have shops and/or a way to sell these items), we could fairly affordably split an order of say 100 of these setups, 4 ways. I'd have to check out the math again (it has been a while), but I think that for maybe $750-ish we could end up with 100 RGB combiner units (complete with dichro mounts). Split enough ways, that might be a doable project

I have 200 boards on hand and enough parts for 25 complete boards and I will buy more parts as needed... so it you need more than like 15-20 give me a heads up, otherwise I should have enough.

Very cool! I have too much on my plate already but I cant wait to see what others do with this. Quality and price seem great considering your getting 3 drivers and effects all in one. If you think about it just three flexdrives would run you $69 and you dont get multiturn pots or preprogramed effects.

awelgo - do you have any media of a RGB running on one?

Wow, that looks very interesting! You should make a youtube video as a promotional for this. I'd be cool to see it in action.

So all your power transformation for this is linear then I assume?

Two ordered

Peace,
dave

What current would you suggest for the green laser module (without the driver attached to the pump diode)? And what module would you suggest? I was thinking of using the O-like 50mw module, and the 100-500ma setting. Would 500ma be too much?

Thanks,

AAlasers

I do not have any media of a RGB running with the PCB version of this driver. My RGB setup currently uses the prototype I made of this driver. I would take my RGB apart and use this version, but my prototype also has some circuitry to control the fans I use to cool the heatsinks on my lasers.

I am happy to post some of the media I took with my driver prototype back when I was testing it. I'll add it to the post when I get a chance.

If other people would like to post footage/pictures of my driver in action once they start building things with it, that would be awesome as well.


Yes I should do that. Once I sell a few and have some more money I think I'm going to make a new RGB system that uses the PCB version of my driver and I will make a promo video. I really wish I had the spare lasers sitting around to make a video now, but unfortunately I do not.

Yes the power transformation is linear. As described in the initial post it uses 3 LM317 circuits (though I used the higher power LM338s).

Thanks! I'll make them tonight and they should ship tomorrow.

So this is kind of a tricky question. I never found a definite range for the green modules, but I use 650mA on my 100mW module. 500mA might be too much for the 50mW module, but I suspect that it would depend on the module. You could always order the higher setting, turn the pot to the highest resistance, and slowly turn it up until you achieve the brightness you wanted.

Another idea: measure the current output of the original driver and match that.

-Alex

I got mine today.

VERY nice workmanship

Peace,
dave

I'm glad you approve

Just sent $75 USD. Let me know when you've shipped.

Thanks,

AAlasers

Just got your order!
I will build it tonight I ship first thing tomorrow morning.

-Alex

Awesome!

Thanks,

AAlasers

Can't wait to try this out!

Edit: Wow! I paid and it was here in 2 days!!! Looks great. Very professional.

I'm camping over the weekend (Aug 12 - Aug 14). I'll respond to orders/PMs/emails when I get back. If anyone orders tonight, I'll ship tomorrow, otherwise it will be on Monday or Tuesday.

Peace,
-Awlego

Hey Awlego,

I finally have all of the components to do my build with your driver! Well, I'm still waiting on the dichros from Modwerx, but I have everything else, including a nice half-inch thick piece of aluminum to mount everything on. I'm planning on using a 200mW HL63133DG 640nm diode for the RED, and a 150mW DPSS 532nm module for the GREEN. Blue is my big stumbling block, as I have two options (both on hand already):

- 405nm 12x diode
- 445nm multi-mode with Dr. Lava's corrective optics.

With either the 405 or the 445 I can run them at the appropriate output to balance my RED and GREEN, so that's not an issue. My dilemma stems from the desire to get as "clean" of a beam as possible. If I go with the 405nm 12x for the BLUE, I'll have three very similar beam profiles when mixed with the RED and GREEN. However, I loose some of the blue spectrum options. If I go with the 445nm Dr. Lava optics corrected multi-mode, I'll have a better blue range, but even after correction, I'm thinking the combined beam won't be as tight.

I suppose my question can be boiled down to:

- How disappointing is the loss of blue spectrum experienced when using a 405nm?
- How disappointing is the loss of similar beam specs experience with a corrected 445nm?

This is surely a subjective question, so I would really welcome, and be appreciative of any input from anyone with experience on the subject I'm going to recycle my most prized diode (the HL63133DG) into this labby build, so I really want to make sure everything is well thought-out!

So like you said, this is subjective, but here's my take:

You are correct that using the 445 gives less of a blue range, and will have a worse beam quality. However, the blue produced from mixing violet with the other colors will definitely not be as impressive as actually having a blue diode.

I have had 1 RGB and 1 RGV, both very different setups (one is around 300mW total and one is a fully mixed 1 watt setup)... One has well made custom dichro mounts and the other I super glued to a PHR sled and fit in a tiny box. I like them each for different things...

I personally would probably go for the 445 because you have the corrective optics, and though it won't be quite as nice beam quality, the blues will look so much better. But then again, I'm quite partial to the bright blue colors.

Before you decide though, know that both will look amazing. Check out flaminpryo's RGV: White Fusion Colors

Best of luck!

As for the diode you traded me, I'm still waiting on finishing some other projects before I machine a custom press fit host for it

-Awlego

Hey,

I just wired up my driver, and no luck

I wired in all the leads, and connected the Green leads to a test load. Then I powered the board with 3x lithium ion cells.

I immediately heard a click, and could smell that awful burning electronics smell. I quickly disconnected the power. I then finger-tested each component for heat, and the transistor located as indicated in the image below was BURNING hot. Like almost burn-inducing, and this was after maybe 1 full second of testing, no more.

While doing this, the test load registered zero current. Repeating the process with the Blue and then the Red leads connected to the test load, and again for a very short half a second or so, produced the same results - a burning hot transistor, and no current.



Thoughts?

Sending PM.

xp... bidding starts at $200

Awlego - What happened with RHD's driver sounds almost exactly like what happened to me. However, I only heat tested the larger components. One second, and something popped, a puff of smoke. Sorry ive taken so long to address the issue in full, by I am certain I did everything correctly. Also, some parts arrived in the mail, so I may be able to construct a test load to see what the outputs are.

AAlasers

Hi, was it a bad idea to test the driver only with a test load on the red and let the green and blue unwired... I burned the prg chip when I started to play with the program buttons...
Now red is stuck at 179ma , blue at 189ma and green on 0
Can I buy only a program chip?

Thank you