I am really looking forward to making one of these.
I have ordered enough parts too make 5 units and will sell 3 of them to the guys in the lab at work to recoup my costs.

Only found the forum a few days ago and I am blown away at how far things have moved on and how powerful these things are. I built my first laser back in the early 80s and the thing was huge. It is about 18" x 3" x 3" and has a sort of a long tube inside that is driven by very high voltage (Thousands of volts IIRC). Not sure what the power was but it must only be low mW. Now you get units that can pop balloons that are not much bigger than a large pea.

Only 18" ??? Crap, My first was 1 meter !! Had to sputter mirrors and use NaCl windows. You must be a new comer to Lasers !!! ;D

Mike

Thanks guys for the response. I was going to build this exactly as indicated but- due to the wait I keep having with dealextreme, I've opted for a slightly different route. My local department store has a Brinkman light that uses a pair of the 123 cells. More expensive than the dealextreme one, but I see the mod being done fairly easily. Will post an update when this is done. It won't be as detailed as this one though.

Jon

Daedal, GREAT tutorial. I ordered the flashlight from DX, so I should get that within a year. I'm gonna order some more diodes too. But thanks for the descriptive tutorial, I can't wait to make it! That one you made is a good burner!

Daedal or others,

This may be a bit OT here, but I have had quite a time fitting the LD's into the Axiz modules. The last one I fitted left marks all over the back of the LD to the point where I was afraid it would fail upon power-up.

I don't see any marks on yours, Daedal, so just curious as to how your pressing yours into the module?

Thanks in advance,
Jon

Hey Jon ! *I know I am not Daedal, but I can answer that one for you, and others ;-)

With the Aixiz modules, as you know, there are multiple pieces to them. *Completely disassemble it, saving aside the front part (where the diode, and lense go) and the rear part. *Naturally, keep the other stuff, too :P LOL

• Place the diode pins first into the small hole in the back end of the module.

• Place the front end of the module over the front end of the diode - it will not "slide" in, since it is a tight fit, but place it in there anyways :-)

• Now, holding the assembly together, put everythign into a bench vise - being careful to ensure that the two halves of the module are aligned mostly okay.

• Tighten the vise slowly, and the diode will be pressed into the front portion of the module without you having to use a hammer or other stuff ! (like the first few I did until I learned of the vise method ! :-[ )

That should cover it ! *Remove the whole thing from the vise, and reinstall the lense tensioning spring, the lense, the lense cap (if present) and commence soldering, etc ! *Please let me know if you think I need to explain, or snap a few pics !

nice job D i like the flashlight housing u chose

Senkat,

Thanks! Makes perfect sense and it will help me avoid marring up the diode housing in the future! I hope to have a working Brinkman flashlight modded laser very soon using one of the 1236's.

Jon

That is a really great Tutorial DDL, hats off to you sir Those of us in the know, realise how much work you and others have put into this project, to aquire the knowledge to put something like this together.

Many thanks.

Jase

I am interested in a voltage regulator if anybody has any extra they can part with. and if anyone has any recommendations for a diode i'm all ears.

you mean the whole circuit connected and wired up, or just the chip?

--DDL

I have a quick question with regards to the 5W MXDL flashlight. Not that it matters as I have already ordered 5 of them but is it a plastic or metal body/housing?

Cheers

Metal... well built and has some rather good sealing.

--DDL

Could we use rechargeables in here?

Hello, I am new to this interesting Forum.

I have some questions for you:

1) Does this laser work as long-range pointer too?
2) What is the maximum visible distance?
3) What is the effective wattage of this laser?
4) There is much difference between this laser a 250 mw one?
5) How long is the distance before the laser point become large (for example, if I point it to a 1 kilometer distant wall, I see a small or very large point)?
6) Is this laser visible in the night?
7) How much do the battery last?
8) What's the lifetime of the diode (how many hours, for example)?
9) Will you answer all my questions?

Thank you!

No one?

This is virtually the same as the model you used but runs of 3aa battery's which are cheaper and easier to source do you think it would still work DDL?
but it would only have 4.5v if it where 3xAAA in series so the regulator circuit would it convert 4.3 to 3v aswell? or would it need modifications?
h__p://___.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.3405

Since this circuit is regulated for current above all, I would suggest one thing about rechargeables. Get some brand name model so you know they are not outputting 7V instead of 3V. Other than that, rechargeable batteries are good to go for this mod

--DDL

Welcome, Pidgeon.
Here are some answers for you:

1) All lasers are long-range pointers. This particular one is outputting over 100mW easily and as such it can be seen for miles so long as the divergence is something reasonable. DO NOT TRY TO POINT ON A PLANE THOUGH, THIS IS NOT INTENDED FOR THAT AND DO NOT COME CRYING TO ME IF YOU GET ARRESTED WITH THIS THING!
2) I will not state a maximum visible distance because there is no such thing. Companies make that crap up to sell you a laser. Visibility is a factor of your eyes, the weather, the laser power, the divergence, the light conditions, and everything else you might guess would affect you seeing any other kind of light from "1000 miles" away as the FBI says... lol
3) Effective Wattage? What is that? This laser is drawing 6V 250mA so it's taking in 1.5 Watts, and outputting a bunch of heat and light. Actual laser power measurements have not yet been determined.
4) I don't really know what you are asking there. If you mean in visibility, then no. Anything past 100mW and the laser dot will be about as bright as ever on all of the powers above that, in terms of burning the more power the more burning/etching ability, and in terms of beam visibility you will probably not see the beam even at 250mW.
5) As this is a variable focus laser, you can set that on your own. Unfortunately physics is rather annoying in how things do not really stay collimated even with the most perfect of collimating optics.
6) Visible? It's BLINDING! Unless you mean the beam... The beam on reds is hardly ever visible, if it is. This one could probably be used for star pointing in a very dark area though, and a foggy night will help matters even more.
7) The battery's life is a measure of the mAh of you battery and how long you choose to use the laser. I would not advise keeping it on for longer than 1 minute, after which I suggest keeping it off for another minute.
8) The lifetime of the diode is not something I can predict. It all depends on how much you abuse the laser itself and how long you keep it on. Reflecting the beam back into the diode will kill the diode, using the wrong batteries will kill the diode, dumping it in water will kill the diode. At this drive level though, and under ideal situations, I would not expect less than 100-500hours.
9) Did I?

You are welcome

--DDL

Kwinchee, the dropout voltage for the regulator I am using is 3V, and the diode needs 2.5-3V, so it needs a 6V drive to operate efficiently. I will not say that it won't work with a 4.5V source, and it might actually work until lower than that, but with AAA batteries you get a much shorter life and you will probably not get the full life out of the batteries. When AAA batteries get close to empty their voltage drops... down to about 0.9V in some cases. The drop point should be around there for full battery life. With the 3 batteries almost dead, you get barely enough to power the diode, let alone the circuit. I would not advise using the 3xAAA module for that reason.

On the other hand, there will soon be a new circuit coming to light. (And by soon I mean a few weeks minimum :-[) This new circuit will use a much improved LDO regulator that operates down to 3 V. Thus it would work with much smaller flashlights using 3.6V CR123 batteries! (At least that is the plan so far )

--DDL

hi Daedal, could you please tell me what's the other capacitor (name or oms) that you mounted on the back of LD?
thank you

Daedal, did you buy the whole 10 pack from Aixiz or only one?
If you bought them all, would you consider selling one to me?
i don't want to buy 10 of them. :-?
Thanks
Jonno

hi Daedal, could you please tell me what's the other capacitor (name or oms) that you mounted on the back of LD?
thank you[/quote]

Please refer to http://www.laserpointerforums.com/fo...num=1185701612 for the complete details on the little parts' list.

--DDL

I bought packs of 10, I have a few extras... PM sent.

--DDL

WOW those LM317's in TO-39 size are EXPENSIVE!!!!

I ordered 5 of them before I I realised they were over 8 BUCKS EACH!!

Oh..well...

On the plus side..I didn't have to pay the 5 dollar fee because the order was under 25 bucks!..

80 bucks worth of components are on their way....

I'll have a "FEW" extra if anyone is interested..

maybe I'll build a few power supply kits to sell....

Larry