Need help with driver!

Hey everyone, I saw the minimag mod of turning the flashlight into a laser. I got excited about this and bought the minimag. I then looked for a diode and I think I am going to go with the 112d ld, 115d ld, or a sony diode. I got reading though and i saw that running a diode straight from the batteries is not very good. Sorry, I am sort of a noob at this stuff. So I was just wandering if there is any way to make a very small driver so I can regulate the current to my open can diode? Is it really necessary because the voltage is going to be 3v from two AA batteries? Also if you have any other suggestions please feel free to comment. I am just wanting to produce around a 300mw laser with the minimag. Thanks for all of your help!

Instead of building a minimag, build an MXDL with the tutorials posted here. The minimag won't be able to heatsink a diode producing 300mW very well.

If you get 300mw out of two AA's let me know.. although I bet it burns itself up from the heat.. unless you only plan to run it for 10 seconds at a time..

Thanks for everyones replies so far. Styropyro I thought about doing that, but I was just wandering since I had already bought the minimag and don't really want to buy the mxdl since I am on a tighter budget. Also Glaserfan I only plan on running if for short periods of time. Maybe a few minutes or so, so I was just hoping to use the minimag flashlight. I think I might be able to make a small aluminum heatsink to fit in the head of the flashlight that could go around the diode housing. If anyone else has more comments please feel free to post. Anyone's ideas are really helpful.

Is it really necessary because the voltage is going to be 3v from two AA batteries?

Click to expand...

3volts when it has settled but when you press the switch new batteries can deliver many more volts for a few m/secs....more than enough to fry your LD....


Regards rog8811

ok thanks rog8811, what i have thought about doing was getting some 3.6v lithium AA batteries so ill have 7.2v and then possibly buy one of those mini drivers that are here on the forums or make one and put it in a aixiz module with an open can diode and then make a small aluminum heatsink that will fit in the head of the laser. What do you guys think about that, or should I just say heck with the minimag and go and get a mxdl flashlight. However like I said earlier though I dont want to spend a lot of money on this.

That's possible, but I don't think you could fit a big enough heatsink in the minimag, so you would need to keep a short duty cycle especially if you're going to be using an open can diode.

One minute on...one minute off...best for almost any laser diode using an aixiz module. I would like to see the open can working in a mini mag. It can be done.

Thanks, everyone for your help, and I think I am going to go with a micro driver from rkcstr to power the sony diode with an aixiz module. I then want to make a small aluminum heatsing that will fit in the head of the flashlight with the module. If you have any suggestions or comments about it plz post, I'm curious to see what you guys think about it.