Do i need to attach a heatsink to the driver?

Pluxx · Mar 15, 2015

Im planning on buying this laser driver :

1 8A x Drive V6 Laser Driver M140 PLTB450 PLTB450B NDG700 NDG7475 | eBay

It states that bare bones it will run for 90 seconds and in order to make it continuous i need to add a heat sink. Does this mean a heatsink to the diode or the driver?

Pi R Squared · Mar 15, 2015

The x-drive is one of the most popular drivers, the ones set higher than 1.8A should always be heat sinked, the ones below 1.8A don't need it unless the laser will have an unusualy long duty cycle. Look at this better photo of that driver:
https://sites.google.com/site/dtrlpf/home/flexdrives/x-drive
Notice the chip on the back side with 8 pins, while the laser is on this chip will begin heating up. The last laser I built last year is a 1913mW 450nm using this same driver at 1.8A and it is not heat sinked but I will seldom if ever run it for 90 seconds at a time. If the host you are using has room I suggest you thermal adhesive it to the heat sink or the pill, if there isn't room for that then buy one of these:
Aluminum Driver Heat Sink
Or:
Copper Driver Heat Sink
If it's too large trim it a little smaller, and be careful not to cause a short.

One more thing about that driver, if you put your batteries in backwards and turn it on for more that a few seconds it will burn out that same chip and your driver is toast. Of course this is true with most drivers but this one will last at least a few seconds if you make that mistake.

Alan

Pluxx · Mar 15, 2015

Pi R Squared said:
The x-drive is one of the most popular drivers, the ones set higher than 1.8A should always be heat sinked, the ones below 1.8A don't need it unless the laser will have an unusualy long duty cycle. Look at this better photo of that driver:
https://sites.google.com/site/dtrlpf/home/flexdrives/x-drive
Notice the chip on the back side with 8 pins, while the laser is on this chip will begin heating up. The last laser I built last year is a 1913mW 450nm using this same driver at 1.8A and it is not heat sinked but I will seldom if ever run it for 90 seconds at a time. If the host you are using has room I suggest you thermal adhesive it to the heat sink or the pill, if there isn't room for that then buy one of these:
Aluminum Driver Heat Sink
Or:
Copper Driver Heat Sink
If it's too large trim it a little smaller, and be careful not to cause a short.

One more thing about that driver, if you put your batteries in backwards and turn it on for more that a few seconds it will burn out that same chip and your driver is toast. Of course this is true with most drivers but this one will last at least a few seconds if you make that mistake.

Alan

Is the small aluminum heatsink enough to keep it cool? since it looks tiny. Also are Survival Laser thrustworthy? Since i only pay with a card and idk if i should buy from them. Thanks!~

Pi R Squared · Mar 15, 2015

Pluxx said:
Is the small aluminum heatsink enough to keep it cool? since it looks tiny. Also are Survival Laser thrustworthy? Since i only pay with a card and idk if i should buy from them. Thanks!~

Yes and yes, Survival Laser is run by a long time member here and most everyone here buys from them.

Alan

rhd · Mar 15, 2015

Pluxx said:
Is the small aluminum heatsink enough to keep it cool? since it looks tiny. Also are Survival Laser thrustworthy? Since i only pay with a card and idk if i should buy from them. Thanks!~

Not continuously, as a find heatsink, in a closed build, is basically just a heat storage device, not a dissipation mechanism. Eventually, you'll run into an issue (though it may be sufficient if you're only looking to push the duty cycle out a bit, not make it indefinite).

A better approach is to heatsink the IC to metal on the host. Then your duty cycle on the driver will be at least as good as the diode's duty cycle.

I suspect, on the X-Drive, you could also heatsink the inductor instead. It should, internally, have a trace pathway directly between the IC and the inductor (probably through a couple good vias). If you keep the inductor cool, I doubt the IC could overheat, but that's just speculation, untested.

DTR · Mar 15, 2015

The 90-120 seconds an unsinked X-drive will run will be longer than you would want to run the diode in a SL host so I would not bother going through the trouble of sinking it.:beer:

Pluxx · Mar 15, 2015

DTR said:
The 90-120 seconds an unsinked X-drive will run will be longer than you would want to run the diode in a SL host so I would not bother going through the trouble of sinking it.:beer:

If i were to run the driver over 90 Sec and overheat will i be able to use it again?

DTR · Mar 15, 2015

Yea the driver just shuts down to cool it does not damage it in any way.

Pluxx · Mar 15, 2015

DTR said:
Yea the driver just shuts down to cool it does not damage it in any way.

Does this one do the same thing? : Survival Laser Driver

Also can u add me on skype : zepelin469

DTR · Mar 15, 2015

I am not sure. That is a LED driver modified with different resistors to get different currents. It was not designed for laser diodes but a lot of people use them without major issues. I am not sure if it has a thermal shutdown. I would ask SL about that. Or you could check the details page on DX here.
18V 5W Circuit Board w/ Cree for Flashlights (16.8mm*5.5mm) - Free Shipping - DealExtreme

If you do use that driver I would highly suggest you check it with a test load after pressing it in the pill before connecting it to the diode. If pressed to hard I have seen traces break and there are components that are close to the edge that can short on the pill wall causing regulation to be bypasesd. SL does put some epoxy over them but it is still possible for it to break off when pressed in.

rhd · Mar 15, 2015

Pluxx said:
Does this one do the same thing? : Survival Laser Driver

Also can u add me on skype : zepelin469

I appreciate that you may want to be economical, and $19.99 is less than $23.00, but in my view, it's worth paying an extra $3 to buy a driver than was actually designed for laser diodes, rather than a generic LED flashlight driver from China.

I just can't see paying $19.99 for a $2 flashlight driver, when you can almost purchase a proper driver for that.

Pi R Squared · Mar 15, 2015

It doesn't have thermal shutdown and doesn't need it, and is Survival Laser falsely claiming these were made in the USA? If that's so then I want to know for sure that's true. I know the 1.25A driver they sell for $5.99 is a Chinese made flashlight driver but I didn't know the others were.

Alan

rhd · Mar 15, 2015

Pi R Squared said:
It doesn't have thermal shutdown and doesn't need it, and is Survival Laser falsely claiming these were made in the USA? If that's so then I want to know for sure that's true. I know the 1.25A driver they sell for $5.99 is a Chinese made flashlight driver but I didn't know the others were.

Alan

Where does it say made in the USA? I didn't catch that, but if it is, it looks an awful lot like the Chinese bucks.....and seems to have the exact same schematic.

Pluxx · Mar 15, 2015

rhd said:
Where does it say made in the USA? I didn't catch that, but if it is, it looks an awful lot like the Chinese bucks.....and seems to have the exact same schematic.

The thing is i have no idea how to attach the 23$ diode to the laser let alone adding heatsinks. And trust me the least i want is a dead diode. i have 50-60$ more to spare for a driver and host :/

Pi R Squared · Mar 15, 2015

rhd said:
Where does it say made in the USA? I didn't catch that, but if it is, it looks an awful lot like the Chinese bucks.....and seems to have the exact same schematic.

Click the links and read the description, its the first thing it says in bold letters:
Survival Laser Driver

Survival Laser Driver

Survival Laser Adjustable Current Driver

Survival Laser Driver

Some other drivers they sell don't say "Made in USA", my 1.5A driver even has the Survival Laser logo on the back:

My 2.2A driver doesn't claim to be USA made and doesn't have the logo:

Alan

rhd · Mar 15, 2015

Pi R Squared said:
Click the links and read the description, its the first thing it says in bold letters:
Survival Laser Driver

Ya.... well I don't have any direct evidence to the otherwise, so maybe I shouldn't be too obnoxious here, but color me skeptical - it sure looks like the same schematic as the many common Chinese buck drivers to me.

One of the drivers you linked looks genuinely custom (I think it's a BlitzBuck, which as far as I know, is made by a forum member on LPF - Wolfman - am I wrong?)

But the others, look like LED drivers to me....

Do i need to attach a heatsink to the driver?

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