Modifying/Upgrade a laser based special effects light

Morning All,

I'm not sure I'm on the right forum for this kind of question but I figured I'd post up and maybe someone in the know might direct me to a better place.

I've got an old American DJ Penta Beam effects light. It has 5 red lasers each with two mirror/motors to create some nifty effects.

I've got a few other lasers that are much more powerful and brighter. I'd like to upgrade (somehow) this one so that its brighter, maybe even use different color diodes. I'm not sure whats feasible.

Here are some photos of the inside of the light.







Somethings that I know:

1) I'm fairly certain that they are current limited to end up around 4.9mW.
2) 5VDC is going into the drive board that is attached to the diode.
3) I believe there are LM234 (I believe that's the number) Voltage Controlled Current Sources connected to the drive boards.

So to upgrade, and please correct me if I am wrong, I'm still learning about all this stuff.
1) Allow more current for the diode to use. Assuming the diode can handle the current.
2) Replace diode with one that consumes more current, assuming the current one is only using enough to hit the 4.9mW value.

I appreciate any help you guys can give. I look forward to hearing from you. If I've got the wrong forum or wrong website just let me know but I figured someone on here could at least point me in the right direction.

Thanks!

1) Those small diodes probably can't handle more than the current they are already set at
2) Those appear to be 12mm holes in the heatsink, so you can easily replace them with a standard 12mm module. It looks like that 5V line is both the on/off control and power, so it may not be able to supply a lot of current.

Hi ARG,

Thanks for the reply. I will have to measure the heat sink holes and see, you might be right. I'll have to trace back the 5V supply and see what it goes to and how much current it can supply. It might go to those LM234s and might be limited.

Rather than mess with the existing circuitry...I suppose I could replace the diode and setup an independent supply and just use the existing lines as controls? That might be the cleanest path forward.

Do you have any recommendations on a module(s)? I'm fairly new to all of this and would appreciate any recommendations.

-Kris

JamesDean said:

Rather than mess with the existing circuitry...I suppose I could replace the diode and setup an independent supply and just use the existing lines as controls? That might be the cleanest path forward.

Do you have any recommendations on a module(s)? I'm fairly new to all of this and would appreciate any recommendations.

Click to expand...

That would probably best, you can hook up the existing 5V line to the modulation input of a higher current driver.

For module recommendations it depends what you want (power/wavelength). Other than that you just need it to have a digital or analog driver.

Let's see... I have three other lasers.

One is red/green:
Red: 100 mW -- 650nm
Green: 25mW -- 532nm

The second is red/green/blue:
Red: 100mW -- 650 nm
Green: 40mW -- 532 nm
Blue: 100mW -- 450 nm

The third is red/green
Red: 100mW -- 650 nm
Green: 50mW -- 532 nm

<will edit post when brain is done thinking about colors and such>

So we were thinking maybe something the in the blue/violet spectrum.

Maybe something like this?

New 405nm 20mW 3 5V 12mm Cross Laser Module Blue Violet Laser Diode Module | eBay

I'm not sure if 20mW sufficient to make this along beam along the same brightness as the other units we have though.

Maybe green as well:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-10mW-50...asuring_Layout_Tools&var=&hash=item1e9080e44d