- Joined
- Dec 11, 2015
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Hey LPF,
I did it! I "built" my first laser
Now honestly, it's hard to say I 'built' it as all I did was put two parts together and inserted charged batteries. But, regardless, those two parts were:
Laser host (Thanks Ehgemus!): $85 USD
Laser diode, "800mW 520nm in Copper Module W/X-Drive and glass lens": $215 USD
Total in USD: 300.00$
Not too bad IMO. It was fun to put together! I went for class IV because I wanted my first build to be nice, sturdy, and powerful. Go big or go home :beer: Had to sand down the module from DTR because it was too tight to fit in, however it took not much effort at all to just sand a little bit off with a rotary tool and I was good to go. Since after that the surface of the module was no longer even, I found a bit of this and applied it to the module after soldering but before inserting it into the host to compensate:
Wiring (Harold must've mixed up positive and negative, tested it with my meter before soldering, and found ground on red double checked the batteries to make sure they were in correctly, anyway no biggie!):
I adore the host Ehgemus built for me. The acrylic is absolutely amazing with the laser, it was love at first sight when I saw it on his page For real though, it lights up just amazingly. Check it out:
The duty cycle with this host is not too bad, I only had it constantly on to test it. I usually only have it on for a few seconds at a time, which is what the push button is super handy for. When I tested, I got about 2 mins and 50 seconds before it started getting really hot, and around 30 seconds for it to cool down. I'd give it about 45 seconds to cool down before using again though. Bit of a longer duration than I expected! Maybe the thermal paste did made a good improvement?
I must say I never knew 520nm vs 532nm had any major difference. Now I'm not sure if I would really consider it major but, I was surprised when I put my eBay 532nm beside the 520nm. Compared to the 520nm, 532nm seems to have a minor yellow tinge.
I got the laser diode module from DTR in 6 days from St.Louis, MO, to where I live (South Ontario, close to Toronto) in Canada. I strapped it to a big heat sync with a fan so I could see it before the host came, but the batteries I was using must've been lower power, because the laser was a lot brighter after I had put it in a host with two 16340s. The host came the next day, today. I turned it on to test it, and all was working good.
Once the sun set, I went outside in the dark (making sure no planes were above) and shined it up in the sky for a few seconds. Took my goggles off so I could see it, and damn it felt like
:lasergun:
Anyway, goggles back on and went back inside. Took a couple of beam shots and played around with it. Didn't try to burn anything, as I was still admiring the laser itself. Here's what I took, this is without fog (sorry about the first one, tinypic likes to re-orientate pics):
With fog:
I'm pretty content with the final result, looks amazing for me (especially going from a 532nm eBay pointer to a 800mW beast)
Thanks to DTR and Ehgemus for the products, DTR supplied me with the diode and Ehgemus built me the host, very appreciative of them!
Ehgemus' hosts: http://laserpointerforums.com/f39/fs-custom-laser-hosts-new-hosts-added-today-1-10-16-a-93207.html
DTR's eBay page: dtr-lpf on eBay
(Maybe a 462nm build next? Perhaps someday)
I did it! I "built" my first laser
Now honestly, it's hard to say I 'built' it as all I did was put two parts together and inserted charged batteries. But, regardless, those two parts were:
Laser host (Thanks Ehgemus!
): $85 USDLaser diode, "800mW 520nm in Copper Module W/X-Drive and glass lens": $215 USD
Total in USD: 300.00$
Not too bad IMO. It was fun to put together! I went for class IV because I wanted my first build to be nice, sturdy, and powerful. Go big or go home :beer: Had to sand down the module from DTR because it was too tight to fit in, however it took not much effort at all to just sand a little bit off with a rotary tool and I was good to go. Since after that the surface of the module was no longer even, I found a bit of this and applied it to the module after soldering but before inserting it into the host to compensate:
Wiring (Harold must've mixed up positive and negative, tested it with my meter before soldering, and found ground on red
double checked the batteries to make sure they were in correctly, anyway no biggie!):
I adore the host Ehgemus built for me. The acrylic is absolutely amazing with the laser, it was love at first sight when I saw it on his page
For real though, it lights up just amazingly. Check it out:
The duty cycle with this host is not too bad, I only had it constantly on to test it. I usually only have it on for a few seconds at a time, which is what the push button is super handy for. When I tested, I got about 2 mins and 50 seconds before it started getting really hot, and around 30 seconds for it to cool down. I'd give it about 45 seconds to cool down before using again though. Bit of a longer duration than I expected! Maybe the thermal paste did made a good improvement?
I must say I never knew 520nm vs 532nm had any major difference. Now I'm not sure if I would really consider it major but, I was surprised when I put my eBay 532nm beside the 520nm. Compared to the 520nm, 532nm seems to have a minor yellow tinge.
I got the laser diode module from DTR in 6 days from St.Louis, MO, to where I live (South Ontario, close to Toronto) in Canada. I strapped it to a big heat sync with a fan so I could see it before the host came, but the batteries I was using must've been lower power, because the laser was a lot brighter after I had put it in a host with two 16340s. The host came the next day, today. I turned it on to test it, and all was working good.
Once the sun set, I went outside in the dark (making sure no planes were above) and shined it up in the sky for a few seconds. Took my goggles off so I could see it, and damn it felt like
:lasergun:
Anyway, goggles back on and went back inside. Took a couple of beam shots and played around with it. Didn't try to burn anything, as I was still admiring the laser itself. Here's what I took, this is without fog (sorry about the first one, tinypic likes to re-orientate pics):
With fog:
I'm pretty content with the final result, looks amazing for me (especially going from a 532nm eBay pointer to a 800mW beast
)Thanks to DTR and Ehgemus for the products, DTR supplied me with the diode and Ehgemus built me the host, very appreciative of them!
Ehgemus' hosts: http://laserpointerforums.com/f39/fs-custom-laser-hosts-new-hosts-added-today-1-10-16-a-93207.html
DTR's eBay page: dtr-lpf on eBay
(Maybe a 462nm build next? Perhaps someday
)
