Attempting my first red build

Well, I started off with a ML520G71 Mitsubishi 635nm 300mW and I am now morning its death. An autopsy by Dr.DTR shows that it likely died due to a power spike when I turned on my PSU.... ok, so not an autopsy but that's what he thinks happened.

First off I was a noobstick and completely missed the fact that it was multimode and created a massively elongated dot thats almost useless for a pointer without correction optics. So, I am now on a mission to find a singlemode 635-660nm diode that wont cost me a fortune. I was looking at a ML520G54(mitsu 110mW 635) and a LPC-826. The price of the latter of the two is calling out to me... any opinions? Is an LPC-826 singlemode(can't find that info anywhere)?

My goal is having a nice dot and visibly bright, hopefully midair visible at night. I don't care about burn power as that's what I have my 2W 445s for

Look at this thread, http://laserpointerforums.com/f52/1...ishi-single-mode-diode-75726.html#post1092551

The 635 is brighter than the LPC diode at the same power but it cost ye a lot more.
Both diode has a bar thru the dot and the 635 has it more pronounced.
If you want nice dot chose the LPC 815/826 and for nice beam the 635nm.

Yup as far as Im aware the LPC-826 / LPC-836's are single mode. These are also 650 - 660 nm as opposed to 635 nm, with the 110 mW mits, and so will be less visible at the same power output than the mits. :beer:

Edit: Blord just beat me to it!

So, the ML520G54 is better than the ML520G71 dot wise? I just want to have something that's better than the 6 inch across line at 4 meters that I got from the ML520G71 and still get a nice pretty visible beam.

EDIT: ok so duh the single mode would have a better dot. Seeing as the 110mW 635nm is also more visible than 660nm I guess that's the best choice for my build. Now the next question is:
What would be a good max current if I'm careful with duty cycle and its in a copper module+heatsink? I kind of want a middle ground between life and power. I'm willing to lose a little life expectancy for a brighter laser but I don't want the thing to burn out after 10hrs.

EDIT2: Located more info, 300mA appears to be a good current based on rhd's murder test. It appears these guys don't gain much from pushing them extra like most others do. I guess ~130mW should be enough for a nice bright beam. But of curiosity... does the 500mW 638nm Mitsu (ML501P73) have just as scary of a line beam as the 300mW(ML520G71) or is it better/worse?

The 500 and 300 mits have similar rectangular beam profiles. The 500 you can push at ~1.4 - 1.5 A and if youre lucky it'll sometimes hit over 1 W with a G lens! They are qute tough diodes and are suitable for use with the AMC 7135 chip based drivers, which will allow you to have modes. You can also tame the 300 and 500 mits a little with this lens lazeerer found, though it will reduce output power a little...:beer:

Edit: If you are interested in one of these mits 500's, there is a GB going on at the mo...

I'm totally going to get in on that GB. Thanks for the link. I think I'm also going to grab a 100mW mits so I have a nice little single mode and then I'll also have the whopper multimode eventually.

Anyone know of a good driver that fits a C6 pill and I can get 275-325mA out of?

EDIT: also looking for a good max current for the 500mW mits. So far it looks like 1.5A would be good without being overly high right? I am also in search of C6 pill sized (i think its 17mm) blank driver boards for use as contacts so I can use other shaped drivers.