First Red Build

So a few months ago I was surfing the net a came across kipkay's laser mini mag light tutorial on youtube. I thought it was interesting, but I was skeptical. I wanted a laser, so I searched online for a place to buy one. And to think I almost bought from wicked lasers..... bahaha. So I did my research (wicked lasers turned out to be a no go) and landed right here on this forum. Looking around I found a nice 5mw greenie from laserglow technologies. I was surprised by the quality and visibility of such a low power laser!

But anyways.... I started reading more about lasers and finally set out to build my own. Picked up a rckstr driver, a couple LPC-815's, and armed with the search bar, I built a laser. Sweet. Here are a couple pictures, but be warned; this laser, indeed, looks like it was built by a caveman.


A nice little close up.


The full assembly...

The current I am running into this baby is a nice 419mA, courtesy of the 4 AA's, and its all connected to a simple switch. No heatsink, no host.... pretty much the worst red build ever. But it works, and I made it, and that is all the pretty polished mental stainless steel I need

HOWEVER, I have some gripes about this diode. Running at 419mA, the dot is extremely bright, and I can't really look at it for too long... but still, it doesn't burn things. It doesn't even feel warm to the touch, and I can't even tell if the laser is on when I am wearing my glasses, and no dot is visible (guess OD 4 was way too much). The dot looks normal, except there is a thin line going through it. Uses the acrylic aixiz lens. I have a feeling that this diode isn't working properly...

Congratulations!

It is working fine. Focus the dot to as small as you can get it at a particular distance. The line through it is normal for this diode. Ignore it

With red light, you need to shine it onto a dark surface to get it to burn. Use a black marker to color the head of a match black and shine the focused dot on it. Blow up a balloon and draw a black spot on it. Then shine the focused dot on the black spot.

The red light is dissipated through the skin and underlying tissue so it does not feel hot when you shine it on your body. Try shining it onto a freckle or dark mole (or, once again, even on a black spot drawn onto your skin)

You REALLY NEED some sort of heat sink for it though. You could blow the diode from simple overheating.

Peace,
dave

Aha! You are right. I drew a black mark on my hand... Pointed the laser directly at it for a few seconds. Ouch also managed to burn a hole through a CD case!

It looks like your diode may not be pressed into the module all the way...At least the photo looks like it...pressing it at least flush will help with the heat transfer along with getting a heatsink :beer:

It definitely needs work in the heatsinking department.. both the way the diode is in the module, and some heatsin around the module. Without that, the laser diode will not last very long.

But for a first build its fine: At least it actually works

hanzyfranzy said:

Aha! You are right. I drew a black mark on my hand... Pointed the laser directly at it for a few seconds. Ouch also managed to burn a hole through a CD case!

Click to expand...

Sweet!

Next stop; a flashlight style hand-held

You could also add a heat sink to this one and build it into an enclosure of some kind for your first "labby.'

Peace,
dave

I do indeed plan to buy a nice heatsink for this, but it isn't really a priority, as I have already moved on to my next build! (I guess the fun is in building the damn things) It will be a blu-ray build complete with a host and heatsink. This build was primarily a learning experience, and I think I might see how long I can run it before the diode busts, just to see how hot it gets....

Nice job hanzy! Works better than my first attempt, haha!

Can't wait to see your next builds, as I'm sure there will be more.

If you can spare a little cash, pick up an Aixiz glass lens for that. Beam and dot quality will improve dramatically, and you'll get about a 10% power boost.

Oh, and not the worst build ever. Plenty are DOA due to assorted mistakes

thanks for doing things the right way and not just jumping into a 1W laser. looks like you are having fun!

A crude assembly (the diode looks like it's barely seated in the module), but hey at least it works!

Good job, but I wouldn't suggest moving up to 1W 445's just yet.

Well, a month later I finally got all the parts for a 200mw 405nm build, and I must say, my old red looks quite sad next to the beast.



I probably should post this in the blu ray section, but for the sake of comparison:





The quality of using a host and proper technique

Quite a big improvement! For your next build might I suggest flamingpyro wire. Its super flexible and so much easier to work with than "radioshack" wire. Just PM flamingpyro for some....you will see what im talking about once you use it.

Nice build