My first Laser and circuit but....

Hi all, I'm from Spain (Excuse my English). After I found the forum, some time ago, I decided to build a laser driver with the specs I found here and try with a 8x dvd writer red diode. I hope you can help me.

The laser work fine, I attached it to an old adjustable laser module with a single acrylic lens.

After adjust the driver I've set it to 3V and 300mA. As I said it works, but like a common red pointer, I was not able to burn nothing.

I'm doing something wrong?
The problem could be the optic on the laser module?
Must I increase the amperage?

Here is my built :

What is the power source? Did you measure the current, or is it a calculated value?

Cyparagon said:

What is the power source? Did you measure the current, or is it a calculated value?

Click to expand...

Hi Cyparagon,

The source is a 12V 1A DC adapter. I measured the current with a multimeter.

Looking very nice there, perfectly reasonable first build, most of us here started like that.

If you want to run the diode for any period of time longer than a couple of seconds,
you are going to need to cool it, commonly achieved by attaching a large chunk of metal
(a heatsink) to the diode/housing.

As for the burning, are you focussing the laser properly?
It will only really burn if you can focus it down to a spot thin as a needle.

A bit like burning stuff with the sun and a magnifying glass, remember as a kid?