After donig some serious reading i have questions

So i think right now my plan is this

I already ordered a 150mW 405nm diode from ebay that wants a current of around 110 mA and opperates at around 4.5 to 5 V. Im leaning towards a combo driver, and ideally would like to put it in an MXDL 3AAA 5V flashlight.

Im not sure wether i want to mount the driver on the pill, or in the aixiz moduel, and solder the leads from that to the pill.

I have also read that i should strip the pill of all of its components and solder a ground wire to the base of the pill, how EXACTLY do i do this, i have only read that i need to, but no where have i found the EXACT process of doing so.

Also does anyone know where i can buy a combo driver that can fit into either the aixiz moduel or the pill for an MXDL and have the driver preset to the mA i want it. (I do not have a multi-meter)

So after a lot of reading, i have found no EXACT guides to build the driver into the MXDL housing. Should i set up the driver in the moduel (which i know exactly how to do) or set it up in the pill (which i am still a little fuzzy about).

Also, should I be concerned about getting a special lens for the 405nm or should the blank aixiz module be fine?

Are different drivers different as far as wiring go or should i be concerned about that also. i have read alot about the different drivers, but i havnt seen anything about how exactly they get wired. So the + wire gets solderd from the driver to the part that connects to the battery in the pill, and the - get soldered to the ground (aka the side rim of the pill?). then on the other side the LD- and LD+ get soldered to their respective wires from the diode in the aixiz module.


any answers would be greatly appreceated, please keep in mind that I HAVE READ THE TUTORIALS!!!!

thanks!

First things first

For the 405Nm 150mw diode you require either a boost or buck/boost driver (Micro boost drive or Micro flexdrive respectively). the diode itself requires 4.5v and the driver requires a further 3v+ to operate.

I am not sure of the 'MXDL 3AAA 5V flashlight' but presume that its the sku 3405 '5W MXDL Super Bright' flashlight, This is a great host, I recently purchased a 1W blue Build a laser kit that includes the 5w MXDL Flashlight as a host, The pill contains two discs the lower disc is for the cells connection the upper disc contains the super bright led, desolder the 2 wires that connect onto the LED disc don't cut them as they are fairly short.

As for the battery Disc there should be a number of holes around the outer edge what I did was to poke a short length of bare wire through the hole and solder in place, the center of the disc has a small disc of silver solder blob that.

As for the lens I would certainly get a Glass Lens for the BluRay(405nm) and Blues(445nm) diodes i beleive that there is a small performance increase with suc lenses.

Usually as far as wiring drivers the Batter connections go to the widely spaced solder point and the LD gets soldered to the closer set of solder points, however don't quote me on that, however instruction manual are available for the majority of drivers out there. mounting the driver is personal to you and depentant on which heatsink you use(diode only H/S or Aixiz Module H/S), either way will work fine though.

Hope this helps

Carl

Those 2 wires connect straight to the driver in the +Ve and - postitions, the LD + and - wires connect to the Diode itself

With a boost driver, the voltage source is actually lower than the voltage required by the diode. The Microboost will run a PHR, (probably the diode you have from the figures), from a single Li-ion battery with no problem. You only need to start thinking of extra volts when you run a linear driver such as the RKCSTR.

Someone with specific experience of this host would be best to help you with the rest as Carl has but I think, depending on the room inside the host, either choice of where to mount the driver will be fine. If space is limited, drop the back half of the Aixiz and mount the driver on the pill. Unless you can buy one you will have to find yourself some way to mount the Aixiz in a heatsink to produce a neat build. If it's your first one however, be creative! The heatsinking is not critical for that diode if you're sensible with duty cycles.

Good luck and some pics when you're done please!

M

Morgan, The 3405 host is quite large as I have a 1w blue (No AixiZ Module though) inside the 3405 and there is still plenty of room available for the complete Aixiz Module. However you are correct with the voltage concerning the Micro Boost and Flexdrive. My apollogies for emitting that fact.

jkardon1992 The drivers are very small, roughly around 9x6mm for the FlexDrive and Micro boost the RckStr driver is roughly around 12x6mm so fitting them in an AixiZ module won't be an issue, just remember that the soldering has to be extremely precise as I found out the hard way, ensure your soldering iron has a very fine point that resembles a sharpened pencil. and contact with the solder iron should be kept to 1 second max then let it cool.

Good luck in your build and yes lets see some pics when it's complete.

Carl

thanks for the help guys

carl, do you think a serperate lens from the AixiZ is absolutly necessary? i saw the 405 lens from jayrob and it looked a little expensive.
i MIGHT be leaning towards a kit from jayrob where he premounts the driver and sets the current you want, but it all depends on price. I feel like it will be a bit more of an adventure if i do it all myself.

Also, i have heard that i dont really need a heatsink for this build, but how else will i get the module to fit snuggly in the host?
oh and when I'm done, i will deffinetely post pictures

thanks

As far as the lens goes, acryllic lenses are not as pure as glass so glass would be best, as for essential I don't know, probably due to the low power output of your diode an acryllic lens should do just fine. High power diodes can melt/distort acryllic lenses.

Aditional Heatsinking (absolute minimum heatsinking is AiXiZ module) is not essential for very low power output providing duty cycles are short, but having the module set inside a heatsink has many advantages, namely, heatsinks are made especially for a particular host, so changing a diode for higher outputs is not a problem as the heatsinks are universal to 5.6mm dyes, also, trying to mount a module without a heatsink into a host is not an easy task. IMO, For the 405nm and 445nm I would use an additional heatsink due to the higher voltages involved, anyway the completed build will look professional, I have 2 red lasers outputting 161ma and 364ma in a host with only an AixiZ module as a heatsink and have suffered no ill effects from either build.

Hope this helps

Any errors or comments welcome.

Carl

thanks, I'm doing this for a senior project in school, and i have several other to complete, so as soon as i am done them i will be able to start ordering parts.
thanks for the help! :beer: