help with a 20x red DIY

alright, the other day, i was at target and found a host that i thought i'd try for the hell of it, it fits dark horse's heatsink (rather i made it fit) have a rkstr driver, have it set to 420.2 mA's (tested this with DMM mA -- i assume i dont put it on the setting that looks like mA~) To see if it would work i hooked a 9v to the driver then from driver to the diode, i get light, but very dim... which scares me because the host i got only has room for 1 x AA. So is this the wrong driver? Diode toast? Or complete ignorance?
Any insight would be helpful, i have tried searching on here for quite awhile but couldn't really find the answer i was looking for... :-[

Wait, did you connect the battery to the driver, and then connected the laser diode to the driver?  If so, it's dead.

The procedure is this:  short the laser diode end of the driver --> solder the laser to the driver --> connect the driver to the battery.

If you do it in a different order, like you did above, you're sending a huge surge of current through the laser diode.  Think of the sound of a flashbulb on a camera charging up and sending a huge pulse of light out.  Well, that went through your diode and blew it to bits. ALso, at those currents, you need to have the diode already heatsinked before you plug it in, otherwise you'll be admiring the glow for a second and then POOF, no more lasing.

Also, one AA will not have enough voltage for a red laser diode.  You'll need one of those 3.6V AA-sized (14500) batteries to drive it since the driver also drops some voltage.  I think this is the type.

To see if it would work i hooked a 9v to the driver........................

Click to expand...

The 9v battery probably won't supply enough current
I believe you will need at least two 3v batteries  
2.5volts will drop across the driver.

...............which scares me because the host i got only has room for 1 x AA

Click to expand...

You may need another host.

He won't see a "dim light" even with the 9V's limited current.

Bionic-Badger said:

He won't see a "dim light" even with the 9V's limited current.

Click to expand...

actually i do see a dim red light with the 9v. And it was heatsinked first. If it was dead, would i still be seeing a red light?

Is there a thread on here that actually explains how to do all this, all i see is how to put guts into the hosts.

awray said:

[quote author=Bionic-Badger link=1218001161/0#3 date=1218009723]He won't see a "dim light" even with the 9V's limited current.

Click to expand...

actually i do see a dim red light with the 9v. And it was heatsinked first. If it was dead, would i still be seeing a red light?

Is there a thread on here that actually explains how to do all this, all i see is how to put guts into the hosts.[/quote]
your diode is burnt out... aka dead. you will still see a dim red light but it will be very dim.

and there are many threads on here explaining how to make lasers. try a search or keep lurking around.

good luck

k thankyou.

It's a dim light because that's the red LED that's used to power the actual lasing aparatus inside the diode.

One thing you can do with that dead diode is keep it as a testing device for measuring current or voltage without risking the actual laser.

Bionic-Badger said:

One thing you can do with that dead diode is keep it as a testing device for measuring current or voltage without risking the actual laser.

Click to expand...

A sacrificial diode, yeah I made one of those too, it was part of my learning curve! :

I like to tell myself that I made myself a *cough* useful $20 tool...

I have about 10 of these *tools* on my desk... they are just a cost of building things yourself.

we are human and will make mistakes.