Greetings Folks!

A few days ago I was happy to experience breaking the 2W barrier with this laser I'd just built & thought to aim for something groundbreaking (to me anyways) again! While I wasn't sure that I'd come close to where I was hoping to land, I am happy to share the results of my latest build with you!! A 1 Watt 12X 405nm purple scorcher that resembles a mini handheld lightsaber. Have a look at how it all came together...

The host - Lighthound 2xAA Tactical Flashlight


Parts - Lighthound host, 12X BDR-S06J, ~680mA pipsqk, jayrob custom heatsink,
battery contact, 2x14500 Batteries (not pictured)


I've already soldered the leads on the diode because I was going to use this 12X in
a different host for another laser, but just before finishing that build I discovered
the host didn't conduct current. Build fail, I know The driver here I'm going to
re-use is from an older project that I've since dissembled. There's some used parts
going into this new laser


First thing I need to do is get these wires out of this driver


Soldered out


If you ever need to do this you'll find that solder fills the holes in the driver after
you've gotten the wire out. Reopening those holes can be a pain but I've found a
pretty easy method of clearing the solder up. Take a safety pin & press it down onto
the blocked hole


Press your soldering iron on the opposite side of the driver & push the pin against
the tip of the iron through the driver. You should be able to do this in 1/2 a second


Once this pin is through, rotate it as you remove it from the hole gently enough not
to damage the driver but also to remove any broken solder that has reattached
itself to the pin


Repeat this process with all 4 holes & you'll be ready for some new leads


Now to putting the inside together


405 diode mounted into module, module mounted into heatsink


Running the diode leads through the pill


Soldered the leads to the bottom of the driver


Cheapy chinese driver I'm going to use for a battery contact after I remove all of
its components


Components removed


Positive lead soldered


Negative lead soldered


Battery leads soldered to driver


There's already heatsinks on both sides of this driver & it looks like there's enough
gap between the soldering points & its mounting surface (side view)


Front view


I'm going to add an additional layer just to play it safe on how it's going to be
mounted in the pill


Mixing up some thermal adhesive compound will do the trick


A nice thick layer of compound is used for maximum bonding & heat transfer


Stuffed it in the pill, 1/2 hr to completely dry


Closed up the pill, now to put the host back together




2 14500s charged & ready


It's together, now I just need to add the 405-G-1 lens


...and it's done!!


I set the laser down & turned it on to get a completed build picture, it immediately
started burning the rubber grips on one of my wrenches!!


Now for an LPM reading......


Well I wasn't sure if it'd happen or not, but I'm happy to announce that I've broken the 1W of 405 barrier!!! Thanks for checking this project out, let me know what you think

Another great tutorial. Congrats on the 1W milestone!!! I really like that host, but GAWD!, it's pricy.

Really impressive! Where was the SO6J from eg DTR, sled or extracted from working burner?

Wow. Clean build man. My next project is 1W of 405. Going to buy quite a few 405 diodes and bin them to find the more efficient ones.

Comprehensive photo shoot. An other good build !
Did you solder the battery contact to the aluminium host ? That was pretty hard.
It was easier with a brass ring in between.

You think so? It's certainly not cheap but I didn't think $29 was too bad.... I ordered a couple of them back & the price seemed ok, but this was also after I'd ordered a few of these expensive hosts

Thanks! The diode was 1 of the 2 sleds I ordered from Scopeguy's 12X group buy $45. One of my sleds had the ~200mW low powered 'fake' diode that I'd love to get replaced & the other had this massive little monster I'm using in the lighthound

Awesome, good luck Joe. It's not easy finding one that can do 1W but they are definitely out there

Thanks Blord. No the contact isn't soldered to the pill, I find it nearly impossible getting solder to stick to aluminum. I generally stick some solder along the copper sides of the battery contact to create enough tension between the board & the pill to keep it in place. Since the solder sticks much better to the copper on the contact board, I'm always able to get enough in there for a secure, conductive 'press' that stays snugly in place

Love the build tutorial....Great job!

Congratulations on the 1W milestone as well. That's a lot of punch for a 405nm

Excellent work Dan! I'm going to have to try something like this one of these days.

Thanks 532!! 1 watt of violet is a whole new shade of purple & having that power in a handheld feels awesome

Thank you as well Gary! I wish you luck on doing something very similar like this & breaking 1W of 405 to experience it for yourself

Thanks Dan! Although, it appears that I just blew 2 12X diodes during testing at 445mA.

is the beam visible in the night?

I am sorry to hear that Gary, I completely understand suffering the loss from losing valuable diodes

I think the important question to ask here is.......... can it pop balloons?

Peoples eyes will "see" violet differently, to my eye a 30 mW 405 had no violet color in the night sky seen beam, was over the top excited at the first 150 mW and even more the first 500mW ones I got! My best was a 850mW 405nm laser, (currently being repaired). Yes the beam is seen and has purple color at >200 mW for all I have asked to look and relate...

btw, you should see a scorpion with a 850 mW 405 trained on it from a distance... looked like you could read by the green light!

-GH

Nice! I'll definitely bring this out to the desert with me the next time I travel. Scorpion hunting sounds awesome & I imagine they'd glow bright as hell being hit with that much 405 hehe

That is one slick looking, powerful 405
Nice work!

Nice work Dan...
I really like the Host and your build skills are getting
even better...


Jerry

You can contact us at any time on our Website: J.BAUER Electronics

Thanks again guys! Jerry the host is awesome man. It feels like one of the larger, more sophisticated hosts by the way it's been deisgned - except miniaturized!!

Nice build and tutorial. Thanks for sharing.

Keep us updated on the life of the unit. I had a 1W unit that I built but it only lasted a few weeks with minimal use.

Also I did not see it say what current the driver is set to?

Thanks and you're welcome!! I've followed & learned from only the best, I should be thanking you. I know what you mean also about its lifespan at 1W, it fears me to think that it could go anytime

To my surprise though, it doesn't get too warm after a minute or so of runtime. I know that doesn't have everything to do with how long it will last but I thought for sure the host would get hotter than it barely does with such a small heatsink. Nonetheless, because this seems to be an uncommon 12X - I'll keep an update on it!

EDIT: the driver is around 650-680mA, it fluctuated a little when I was testing it

Welcome to the 1W 405nm Club.

You got yourself a Great diode there. 650mA and putting out over 1W is Very good.

I love it!
Now I want 1.
Nice work, maybe your new house helps.

Thanks Angelos!! Feels good to be in the club, hopefully now they wont charge me for parking anymore!

Thanks, and so far it hasn't helped! I've been unpacking, redoing plumbing, adding shelves, installing electricity, rebuilding my studio, ect for 2 months until about a week ago. If it weren't for this place I'd have 10 new lasers by now!

HA I'm kidding man, the new place is great

A nice thick layer of compound is used for maximum bonding & heat transfer

Shouldn't the thermal adhesive used be as thin as possible just to cover up all the microscopic gaps in the metals? This is from my experience with desktop CPUs, where a thick layer of thermal paste will have poorer thermal performance then a properly done thin layer.

Very nice build, tutorial, and power, 1W

You got a very efficient diode here, I hope yours run for many hours

+1 for you

strange, cannot find my old post...

I was saying that I found it very hard to solder on the aluminum cases too, it seems it
just don't like to stick on to the metal.