- Joined
- May 6, 2011
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Diode: A-140 courtesy of daguin :thanks:
Host: Solarforce L2P - Grey, from sbflashlights.com
Heatsink: Jayrob's Solarforce kit, "V5 thermal glued design"
Driver: Flexdrive set to 1.5A courtesy of Flaminpyro :thanks:
Lens: Aixiz 445
Battery: 18650 (I use an AW Protected 2900mAh)
Thanks also to Jayrob for excellent work on the heatsink, and great communication. I had him make me a special heatsink for the driver for some extra money, and he went and redesigned the main heatsink to include a spot to attach the driver, and then refunded me the price of the driver heatsink!! :wave: :beer:
Here's a link to his thread for the HS.
I did make some slight modifications during my build. The contact board that Jay provided came with two extremely thin wires attached, and I wanted to be sure there won't be any issues (since I'd be pumping 3.7+V, 2+A through that section of wire) and just soldered the leads from the driver directly to the contact board. This can be seen in picture 1 and is the only picture I bothered to take during my build process.
I also went on to do something kinda stupid. Reattaching the contact board was a bit difficult because of the tight fit, and also there was a lot of wire scrunched up in the cavity. I now know why it needed to be such a tight fit. I sanded the contact board down a bit to get it to fit more easily, but this made its connection to the heatsink (which is connected to battery negative) very flaky. So, people, learn from my mistakes and don't sand down things you shouldn't! I was able to fix it easily with copper wire, as it's difficult to solder to solid aluminum (also don't try to do that). This isn't a knock on jayrob's heatsink design, by the way. It was just me being unable to reassemble it and got a bit frisky.
Extras:
UCL AR coated lens, 28.6mm diameter, 2.84mm thick - this lens is supposed to transmit 99.2% of light, although the coating appears blue when reflecting white light so it might not be the optimal type of AR coating. This lens replaces the glass lens that came with the host, which is installed behind and secured by the bezel ring on the front of the host. With an O-ring it serves to prevent water from entering the host at the front. At night it is still possible to see the beam being reflected by this lens. If we assume that 0.8% becomes reflected, at 1.3 Watts, that is still 10 mW being lost. It seems reasonable that such a power is visible. I do not have a point of reference for what 10mW of 445nm looks like but I suspect it reflected a bit more than that amount. Edit: I have done some nonscientific reflection tests comparing the amount of reflected light between the regular lens and the AR coated lens. The difference is not very significant, it looks to me the AR lens reflects back about 30%-50% less light intensity but I could be off by quite a bit. If anybody can find special AR coating for blue on a 28mm lens, it may perform much better. For now, I definitely will not recommend a setup like this for a 650 or 405 build since I expect those diodes to be more sensitive to reflection (and when focused at infinity, all the reflected light from the host lens will re-enter the collimating lens right back into the LD).
1 inch diameter green GITD O-ring - placed directly beneath the UCL lens. The Solarforce host comes with a specially shaped rubber grommet ring for mounting the lens, which creates a great seal. Unfortunately UCL's 28.6mm lens is 0.6mm wider than the 28mm lens the host comes with, and won't fit on the rubber ring. It does fit in the cavity but a rubber ring was still needed to ensure a watertight seal. So, I used this 1 inch O-ring for that purpose. It's actually a bit larger than one inch and some careful placement is needed to get everything centered.
All O-rings (there are 3) are then lubed with Synco Super Lube which is a multi purpose lubricant containing PTFE (Teflon) and effective at a temperature range of -45 to 450 degrees F. According to the tube it is impervious to salt water.
The only other things I have on it are the B3 "tactical" stainless steel bezel ring, and a belt clip from Solarforce which is about $5 and is very handy. it comes with a lanyard loop on the opposite side too, which sticks out.
Current draw at battery minus terminal: Initially 2.3A, drops to about 2.15A within 10 seconds, did not test further
I burned my couch cushion a bit while conducting the current measurement.
I do not have an LPM but the current draw from the battery indicates that it should be at 1.2 to 1.3W. I do have an extra layer of glass compared to most builds. It is excessively bright. Since it is the first 445 laser I have seen, I was initially blown away by the purity of the blue light. The beam is visible in a brightly lit room and only when going outside into direct sunlight does it become hard to see.
The waterproofing works great. I took a shower with it but there's not much to do, and it's very very dangerous. Dunking it in the sink after filling it up is also rather uneventful, probably because the water was very clean and didn't offer any additional beam visibility. I guess I'll bring it with me the next time I get a chance to go in a pool.
For people who are wondering about this, I would suggest only build a waterproof laser like this if you don't intend on changing focus often. As you can see in the pictures, this build cannot adjust focus without removing the head to turn the lens nut. A waterproof laser with a twistable section for focus would be more convenient, though it would still be questionable if it's a good idea to twist it underwater.
I was also thinking about using a Solarforce L2X for a 445 build. Here's a pic. I have one of those hosts on the way here in the mail. It would be quite easy to drop the laser into that.
Last but not least, (if you haven't noticed already) pictures are attached. The last two are of the laser held under water in the sink, but it's difficult to see because my camera's CCD simply cannot handle all of the blue light. I guess you'll have to trust me that it was in fact under some water.
Well, I think that's it. I'd like to thank everybody here at LPF for making it the informative resource that it is. This build and this new hobby of mine would not exist if it werent for you all.
Host: Solarforce L2P - Grey, from sbflashlights.com
Heatsink: Jayrob's Solarforce kit, "V5 thermal glued design"
Driver: Flexdrive set to 1.5A courtesy of Flaminpyro :thanks:
Lens: Aixiz 445
Battery: 18650 (I use an AW Protected 2900mAh)
Thanks also to Jayrob for excellent work on the heatsink, and great communication. I had him make me a special heatsink for the driver for some extra money, and he went and redesigned the main heatsink to include a spot to attach the driver, and then refunded me the price of the driver heatsink!! :wave: :beer:
Here's a link to his thread for the HS.
I did make some slight modifications during my build. The contact board that Jay provided came with two extremely thin wires attached, and I wanted to be sure there won't be any issues (since I'd be pumping 3.7+V, 2+A through that section of wire) and just soldered the leads from the driver directly to the contact board. This can be seen in picture 1 and is the only picture I bothered to take during my build process.
I also went on to do something kinda stupid. Reattaching the contact board was a bit difficult because of the tight fit, and also there was a lot of wire scrunched up in the cavity. I now know why it needed to be such a tight fit. I sanded the contact board down a bit to get it to fit more easily, but this made its connection to the heatsink (which is connected to battery negative) very flaky. So, people, learn from my mistakes and don't sand down things you shouldn't! I was able to fix it easily with copper wire, as it's difficult to solder to solid aluminum (also don't try to do that). This isn't a knock on jayrob's heatsink design, by the way. It was just me being unable to reassemble it and got a bit frisky.
Extras:
UCL AR coated lens, 28.6mm diameter, 2.84mm thick - this lens is supposed to transmit 99.2% of light, although the coating appears blue when reflecting white light so it might not be the optimal type of AR coating. This lens replaces the glass lens that came with the host, which is installed behind and secured by the bezel ring on the front of the host. With an O-ring it serves to prevent water from entering the host at the front. At night it is still possible to see the beam being reflected by this lens. If we assume that 0.8% becomes reflected, at 1.3 Watts, that is still 10 mW being lost. It seems reasonable that such a power is visible. I do not have a point of reference for what 10mW of 445nm looks like but I suspect it reflected a bit more than that amount. Edit: I have done some nonscientific reflection tests comparing the amount of reflected light between the regular lens and the AR coated lens. The difference is not very significant, it looks to me the AR lens reflects back about 30%-50% less light intensity but I could be off by quite a bit. If anybody can find special AR coating for blue on a 28mm lens, it may perform much better. For now, I definitely will not recommend a setup like this for a 650 or 405 build since I expect those diodes to be more sensitive to reflection (and when focused at infinity, all the reflected light from the host lens will re-enter the collimating lens right back into the LD).
1 inch diameter green GITD O-ring - placed directly beneath the UCL lens. The Solarforce host comes with a specially shaped rubber grommet ring for mounting the lens, which creates a great seal. Unfortunately UCL's 28.6mm lens is 0.6mm wider than the 28mm lens the host comes with, and won't fit on the rubber ring. It does fit in the cavity but a rubber ring was still needed to ensure a watertight seal. So, I used this 1 inch O-ring for that purpose. It's actually a bit larger than one inch and some careful placement is needed to get everything centered.
All O-rings (there are 3) are then lubed with Synco Super Lube which is a multi purpose lubricant containing PTFE (Teflon) and effective at a temperature range of -45 to 450 degrees F. According to the tube it is impervious to salt water.
The only other things I have on it are the B3 "tactical" stainless steel bezel ring, and a belt clip from Solarforce which is about $5 and is very handy. it comes with a lanyard loop on the opposite side too, which sticks out.
Current draw at battery minus terminal: Initially 2.3A, drops to about 2.15A within 10 seconds, did not test further
I burned my couch cushion a bit while conducting the current measurement.
I do not have an LPM but the current draw from the battery indicates that it should be at 1.2 to 1.3W. I do have an extra layer of glass compared to most builds. It is excessively bright. Since it is the first 445 laser I have seen, I was initially blown away by the purity of the blue light. The beam is visible in a brightly lit room and only when going outside into direct sunlight does it become hard to see.
The waterproofing works great. I took a shower with it but there's not much to do, and it's very very dangerous. Dunking it in the sink after filling it up is also rather uneventful, probably because the water was very clean and didn't offer any additional beam visibility. I guess I'll bring it with me the next time I get a chance to go in a pool.
For people who are wondering about this, I would suggest only build a waterproof laser like this if you don't intend on changing focus often. As you can see in the pictures, this build cannot adjust focus without removing the head to turn the lens nut. A waterproof laser with a twistable section for focus would be more convenient, though it would still be questionable if it's a good idea to twist it underwater.
I was also thinking about using a Solarforce L2X for a 445 build. Here's a pic. I have one of those hosts on the way here in the mail. It would be quite easy to drop the laser into that.
Last but not least, (if you haven't noticed already) pictures are attached. The last two are of the laser held under water in the sink, but it's difficult to see because my camera's CCD simply cannot handle all of the blue light. I guess you'll have to trust me that it was in fact under some water.
Well, I think that's it. I'd like to thank everybody here at LPF for making it the informative resource that it is. This build and this new hobby of mine would not exist if it werent for you all.
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