- Joined
- Apr 2, 2009
- Messages
- 356
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I just got my 200mW modules from o-like after 3 months of problems with the Post Office. I will say O-like did their best to keep things moving along and keeping me updated with the status.
These modules are the "older" that that have since stopped selling because of unstability, and I see why.
I just got my laserbee I(I will post review soon) and tested both the modules with an 18650 battery.
1st Module peaks at 240 but quickly drops to 120 after a minute and continues to drop. (950mA draw from battery)
2nd module peaks at 180 and falls to 130 where it seems relatively stable. (750mA draw from battery)
I wasn't very happy with the unstablilty but I can tell the drivers are heating up pretty damn hot so I wanted to to see if they were the problem. The module gets warm but not too hot, but there's no telling how hot the internal components are getting.
I checked the current going to the driver and it was about 950mA pretty stable. So next I un-soldiered the positive pin from the driver and put my multimeter in line to check the current going to the diode. The current starts out at 850-840mA and after about a minute drops to 800mA. I'm wondering if this drop in current of 50mA(top the diode) is causing the power to drop so rapidly or if its just the crystals heating up.
I also tested the laser with three different power supplies to make sure the 18650 wasn't over heating the driver from its high voltage (4.2v is the highest voltage this driver will accept). I also tried a PC power supply outputting 3.5v and a cr2 outputting 3.2v . The result were pretty much the same with all power sources except the cr2 since it doesn't output enough current to keep up with the driver.
My next step to try and stabilize the laser would be to try a different driver to maintain a constant current to the diode and super heatsink the module itself to keep it from getting too hot.
If anyone has advice, please throw it out there, I need some help so I don't waste my time with incorrect solutions.
These modules are the "older" that that have since stopped selling because of unstability, and I see why.
I just got my laserbee I(I will post review soon) and tested both the modules with an 18650 battery.
1st Module peaks at 240 but quickly drops to 120 after a minute and continues to drop. (950mA draw from battery)
2nd module peaks at 180 and falls to 130 where it seems relatively stable. (750mA draw from battery)
I wasn't very happy with the unstablilty but I can tell the drivers are heating up pretty damn hot so I wanted to to see if they were the problem. The module gets warm but not too hot, but there's no telling how hot the internal components are getting.
I checked the current going to the driver and it was about 950mA pretty stable. So next I un-soldiered the positive pin from the driver and put my multimeter in line to check the current going to the diode. The current starts out at 850-840mA and after about a minute drops to 800mA. I'm wondering if this drop in current of 50mA(top the diode) is causing the power to drop so rapidly or if its just the crystals heating up.
I also tested the laser with three different power supplies to make sure the 18650 wasn't over heating the driver from its high voltage (4.2v is the highest voltage this driver will accept). I also tried a PC power supply outputting 3.5v and a cr2 outputting 3.2v . The result were pretty much the same with all power sources except the cr2 since it doesn't output enough current to keep up with the driver.
My next step to try and stabilize the laser would be to try a different driver to maintain a constant current to the diode and super heatsink the module itself to keep it from getting too hot.
If anyone has advice, please throw it out there, I need some help so I don't waste my time with incorrect solutions.
