Micro-Drive laser driver by rkcstr

Re: Micro-Driver laser driver *NOW ADJUSTABLE*

Ok, you can order any time you want



Also, anyone who HAS ordered... I'm currently VERY backed up. Over the past few days I've received orders for over 80 ( ) drivers! Now, I have a quiz I need to study for on Tuesday AND about 20-30 hours of work ahead of me this week for these drivers, so please be understanding if your order takes a few days or more to ship out.

Re: Micro-Driver laser driver *NOW ADJUSTABLE*

80 holy crap man,... doesn't anybody know how to solder? btw love the instructions you provide with your kits, made assembly a piece of cake.

Re: Micro-Driver laser driver *NOW ADJUSTABLE*

As of today, I have suspended any orders from my website.

I have had SO MANY orders in the past 4 days that I'm not sure I can meet even the time frame of 1 week on any new orders.

Because I'd feel guilty taking your money and expecting you to wait for who knows how long, I'm just going to concentrate on my current orders before I take more.

I hope to have orders reinstated in a week or so, but I will put up a notice on here when that happens.

Anybody who HAS ordered already, your order WILL be completed, hopefully this week.

If anyone has a question, don't hesistate to ask.

Thanks,
Ryan

Re: Micro-Driver laser driver *NOW ADJUSTABLE*

Take all the time you want Ryan. Your grades come first, good luck.

-Kendall

Re: Micro-Driver laser driver *NOW ADJUSTABLE*

Ryan your driver are LoVeLyyyy, take the time you want. You Rox !
Its thanks to you that i can make my mod, it's a perfect job mate !
Thanks to you

Re: Micro-Driver laser driver *NOW ADJUSTABLE*

Crap.. I'm 1 week too short to be on your list. :'(

I can assemble myself.. just need the parts. doesn't matter if it's fixed or adjustable. *sigh*

Re: Micro-Driver laser driver *NOW ADJUSTABLE*

Sorry man... I'm actually wiped out of one of the parts needed for either. So, I can't sell more even if I wanted to right now.

I am working on a new version of the driver which has a lower drop out voltage, but otherwise is the same as the previous driver. Once I get that worked out, I'll order parts for it and will allow me to finish up the parts I have for the old style as well.

I will be updating information here when I have any updates.

Re: Micro-Driver laser driver *NOW ADJUSTABLE*

Just got the package today, thanks a ton. Made a mistake the first time, but corrected it in no time!
Thanks for the kind note as well :]
+1 rep from me

Re: Micro-Driver laser driver *NOW ADJUSTABLE*

Update:

Ok, I have a few things going on.

First, I want to go ahead with my new driver. I still have some testing to do to finalize a design and I'll probably send one off for testing by a member here (I'm not looking for offers, I already know who). Once the design is finished, I'll find all the parts I need, figure out the costs and then when I get everything ready, start selling.

But, for these new driver, I am considering having the boards manufactured. I found a US company that seems to have really good prices, but I need to get my board redesigned in their program to get the final price... so that's still a maybe. It would save me a GREAT deal of work, though. However, they take time to manufacture, so if I can get that settled in the next few days, it may still take a week or two to get them.

So, if I'm waiting for boards to be made, I have considered this option: buy enough parts for my old style driver to sell up to maybe 100 for the mean time. But, I don't really have a whole lot of time (and these take a lot of time) to make them, so I'm afraid I would be increasing the price. That price is not yet settled, but it will continue on as the price for the new driver as well.

It will not be a huge difference in the last price, but enough to cover extra costs and to pay ME a little better for my time (its valuable to me!). I'm also considering implementing a bulk discount for items, which previously has been limited because it was a manual process of refunding money or sending invoices, but I'm looking into using an actual shopping cart system, but I'm trying to get a (free) domain set up for it.

Anyway, I appeciate everyone's patience and I know many of you have been desperate for some drivers, but I hope to solve that problem soon I'll post again when I have more news.

Re: Micro-Driver laser driver *NOW ADJUSTABLE*

check out freewebs.com they have a great checkout setup

here my site...
http://www.freewebs.com/laserwaveproducts/

go to products page to see the checkout idea and setup


do you have specs on the new board yet?

Re: Micro-Driver laser driver *NOW ADJUSTABLE*

how are classes going?

just a heads up, once you start selling again. I'm going to buy A LOT (20-50) of your drivers. IMHO you should buy enough supplies for 500+ drivers...

take it easy,
Kendall

Re: Micro-Driver laser driver *NOW ADJUSTABLE*

Classes are going well, I suppose. Lots of work, and I should probably be studying more :

Anyway, you're not alone. I've had so many people ask about these (and large quantities too!), that I'm afraid I'm going to be overwhelmed with orders when I start up again.

There's a couple updates to the status.

1. I have NOT ordered any more parts yet, since I'm still not sure what I'm going to do as far as new/old driver stuff.

2. The tests I have done so far for my new driver aren't really working as well as I would like. I've tested another similar driver that gives similar problems, so I'm not even sure it isn't inherent in the circuit. In that case, it may be a lost cause and I may just stick with the previous design (I haven't heard anyone complaining about it, lol).

3. No matter what I'm doing (old or new drivers), I'm going to get PCBs manufactured to relieve some of the strain on time from etching those as well as drilling, plugging wire, etc. In that case I would just have to apply paste, place and bake and they're done! I'd probably leave the wiring up to you guys, though (the wire would still be included, just not soldered to the board).

4. When am I going to start selling? Still not sure... I have exams in 2 weeks, which in that time I NEED to really study. I'm probably going to order some parts soon, but I'm not going to go into full production probably until AFTER my exams and when I get the PCBs. So, when I get parts, it'll probably be limited to small orders only (ie 5 or less) and only a few per week.

Anyway, I'll post more updates with when I do order parts and anticipate that I will start selling again.

Re: Micro-Driver laser driver *NOW ADJUSTABLE*

Hey there,

I'm sorry if you've gone over this already but I've been away for a while... I seem to recall you mentioning you're going to be switching to a 1117 regulator at some point, and I seem to recall hearing that in the meantime the 1117 can be used as a drop-in replacement for the regulator that's already there...

Is this true? If I assemble mine using a variable APL1117T I have kicking around would it shave a volt off my dropout voltage?

also, on one of my previous orders I went and tried to assemble the driver freehand, like point-to-point without the pcb... it worked well, and I got it down much smaller this way, but I ended up torquing the wire and snapping the mofset's pins off.. How important is this mofset and how would I wire the input without it there?

Thanks!

Re: Micro-Driver laser driver *NOW ADJUSTABLE*

The 1117 regulator ICs are functionally identical (for the most part) to my previous IC. So, yes, any 1117 series adjustable regulator IC will work the same... not sure what your T designation is for, though. Just make sure its not a fixed output version.

As fo the MOSFET, it has no functional part in the driver aside from preventing damage from reversing the input voltage polarity (ie hooking negative to postive and vice-versa). Its not necessary, just adds a layer of protection, otherwise a reversal will very likely damage the IC.

Re: Micro-Driver laser driver *NOW ADJUSTABLE*

Well, somewhat of an update:

Was going to put in an order for the PCBs today, but the sales person I talked to didn't exactly give me a straight story on my student "discount".  Turns out, that in order to use the discount, I have to use their "expanded" service, which costs more.  So, it ends up actually costing more for the same EXACT thing using the discount compared to the non-discounted "cheap" service, but their "cheap" service is still a little pricey for me.  I may end up doing it anyway, but I'm still trying to work out a deal with them.

Anyway, I'll hopefully get a parts order in this weekend, and possibly get some parts next week.  But, as mentioned previously, I will be greatly limited on my production until at least after Oct 6th.  My idea was to limit to 5 drivers per order and up to 5 orders a week.

I'm also trying to set up a website to handle orders with built-in bulk discounts and hopefully simpler to use than the previous Paypal shopping cart thing.

EDIT: Got me a website in the works now. I will look similar to Senkat's website since I'm using Zencart, so don't think I'm trying to rip off his website or something, its just how the Zencart looks The website will be different than my current one and I'm not going to post the link until its ready and I'm ready to start selling driver again. But, I'll update my old site with a link to the new one when that does occur.

Re: Micro-Driver laser driver *NOW ADJUSTABLE*

Parts are ordered.... most expensive order I've had yet, but I also ordered enough for 500 drivers

Should hear back from the PCB manufacturer tomorrow about any discount, but either way, I'll probably just order them... it may be kind of expensive up front, but I'll also end up with about 2300 driver PCBs

Website's coming along well. It takes a lot of configuration to get set up, but hopefully will have some time between tomorrow and when I get parts to be ready for when I start selling again this week.

This week and next week are going to be cramming time for me, though, with my first exam of the year coming up. Also, the following week I have another exam for another set of classes, so I now realize that the week of Oct 6th I'll be studying hard for that too. Ugh... medical school is a pain in the ass. It's just getting in the way of me making drivers ;D