1w laser flashlight

Ok, so I have been making lasers for a while now, and I think I am ready for the 1w 445nm laser build. I have the components, and am trying to find a suitable host. I think I may go with one of jayrob's flashlights, but give me suggestions anyway.

jayrobs kits are great! my personal suggestion for a first 445nm would be a c6 host and heatsink combo. Clif at Cajunlaser.com sells a host kit for $30! I'm personally building five 1.5watt 445nm lasers for Clif very soon. REMEMBER you will need a very good set of safety glasses for 1watt lasers. Have fun and be safe!

Mike

is it okay if i use a 1.4A 3.7v 18500 battery for the 1w laser? the driver requires 1.6A to put out 1.1A

Ya depending on the quality of the batteries. Also you need to choose the correct number of cells for the driver. What driver are you using? For example a groove2 driver is linear thus needing 2 cells to power it. For a flexdrive only one is required.

here is the driver: 1W 445nm blue laser diode driver / 405nm laser driver, AixiZ

based on the price of the driver I would assume that it is a linear or buck driver. I have never used this driver but I know sites like o-like sell it. Maybe one of the VETs that has used it could chime in and provide some extra info on it.

my diode just blew out, and i dont know why... It was heatsinked and everything, but for some reason it just went dim and never went bright again... my setup was an lm317 regulator with 1ohm resistor and a 9volt battery. Any ideas what went wrong?

ESD ? Diodes are very sensitive electronics.
Can you take a picture of the setup ?

And what driver are you using, LM317 or that Aixiz driver ?

lm317t and yes i can take a pic of the setup. I need to find my camera first tho

aidacity154 said:

is it okay if i use a 1.4A 3.7v 18500 battery for the 1w laser? the driver requires 1.6A to put out 1.1A

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Well, no that's not okay, because batteries don't have an amperage. It is nonsensical to say that you have a "1.4A battery". You might have a 1.4 Ah battery (or more frequently called a 1400mAh battery), which implies that it has a capacity of 1400mAh. You may also have a battery that is capable of supplying 1.4A. But then it is equally capable of supplying 0.8A, or 1.1A, and maybe 1.9A, etc. So it won't be labelled "1.4A". Capacity vs Current. They are two very different things.

Figure out what CURRENT your battery is able to safely provide. Do this by multiplying your mAh figure by the C rate of your cell. THEN you know if your battery can provide the correct amperage. So, 1400mAh in a 1C cell, cannot provide 1.6A of output. But 900mAh from a 2C cell can.

aidacity154 said:

here is the driver: 1W 445nm blue laser diode driver / 405nm laser driver, AixiZ

Click to expand...

mikesnap99 said:

based on the price of the driver I would assume that it is a linear or buck driver. I have never used this driver but I know sites like o-like sell it. Maybe one of the VETs that has used it could chime in and provide some extra info on it.

Click to expand...

You can tell it's neither a Buck nor a Linear from the fact that the input voltage is lower than the output voltage. The only thing that it can be is a Boost driver.

aidacity154 said:

my diode just blew out, and i dont know why... It was heatsinked and everything, but for some reason it just went dim and never went bright again... my setup was an lm317 regulator with 1ohm resistor and a 9volt battery. Any ideas what went wrong?

Click to expand...

It's probably not blown. A 9v battery can often only supply < 100mA. It doesn't matter that you set your 317 setup to 1.25 A, there is simply no way your driver can provide that from such a poor power source. That 100mA (or potentially even less, seriously, 9V batteries are garbage), might just be below the lasing threshold. Maybe the battery was able to supple "just enough" current to get above lasing, for a very short period of time.

Get real batteries, and give it another shot. You might be in for a pleasant surprise.

ok so i tried 4 AA batteries this time and it still is very dim, i think im outta luck. Ill try making more lpc or phr builds in the meantime to hone my skills. After that, I may be ready for the 1w

Building 445nm is no different than a LOC or a 405nm diode, it must be bad luck

aidacity154 said:

ok so i tried 4 AA batteries this time and it still is very dim, i think im outta luck. Ill try making more lpc or phr builds in the meantime to hone my skills. After that, I may be ready for the 1w

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Um, 4x AA batteries is around 6V, maybe 7 if they're real fresh (and less if they're NiMH).

So 6V - 1.25V (resistor) - 2.5V (LM317 Dropout) = 2.25V for your diode.

That's not enough voltage (not NEARLY enough) to run a 445.

You keep trying to power this driver with improper batteries. Nobody would expect you to get real output from a 445nm through a DDL 317 driver when you're powering it with 4 AA batteries, or a common 9V.

will a 445nm run well on 8.25v? i have a spare 8AA holder and when i plugged it into the formula : 12v - 1.25(resistor) - 2.5 (lm317) it gave me 8.25. I saw on some other threads that ~4v is a good voltage, but i wanna hear someone's opinion first

aidacity154 said:

will a 445nm run well on 8.25v? i have a spare 8AA holder and when i plugged it into the formula : 12v - 1.25(resistor) - 2.5 (lm317) it gave me 8.25. I saw on some other threads that ~4v is a good voltage, but i wanna hear someone's opinion first

Click to expand...

The other threads were most likely not using this driver.

but would the diode stand up to that kind of power?