Another 9mm Build

This was my first go with a 9mm 445nm diode and after this I'll never be going back to m140's :yh: In this build I really emphasized heat transfer because this build pushes 2.2A and I've been impressed with it. It screams photons. I've seen what an M140 with a G-1 can do and this dwarfs my M140, easily burns wood at 10ft.

The best way for me to describe it is when I built my first M140 I said "This is a dangerous toy" ... When I finished this 9mm build I said "This is dangerous"



I started with a gutted SL host, 9mm in a copper module, X-drive set to 2.2A, G-1 lens, and arctic silver.



I put the driver pretty close to the diode so it fit in the heat sink. I put electrical tape on it after soldering and touch melted it with the iron.



I put plenty of arctic silver in the host so the sink can transfer the heat out more efficiently.



At this point I took a risk. I knew that arctic silver can conduct somewhat but I still wanted to use it to attach the driver and module to the sink. I mixed it with a non conductive epoxy and everything has been running great. I also put straight arctic silver on the back of the diode for improved heat movement.



It got a little messy at the front but I sacrificed an acrylic lens to protect the module threads and I cleaned it up after the epoxy started to set.



Completed, and of course I added my own personal touch. No particular reason I put a cross on it I just wanted to, I don't want to talk about religion in this thread, or online in general.





And shots of it running. My camera didn't know what to do with some of these pics but they still look pretty cool.



From left to right: 405nm 450ma 12X, 445nm 2.2A 9mm, 445nm 1.8A M140


And afterglow Hehe...



Thanks for reading, Shout out to all who made this build possible.
Lazeerer
DTR
johnawesley
flaminpyro - For the awesome Triple Trip focus ring on my 405nm C3.

Very nice build. Glad you like it.:beer:

Heatshrink > electrical tape

You want to kill vampires with that laser??!!! I mean it is sorta close to UV light that they are afraid of and the crest adds the "Holy" property to it.

2 in 1 dude, ultimate vampire killing weapon!

P.S. Edit 3 in 1, the shape!!! It's perfect to jam into the heart if the battery runs out!

gillza said:

P.S. Edit 3 in 1, the shape!!! It's perfect to jam into the heart if the battery runs out!

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He'd have to widdle himself a wooden focus adapter:yh:

Lol, I'm loving this build more and more now :yh:

Perhaps get a silver focus adapter with some rich mahogany inlaid triple trit style and get full coverage for vampires and werewolves.

Very nice build. I am in the process of making my own 9mm build, just waiting on the host now, and its going to run a 2.2A X-Drive as well. I bench powered it up and got it running and my diode seems to be a beast. I got it all the way up to 3.1A while inside a giant active cooled heatsink and the diode was just barely over room temp. I really need to get myself an LPM. Anyway, I'm glad to see another person make a successful 9mm build with the same specs I am building. I too considered a SL stainless steel host but I decided to go with a Ultrafire L2 with a custom Flaminpyro copper heatsink and driver heatsink rig. I already run an M140 in a SL stainless so I wanted some variety although you have to love the heft those hosts have for their size.

Gratz on the build bro.

BTW, it may kill werewolves and vampires but, will it work with zombies? :thinking:

The diode LED'd this weekend Not exactly sure of the cause since I know I didn't overheat it. Maybe pushing 2.2A isn't such a good idea.

could be the way you placed your driver? did you even heatsink the IC chip?

Ugh sorry to hear your 9mm is :angel: Duke



I've been watching a lot of these 9mm builds like yours these past couple of months, following the data & seeing how long some of these last at currents above 2A. Can you tell me, in the 8 days (guessing from OP date) that this laser was alive & kicking - what were you average duty cycles when you used it? How warm/hot did that SL host with the copper sink get on some of it's busiest uses?

Sorry again to hear about your loss, I've got 1 9mm buried in my circuicemetary so I know its painful. My 9mm was only about 2 wks old, 2.1A & 1 min duty cycles in a huge heatsink & it never got warm.

I'm trying to get a better understanding on what % of these diodes can handle ~2.2A & for how long, especially because a few of them have hit 3W.

My condolences...

Yeah awillis I sinked it a lot, not that the driver really even needed it, it's supposed to be about 93% efficient.

I finished the build about 3 days before I posted it and probably ran it about 2min or 3min a day. I kept the duty cycle to a max of 30sec on and a min of 3min off. The diode seemed to put out a lot more heat than an M140 pushed at 1.8A, the host got pretty warm after 30sec. When it LED'd it was about 10sec into running it.

TheDukeAnumber1 said:

The diode LED'd this weekend Not exactly sure of the cause since I know I didn't overheat it. Maybe pushing 2.2A isn't such a good idea.

Click to expand...

Sorry to hear and a moment of silence.... I understand how of a pain in the butt it is, but binning these diodes only makes sense. If you see diminishing returns at 1.8A then guess what 2.2 is not the setting that that diode want to be at for longevity.

Some of these are very happy at 2.0A and up, but that's a lot of current for any diode. Until you have more than 1 9mm set it up conservatively so you always have one in the collection... on the second one, now you can get into the danger zone, what ever it is to that diode specifically:evil:

the ic needed heat sinking. And like you should probably have done something else with the driver to insure that it wouldn't short out which could of happened.

Heatsinking for an X-Drive at that current isn't required. The X-Drive is super efficient and creates very little heat. The only reason one may heatsink them is to gain a little duty cycle for those that like to push them for longer periods. He did however make contact to the driver using excessive amounts of epoxy that was mixed with arctic silver. While I would not have advised the arctic silver and suggested arctic alumina instead, I would guess the amount of conduction would be extremely low so it probably isn't a problem. If the driver was going to short out I would think it would have done it almost immediately though it is possible that it could take damage over time. Overall opting for alumina based thermal epoxy would have been safer.

I've been out of lasers for a little while now. I stopped checking in at LPF right about the time we saw the direct green diodes. It's awesome to come back and see that we have 9mm diodes capable of doing an easy 3W (with an included lens no less). Can't wait to get my hands on one of these.