Dorcy Jr. 1W 445nm build! Lots of pics!

Well finally got my dorcy 1W 445nm build up and running after being hostless for a while. The diode is amazing, tears through anything and the colour looks fantastic :san:

It runs on a 3.6V 1300mAh rechargeable, microboost driver set at 1A and a dark horse purple anodized full body heatsink which I've had and been wanting to use for well over a year now!

The build it's self feels great, dorcy host is small and has a nice weight to it, although it does get warm reasonably quickly at this power.

On the to buy list, I need to ditch the stock acrylic lens and upgrade to the one most suitable for a 445nm build, and I'm going to get hold of one of Jay's knurled aixiz focus rings

Now onto pics! All were taken with no smoke or fog in the room























Working on a HD video as well which I'll get up within a few days. Also want to say a special thanks to Morgan for being such a great help, and selling me a fantastic driver and to Dave for giving some advice with a problem I had whilst making it, also for gutting the first GB projector and getting all the diodes sent out quickly. Also thanks to ElektroFreak for organising the first GB!

Nice build, I like very much the dorcy as a host, it has a futuristic looking & good grip.
With a 445nm LD inside it'll be a little wonder
You say 3.6v 1300mah CR123A? Where did you find it? The greater I have is 880mah.

4x 1300mAh CR123 Rechargeable Battery Lithium Ion 3.7V on eBay (end time 08-Sep-10 08:03:41 BST)

They arn't actually in London, they come from China, since it took a while to get mine and would have only taken a day or two if they came from London. They come in around 4.2V when fully charged.

Unfortunately 1300mah 16340 is not possible, you can even find 1800mah on ebay:

1800mah 16340

The best you can get is 800mah with good brand, and rechearchable are 4.2v not 3.6v

BTW: I have the same host and it's also my favorite, the difficulty is to focus it without burning your fingers

Zike said:

and rechearchable are 4.2v not 3.6v

BTW: I have the same host and it's also my favorite, the difficulty is to focus it without burning your fingers

Click to expand...

Check the post above, and yea it is a nice host one of my favourites, but I think the kryton beast is going to take place of my favourite host when they get made.

I know 1300mAh seems un probable, since the dorcy only holds one CR123A, and the driver's set at 1A they really don't last long at all, I'll probabally turn the current down to 650mA on this one, until I can get a bigger host to put the diode in, replace this one with a red or a bluray

Zike said:

Unfortunately 1300mah 16340 is not possible, you can even find 1800mah on ebay: ...

Click to expand...

MMM, not sure about that... Think about a 18650 2600mah (I have some that renders 2450mah) and these are about 2x the size of a 16340, so we could expect to have ~1200mah on it.

BTW thinking about re-modding my 405nm-dorcy to a 445nm-dorcy

Awesome!can't wait for flaminpyro to start my dorcy

magonegro said:

BTW thinking about re-modding my 405nm-dorcy to a 445nm-dorcy

Click to expand...

It is a really nice host, and the power to size ratio is awesome, just be aware if you have it set to 1A, it warms up quite quickly and the battery doesn't last long.

When I had it set to 650mA, the battery lasted a lot longer and it didn't heat up quite so quickly, so it might be something to take into consideration

Yep, I had taken it into consideration, for this build I was of course thinking in a low powered one. Outputting ~200mw of blue from a lil' dorcy is enough for me. Don't make mistake, I use my ~1W labby at home, it is really dangerous to take it out, but sometimes I love to show my friends my new laser. Heheh, this blue-beam will be a heartbreaker between my friends. 200mw is still dangerous, I know, but I usually carry on my pocket a similar powered blu-ray and red, along with a low powered green ~10mw just to point out far things.

BTW low powering these beasts we can get a slightly better beam, apparently lower divergence.

Asherz said:

Well finally got my dorcy 1W 445nm build up and running after being hostless for a while. The diode is amazing, tears through anything and the colour looks fantastic :san:

It runs on a 3.6V 1300mAh rechargeable, microboost driver set at 1A and a dark horse purple anodized full body heatsink which I've had and been wanting to use for well over a year now!

The build it's self feels great, dorcy host is small and has a nice weight to it, although it does get warm reasonably quickly at this power.

On the to buy list, I need to ditch the stock acrylic lens and upgrade to the one most suitable for a 445nm build, and I'm going to get hold of one of Jay's knurled aixiz focus rings

Now onto pics! All were taken with no smoke or fog in the room

Working on a HD video as well which I'll get up within a few days. Also want to say a special thanks to Morgan for being such a great help, and selling me a fantastic driver and to Dave for giving some advice with a problem I had whilst making it, also for gutting the first GB projector and getting all the diodes sent out quickly. Also thanks to ElektroFreak for organising the first GB!

Click to expand...

Congrats on your Awesome build asherz! Im a big fan of the Dorcy hosts. Looking forward to seeing your hd video.

Zike said:

Unfortunately 1300mah 16340 is not possible, you can even find 1800mah on ebay:

1800mah 16340

The best you can get is 800mah with good brand, and rechearchable are 4.2v not 3.6v

BTW: I have the same host and it's also my favorite, the difficulty is to focus it without burning your fingers

Click to expand...

You have to be careful with the Chinese batteries. To say that many of the ratings are optimistic at best would be an understatement! I've evaluated a number of different types for various purposes and found some that are less than half the stated capacity. Cheap lithium ion batteries can be hazardous too, it's not unheard of for them to explode, particularly while charging.

I just realized I've had a Dorcy flashlight, almost this exact size, different style, for years...
Guess what won't be a flashlight for much longer. :eg:

Nice build! Get that AR coated lens ASAP because I and a bunch of others have blown these diodes when those lenses degrade.

Wicked build, that purple anodized heatsink makes it look that much cooler

I'm going to be building a laser very similar to this (basically just a different heatsink) What do you recommend as duty cycle for this? I really don't want to kill my diode.

Also, how do you blow a diode by not replacing the lense?

RadicalxEdward said:

I'm going to be building a laser very similar to this (basically just a different heatsink) What do you recommend as duty cycle for this? I really don't want to kill my diode.

Also, how do you blow a diode by not replacing the lense?

Click to expand...

I'm guessing heat by absorption into the lens and reflection back into the diode. I'm a nub tho hopefully someone with more experience will chime in.