First attempt at class 4 laser build

Hi all.
I been reading these forums for a while now and finally I've decided to sign up, make a thread, and build a laser.

Ton of great info on this thread and helpful people.

Now I am thinking about building a 3 watt 445nm laser pointer, here are the things that I am considering.

Firstly goggles. Now i'll admit when I first came to these forums I was ignorant to the dangers of high powered laser. I just wanted a cool toy.

After going though these forums I realized how easily I could have hurt myself, friends, family, or even other innocent bystanders.

So the first order of business is safety and goggles.

And for goggles I was thinking about getting these Eagle Pair® 190-540nm Standard Laser Safety Goggles.

I'd like to know your thoughts. Are these any good? Will they be sufficient for a 3watt 445nm laser? I did see a video done by Laseerer for a 2 watt laser.

Next on to the actual laser. for the diode I am thinking about getting DTR's 445nm 9mm Diode In V4 Copper Module W/Leads & 405-G-2 Lens standard barrel. or extended barrel? Is there a diffrence?

As for the laser driver, FS: X-Drive V6 Mini by laseerer set to 2.2a.

And finally the host. want one that runs two 3.7V Li-Ions for the diode. 2x 18350 LiMn batteries. Not too sure yet what host I want. Any suggestions?

Anyways thanks in advance for the help

I will try to address each question:

1. Eagle Pair Safety Glasses are great, and will protect your eyes well.
2. Your diode choice is good, really the only option for 3W 445nm Build.
3. Get the standard barrel size. The extended is inconvenient and unwieldy unless your host recesses the diode module a lot.
4. The driver setting is good, and the driver is a good one as well. Make sure to heatsink it to avoid overheating.
5. For the host you will need to make sure that your driver is intended to run off of 2 Li-Ions. I cannot remember if the X-Drive V6 Mini is meant for one or two Li-Ions right now. Additionally, make sure to get a fairly dense host. Due to the power these things put out, a small host will overheat quickly. Also, keep battery runtimes in mind. Bigger batteries such as 26650 Li-Ions will give you long runtimes between having to charge the battery, but small batteries such as 16340's will deplete rapidly.

Thank you very much for the quick reply and for the great information.

So the goggles, diode, and driver are good.


Taken from Lazeerer's x-drive mini
Originally Posted by mark-in-dallas
I've used these drivers in a couple of builds now, and I absolutely love them!!!!!

They have become my favorite driver and what I will use in any build that will fit 2 cells

Stable, cool, and easy to work with. What more could you ask for from a driver?

I have tried other drivers, and been dissapointed in every one of them. Flexdrivers are a decent single cell boost driver, but those little batards f.....g hate me and if I didn't HAVE to use them I'd drive stakes through their evil little resistors!

The X-Drivers are phenoemenal and for any of you that havent tried one in a build yet, I'd highly recommend giving it a shot.

Oh wait, if everyone were to start buying them supply and demand issues could pose a problem and I might be left out in the cold.

Yeah on second thought, you might not want to waste your time with these. What the hell was I thinking :

lazeerer, once again I'm blown away by your talent!



So I believe that the mini can accommodate two Li-Ions. Correct me if I'm wrong

For host I was looking at sinners magic sticks, looks beautiful and robust. A bit pricey though. Any sugesstion?

I saw one with a c11 host(Was nice, but looking for a more unique host) also what was called the 3W Menace(a bit too bulky for my taste)

Check out my Magic Stick build HERE.

Wow! Congrats on such a beautiful laser build. I really love the look of your Liberty Cannon. And even though it took quite some work I'll bet it was worth every second once everything came together!

Oh yes, very much worth it!!! It is my biggest and baddest laser, and I don't see myself parting with it.

Survival Laser C6 Host Assembly
heat sink material option: Copper extended and tampered
Battery Extension Tube- Black Anodized Aluminum for 2x 18650.
Thought?

sounds good.
where are you going to buy the driver from?

Thinking about getting the x-drive mini from Lazeerer. spec at 2.2a.
Or maybe from DTR then it'll be attacted to the laser diode already

Going to get the Skyray Host Kit W/ Heat Sink from Zero Lasers.
Any other suggestions for the laser?

The Skyray will take two 16340's. you will not have long runtimes so stock up on batteries!

The site said the the host was modified to fit 2x18350 will those offer me longer runtime? and about how much run time do you think I can get?

I am not sure. Depends on how good your 18350's are. My AW 18350's are rated for 700mAh. So:

Running at 2.2A, your 700mAh in a perfect world would last: 700/2200= .318 hrs, which is 19 minutes. Unfortunately, batteries are not so efficient that they can handle such a high draw and still keep their rated mAh. So you could probably run it for 75% of what you could in a theoretical world....maybe down to 50%.

So runtime of 10-15 minutes is what you would be looking at with high quality 18350's. With your standard chinese 18350's you will probably see 7-10 minute runtimes. They will quote a higher mAh, but that is marketing, and they wont be able to handle the draw as well.

Just what I see when I calculate it out. If I am wrong someone will come along and say so

So I am getting a Ehgemus host for single 26650 battery. And I was wondering about the FMT V2 buck/boost driver 2.1A; since I'll need a boost driver for the single battery host.

How is it used? I mean is it a driver that can be made either buck or boost so i'll need two? Or can it perform both roles at the same time so I only need to get one?

Any help is greatly appreciated:thanks: