First run for a 445

Although I had not been a member for very long, your inputs to my questions where very valuable to me and helped set me in the right direction for this project, Thank you very much everyone!

I got my 445 working today.. not 1000mW, but It will get there eventually, as right now im only giving it around 4.2V @ 450mA or so (using my variable power supply, both current and voltage regulated, TVS and soft start capacitor additional for LD).
but Im still very impressed with just how bright this thing is, and will start working on making a more portable version via onboard driver, battery, and host.

It is running without a heatsink right now (aside from the heatsink shaped module the diode is in), but it does not heat up much, and can be run for short periods of time, but later on I will machine a proper heatsink for it.

I also need to mess with my camera a bit to figure out how to take clear shots

Thanks again everyone! :thanks:

Watch out with running it without a heatsink. Sure it may not look like it's degrading, but it could just be because it is so bright already that you can't tell.

Thanks for the tip,
I mostly wanted to put this module off for now, now that I know its working as it should.

I will spend the next while making all the nessasary preperations for running at higher powers, including a permanent driver board, and a copper heatsink.

For now this laser goes into an antistatic bag and it gets to rest for a while.