Just completed first build, wow.

Just finished my first build, and all I can say is, wow. :drool:

Goggles should be here any day. Until then this thing is being pointed at one thing, and one thing only: the sky.

Took some pics of the build/a quick vid:

Index of /dont_lase_me

Much thanks to jayrob for the sexy host, and a handful of other people out there who helped my noob ass along the way. This is a community full of helpful people. :thanks:

PS. Anybody inadvertently fried any bats with one of these?

And I guess I should mention for anyone who is interested, I configured the flex drive so that it settled around 1225mw (according to the reading over a 1Ohm resister / 4 1N5406 diodes -- thanks Jufran).

Looks good. Did you custom machine the heatsink and the diode pocket? Seems the diode pocket too is made out of copper, right?

Now, careful with the diode's pins - you seem to have bended them quite a lot when you put the insulating tape over all of this, pins are really weak and with just a little fatigue they will snap. Only bend and straighten them twice and they're gone.

Also, is it just me, or is the heatsink not having a set screw of any kind? Do you pressfit the diode's housing into it?

And no, you cannot "fry" batteries, especially not AW ones you seem to have. You just have to be careful not to drive the battery into deep discharge, just recharge it here and there when you're bored, and it'll be cool.

Thanks

jayrob machined the heatsink, pocket and the pill for the host: http://laserpointerforums.com/f64/fs-18650-build-kit-easy-assembly-445nm-blu-ray-red-43857.html

Thanks for the heads up about the pins, except (I know it's hard to see in the picture) they are actually cut quite short intentionally to minimize that type of risk. You can't tell, but there is very, very little pressure on them. I also gently coiled the wires as I inserted the heatsink into the top of the host so as to pick up the slack.

The heatsink does have a set screw.

And for the "bats": I was talking about the little nocturnal flying creatures. I'd feel pretty bad if I popped one of their beadie little eyes.

Oh cool.

If the heatsink is set screw type, I'd advise you agaisnt putting THAT much thermal paste between it.

See, thermal conductivity of copper is, according to the Wikipedia,
401 W/(m·K)


You can notice that this is extremely low, actually thermal paste looks more like a thermal insulator in comparison to the conductivity of the copper.

Paste is meant to be applied in a layer VERY thin so that it only covers microscopic pores that are the imperfections of a metal surface, since ideally flat metal surface, back to back, is the best solution.

Metal to metal contact provides best possible thermal conductivity, so use as less thermal paste as possible.

90% of that paste was scraped off when the module was set in the headsink. I was working on the assumption that excess would be scraped away, and that if the layer was so thin that it was not scraped, it would in fact be a gap, which would conduct less energy than an equally thick layer of paste.

Really nice build.
There are bats around my area but I've never hit one.

Thanks :beer:

Nice build! I have to ask is that a "Pismo" PowerBook G3? It's probably the only computer I've been truly sad to see go when mine croaked.

LtKernelPanic said:

Nice build! I have to ask is that a "Pismo" PowerBook G3? It's probably the only computer I've been truly sad to see go when mine croaked.

Click to expand...

Duuuuuuudeeee it is!!!!! :wave: Overclocked to 600Mhz

I used it as my portable until about 18 months ago. (Those pics taken when the new macbook was out of commission due to an unfortunate smelting accident). The pismo was the computer that I drooled over when I was a kid, and even 10 years later when I finally got one, it was a solid ass machine. I used it for most of college!

I forget exactly how I got mine in the first place... it was about four years ago... Some funny stories with that thing. An ex had a habit of not tightening down the cap on bottoms of liquid... she had put a water bottle in my backpack, which leaked all over the pismo. Good thing I had a spare logic board from my father's old pismo years ago still stashed. It had a capacitor that was busted off, so I used the same one from the fried board. Put it in my pismo, and it worked -- except firewire. Opened it up again, saw that the cap's solder had broken (?) fix it, put back together, and firewire worked! I was surprised.

Anyway, good shit man. My favorite computer in history.

Cool. I still have mine in a drawer. I finally replaced it when the hinges wouldn't keep the lid open. I should try to revive it before I move this fall.