My first 100% Custom Build (all by myself) 2.5W 445nm Blue Laser

Hey Guys I'm new to this forum and this is my first Thread, sorry for my bad grammar I come from Germany

I started to think about my own burning laser long ago but in the last three months this feeling become much stronger so i decided to finally build a ~2W 445nm Blue Laser
because green Lasers are really expensive and red lasers are to weak (only around ~350mW) And besides i like blue very much so it was decided :angel:

Since this was my first build and I like challenges, I wanted to build, design and construct everything by my own (driver,host,heatsink).

First i thought of a good driver and i come to the L200 Voltage and Current Regulator, the L200 is a very good IC with a lot of features like:
Over voltage Protection, Short Circuit Protection, Thermal Overload Protection ...
And the total cost of this IC and the needed resistors, diodes and capacitors are around a few bucks so this is a very good and cheap solution !



I added a simple 1N4148 Diode for Reverse Polarity Protection and a 22µF Capacitor parallel to the M140 diode this will protect my precious Laser Diode from getting
voltage spikes who can easily kill it :cryyy:

Around 30 minutes of soldering time and the driver was finished and ready for some load tests



First Test with 4,6V and 1,7Amps everything runs perfect and smooth YES

The L200 needs around 2V higher input voltage then output voltage and because of that I'm bound to use two 18650 Li-Io Batteries but I have no Problem with that

I added a small heatsink (recovered from scrap Computer Parts) to the L200 cranked the input Voltage to 8,4V (because the two 18650 will give me that full charged)
and the Amps to 1,9 and tested the whole circuit for 30 minutes

This was the result after 30 Minutes:


The Heatsink of the L200 reached 126° Degrees and the output current sunk a little bit to 1,83A due the thermal protection of the L200 that's acceptable
(This driver is getting really hot because the M140 only needs around 4,6V and the input voltage is around 8,2V)

Now I started to think about a good host for my Laser I knew it would be really big but I didn't thought that the host will be this BIG


I designed and modeled the complete thing (heatsink+adapter plate+driver host+battery chamber+cap) in SolidWorks which took me about 8 Hours :yabbmad:

After all drawings were done and printed I walked in our manufacture hall and started to cutting the raw material


At this time I already received my M140 Didode with Copper Axsis Module and the 405-G2 Lens Big thanks goes to DTR visit his shop for some awesome items he sells :thanks:




Machining the heatsink on our very expensive high quality lathe



The finished heatsink with already pressed in module



I used an excellent heatsink plaster for this !


and for this too


nearly finished i was excited like a child on xmas


The whole thing is really huuuuge


I decided to go without an external switch my "switch" is a special screw with an really rare and special thread on it you can't buy anywhere
This acts as a safety feature ! The Screw must be screwed in the cap of the Laser to turn it on !



Some Beam shots with lights on


Those are absolutely a must !!!


A shot at night in the sky


Some Specifications:
I'm running the diode on 4,8V and 1,9Amps a friend of mine got a Laser Bee the Output Power peaked at 2470mW and settled at 2340mW after 10 minutes.
A few words about the duty cycle the heatsink capability of taking heat away is just incredible the diode produces around 7Watt thermal energy
and this is just a joke for this huge heatsink the duty cycle is almost continuously after 30 Minutes the heatsink warmed up at 45°Degree and the
Thermal Overload Protection of the L200 slowed the current down to 1,6Amps
This is great


I hope you enjoyed the review !
Best regards
Th3dArKn3o



A little Video for you
2.5W Blue Laser at Night - YouTube



Edit: 26.01.2013

Here is a Picture of the complete driver circuit I built if anyone is interested



This is the whole Laser disassembled



You can see the focus point in this Beamshot very well



I polished the whole Thing and now I'm itching to anodize the Heatsink black and chrome plate the rest ...





I used the Laser now for around 20 Hours and the Diode still lives and is happy @1,9A :na:

Looks good, but I can't see much unless you resize the pictures so they don't make my 1920x1080 monitor have a horizontal scroll bar. :crackup:

ARGLaser said:

Looks good, but I can't see much unless you resize the pictures so they don't make my 1920x1080 monitor have a horizontal scroll bar. :crackup:

Click to expand...

Uups now i see it
I will fix it immediately

Congrats! Very nice build! Just a couple of suggestions: remove the F words in the text.. and resize those pics! Anyway :gj: +1 :beer:

Edit: Pics should be max 800 x 600.

... fixed

Nice. Fluke 87V's it looks like (have a couple also among my MANY meters including a new Fluke 381
Have to agree on the pic size. I'm also on a 25" monitor at 1920x1080 and they are WAY too big (not that I don't appreciate your pics!).
Thanks for sharing.

Pretty nice work build everything on your own, from scratch.. Its amazing how bright these 445nm are , Enjoy and be Safe :beer:

OMG. Definitely great workmanship. Congratulations.

I want those machines too. That is Deutsche Gründlichkeit !
Good job for building a host from scratch.

Blord said:

I want those machines too. That is Deutsche Gründlichkeit !
Good job for building a host from scratch.

Click to expand...

Thanks I appreciate it !
The lathe costs around 2 Million $

Th3dArKn3o said:

Thanks I appreciate it !
The lathe costs around 2 Million $

Click to expand...

Two million? 0.0

Awesome job on the laser!:wave:

Greetings,,

Very good job you did there! :beer:
The host really looks like an Old Style Hand Grenade!

Jim

offroadfreak8582 said:

Two million? 0.0

Awesome job on the laser!:wave:

Greetings,,

Click to expand...

Yes 4 Axsis CNC Lathe from Weiler I could have done so much more on the Design/Optics of the Host with my possibilities
but at the end this project consumed to much time and i just wanted to get it done before my Xmas Holiday begun ...

Tell us more about that switch. It's a screw that needs to be screwed in and out to turn it on and off?

start a production run?

That output .
A pretty rare 445 module amiright?