Blue laser driver board

[drdavis47374]

I received this board with some sketchy directions from laserdiy.com. after looking at the complaints on this site about the above I guess I was lucky to get anything. Any help on how to hook it up to the diode and batteries would greatly appreciated .I Also received the heat sink and what I thought was the lens, the small part, but it has no lens. Is this part supposed to have some sort of lens in it?
As you can guess I'm a complete newbie to this, All I wanted to do is build the KipKay cheapy lighter burner for my nephew. Again any help you can give me on this would greatly appreciated .

Dave Davis

 

[Blord]

Don't put your mail adress on a public site. You will be spammed to the death.

Btw do you have solderings skills ? You need that to connect everything up.

 

[drdavis47374]

No problem soldering, just need to know where.

 

[drdavis47374]

Should I post this question somewhere else on this forum? or is this to hard of a question to answer.

 

[JaiNobeZ]

This is a very easy question to answer, but how old is your nephew? For a first time laser-owner the thing you're trying to build is horrifyingly dangerous. Read around the forum a bit first and you'll find your answers.

 

[drdavis47374]

I've read around the forum, but you have to agree that this is a lot of information to wade through for such a simple question. BTW my nephew is 30 years old and very aware of what I'm building. Both He I have owned several lasers and are very safety conscience, owns the proper goggles and knows the proper handling of this type of laser. This is my first DIY laser and am trying to enjoy the experience. However the person I purchased the parts from has refused to let me in on how all the stuff goes together. If it is possible to let me in on how the parts are soldered together I would greatly appreciate it. If not I will look elsewhere for the information.
I don't mean to sound angry but nothing bothers me more than ordering something that requires assembly only to get it with very vague instructions on how to hook it up. After browsing the internet all roads point to this forum for any answer that has to with lasers and laser pointers.

Thanks for hearing my rant, I am looking forward to any help you guys can give me.

Thanks
David

 

[JaiNobeZ]

Ehhh... It was the "I am a complete newbie to this" that made me wonder - in addition to the fact that you referenced a Kipkay project (Kipkay is frowned upon aroud these parts).

And, on further inspection, that is a question you should have posted because personally I have no idea how you connect those... Looks weird. I'm no expert in this to be honest. I'd reccomend you change the thread title to something that indicates that you need help connecting the diode to the driver rather than just the name of the driver, that'll make it more likely that some helpful, knowledgeable person will be able to come in here and help.

Also, could I have a link to the driver on the website? That may get us closer to finding the answer. And, final question, do you both have goggles?

 

[drdavis47374]

Re: Help soldering diode to driver board

Here is the link to the site. Yes we both have goggles.

Thanks
The ultimate source for Lasers and Accessories

 

[Eudaimonium]

Hello mister Davis.

You have made a few mistakes so far, but nothing we can't amend for.
First of all, following anything Kipkay says is a terrible idea. Jainobez pointed out he's frowned upon, and for good reason.

Second, you probably got ripped off for that small driver board from that site - it's grossly overpriced and overall, terrible. Fits Kipkay image.

Now, let's get you set.

You will need 6 rectifier diodes (1n4000 series, anything between 4001 and 4007 will do), and one 1ohm resistor. You will hook them all up in series.
This is called a test load. It will give you the ability to measure the current output and test the driver without actually putting any real laser diodes at risk.

You will connect the test load as if you'd connect a diode on the driver's output, and measure the voltage drop across 1ohm resistor - as you may or may not know, due to Ohm's law, you will get a direct number usable as miliamperes.

Using that, you need to set your driver (with a small potenciometer on it), to output somewhere around 100mA - under assumption you are using a PHR 803 laser diode. Let me know if you are using any other diode, for now I'm going with assumption it's 803.

Now, when you power the diode, it may or may not come as a shock to you, that it's not actually blue, nowhere close to blue, and nowhere close to being as visible and bright as you may have seen it on Kipkay's video.

With glass lens, it should output somewhere around 80 to 100mW, which will be enough to do burning tricks like lighting matches or poping balloons, but it will not be enough to reliably start a cigarette.

Next, you don't have a heatsink - what you have there, where diode is, is called diode housing, it merely holds the diode and lens in place. It's mass it too low to act as a heatsink. While heatsink is not obligatory, you'll need to adhere to strict duty cycle (I'd say somewhere around 15 seconds ON time, followed by 30 seconds OFF time)

Finally, the batteries. Using two petty button cells will give you about 7 seconds of runtime on one set of batteries. We usually use lithium ion cells, they vary in size from AAA sized ones (even smaller ones exist, but are rare) to huge 32600 size cells.
Look up lithium ion batteries and their specifications around interwebz a little.

Good place to buy some is DealExtreme.

If you have any further questons, feel free to send me a Personal Message instead of opening a new thread.

 

[drdavis47374]

Thanks a ton for the above information, I'll get right on building the test load. I still have no idea where the diode and power are hooked up on the board. If you know that let me know and I'll get to building.

Thanks
Dave

 

[BShanahan14rulz]

The line with the two dots on each end looks like it was meant for a spring. I'm guessing that would be the - and the outer isolated dots are the +, except that they don't look continuous with each other.

And what's the deal with the large diameter solder pad under the switch?

 

[n2stuff]

Here's a test load circuit....Laser driver - It can be done

And some more good info....http://laserpointerforums.com/f42/meta-topic-pinout-performance-actual-ld-26417.html


Scott

 

[Kookapeli]

I think he want's to know what the diode out + & - are etc there doesn't seem to show anything on that board !

 

[JaiNobeZ]

Yeah, that was why I was hesitant to provide the info. Eudaimonium did. The first problem is the weird terminals on that bizzare looking driver.

 

[n2stuff]

I think he want's to know what the diode out + & - are etc there doesn't seem to show anything on that board !

Yup I know that. I was just showing info so he can build a test load so he can check the driver when finds out. Better to test with the test load than the diode.

 

[Kookapeli]

I think the 2 in the middle are for the contact spring for if you're using the button on the board, that's just a guess, seems logical tho ... maybe ???