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- Jun 22, 2011
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Many lasers are built with buck drivers that are supposed to take two batteries in order to maintain regulation.
I have tested a few of them with a single battery and I often use my 445nm C6 with a single battery to achieve a lower power. It does about 1.3W with two 16340 and around 100-300mW with a single 18650. The power level varies wildly between runs but is very stable after you turn it on (i.e. sometimes it will turn on doing 200mW and sometimes 250mW, but it will maintain that power level as long as it's kept on).
I also added a switch that series a diode with the battery on a 532nm laser and managed to get a low power mode without modifying the module/driver.
I still haven't tried this on my new 500mW 405nm and since the diode is sensitive and the Vf is higher I thought I should ask...
Is this practice safe?
Can it damage the driver or the diode?
I have tested a few of them with a single battery and I often use my 445nm C6 with a single battery to achieve a lower power. It does about 1.3W with two 16340 and around 100-300mW with a single 18650. The power level varies wildly between runs but is very stable after you turn it on (i.e. sometimes it will turn on doing 200mW and sometimes 250mW, but it will maintain that power level as long as it's kept on).
I also added a switch that series a diode with the battery on a 532nm laser and managed to get a low power mode without modifying the module/driver.
I still haven't tried this on my new 500mW 405nm and since the diode is sensitive and the Vf is higher I thought I should ask...
Is this practice safe?
Can it damage the driver or the diode?