OPT Lasers LPLDD 5A Driver w/ Pics

I just got this OPT Lasers LPLDD 5A driver in to compare against my Blackbuck 8. I haven't done a side-by-side comparison yet, but I did take some pictures of the driver in action.

The pictures here are with it hooked up to my NUBM44 prototype rig.


The driver as it arrived. A little bit bent, but no biggie.


All octopus'ed up, and with heatsink attached.


You can see here, it is set to 4A.


Adjustment pot set at about nine o'clock position.


Dial at twelve o'clock position.


Dial all the way up. It was so bright I had to point it at a blacker spot in the fireplace!


Testing out the laser tube. This is again with the driver set to 4A, turned all the way up. It claims to be OD4+ and seems to do a pretty good job blocking the light, except for leakage around the edges, which I'll need to find a solution for.

After doing all the testing--around 1-2 minutes worth--I measured the temperature of the various components. The TO220 packaged thing (voltage regulator?) got quite hot, up to around 60 C, but with no noticeable change of performance.

Videos too:
Testing out sweeping up to full power at 4A.

Vaporizing some wax.

Thanks for reading!
:beer:

Very nice, glad your diode was still good. Like your laser tube never seen one before. Thanks for the pics, good read. :gj:

Nice to see our driver in action
Overall the heating part is the mosfet. The amount of heat is connected with the voltage input you use. So if you use 5V diode and 12V input it will heat
(12 - 5) * current so 35W!!! But if you use input voltage close to the diode voltage the amount of heat is much lower. Additionally for the mosfets 70-80 degrees is normal working temperature. They can handle as high temperatures as 150 degrees.

What is the main application you would liek to use the diode?
I can help you with some issues connected with modulation speed for example (if needed).

Hi Mateusz! Thanks for the info. It's good to know that the temperatures I'm seeing are actually below the expected operating temperature.

The intended use of the diode is in a burning / vaporization application -- primarily of waxy materials. I was able to test out the modulation feature the other day, and it's working as expected. One piece of feedback I have for the driver is that it would be really handy to have a +5V reference pin, as I've had to use my Arduino to provide the low voltage source.

Cheers! :beer:

Thanks for the idea, I will think about it with next batch order, but this would requitre additional voltage stabilisator. Now all the elements are powered from the input voltage and there is no stabilisator inside - to make it as small as possible.

We have reference pin (TEST) in our LPLDD5A + PID so a little more complicated driver. But in your case I do not think it is needed

I bought one of those drivers from him too, better have a good heat sink, made the mistake of running "just for a short time" without one, ouch that MOSFET got hot!

Mateusz, I like your avatar, but mine is better

Alaskan, you are right, but I couldn't steal your avatar now so I'm waiting for the new product and I will be first thi time

This drivers are not dedicated for laser pointers but they give very high speed comparing to the buck/boost ones. In some situation when the supply voltage is close to the diode voltage this drivers are really good choice. For example 7,2V from lithium and then green or blue diodes.