7 color pocket spiro CLUB

[MISTERWILLING]

I am working on building Roy's 7 color pocket laser with spiro and wanted anyone else who is to post pictures and their progress. I also will need help along the way because I am very new to lasers. ALSO I will not post pics till i get a camera, got complaints about iphone pics.

Progress: I have a PHR sled sawed down to only the essentials. I also have a plexiglass cover made for it so i can seal it up when I'm done.

I made all three adapters for red blue and green.

Lasers I'm putting in it:8x Blu-ray diode(probably 250mA~300mA) LPC red diode(400mA) and o-like 80~100 module(preinstalled driver). I will be powering red and blu-ray with DDL drivers. They will all be using larryDFW's high power lens' to try and get similar beam except for green, I am having trouble modding my o-like green to use glass lens. I will just leave the glass lens mod for another project.

My build will be a little bit different, I will need some heatsinks so i think Im going to seperate my batteries and lasers in a separate enclosures with a plug so i can split the two parts and transport easily.

(*SOLVED SEE BELOW*) I am also wanted to add adjustabilty to the laser's power because I'm using such powerful diodes. I need input on how i can do this, I dont want to just put a pot on my DDL driver because then i would be able to turn the power up too high on my drivers. Could i put a pot between the DDL drivers and battery so that i can adjust the power without going beyond the current set by my DDL drivers? Also where do i add a pot on the green module so i can adjust it (I know I am not supposed to mess with the pot on the driver that came with it). I would assume just put a pot between battery and driver. If I can just add pots between the drivers and batteries what ohm pots should i use?

Other Questions: What focus should my lasers be at? Should they be focused to infinity or should the be focused closer to allow for more light to be transferred through the optics.
What kind of transmission/reflection should I be getting through the optics? Should it be like 90%-80%-70%... so on. I know this depends on individual factors I'm just wanting a ballpark range of what others have gotten.

Batteries: I was thinking of using three 4.2v 2500mAh 18650 batteries (tell me if this will work). Can i wire all the batteries up in parallel and attach the green driver at one battery(4.2v), the red driver at the two battery point(8.4v) and attach the blu-ray at the end of the parallel wiring(12.6v)?

 

[GoRdOn_B]

Ummmm..


if your "new to lasers" i think you might want to try something less complicated. you would need ALOT of help. the ones that i have seen were made by senior members who machine their own parts. the laser you "described" would definitely not be a pocket sized. to be honest with you your post doesn't really make sense.


""I am also wanted to add adjustabilty to the laser's power because I'm using such powerful diodes. I need input on how i can do this,I dont want to just put a pot on my DDL driver because then i would be able to turn the power up too high on my drivers. Could i put a pot between the DDL drivers and battery so that i can adjust the power without going beyond the current set by my DDL drivers? Also where do i add a pot on the green module so i can adjust it (I know I am not supposed to mess with the pot on the driver that came with it). I would assume just put a pot between battery and driver. If I can just add pots between the drivers and batteries what ohm pots should i use?"



what does that even mean?
i am so lost

you need to do ALOT more research before you can even attempt to try this. use the search button. i wish you luck

 

[MISTERWILLING]

Thats rude

I don't see how its that complicated, besides if I want to attempt to build something of a challenge I shouldn't be shot down. Its just a something to align the beams and a simple spiro, I know its going to take a ton of work/trial and error to get it all right, but I am willing to go through that.

The final unit will be a project box .65" 2" 4" with a battery pack that is .7" thick. So according to my calculations it will be .35" thicker than rog's and same length width. How is that not portable? It will be even easier to fit in pocket because you can separate the battery pack and box and put in 2 different pockets.

That whole section you highlighted is just asking how to add a way to lower mA to the diodes. I know that the DDL driver can use a pot to do this but I want to set the resistance and leave it alone on my DDL driver so that i can't over drive my diodes.
The whole point of having adjustable output on the lasers is so that I can create an infinite amount of color combinations.

I'm sorry if i don't make sense to you but I don't think you should be telling someone they should build simpler projects. I didn't start messing with lasers yesterday, I have put a lot of time into them. I was just stating that I haven't been messing with them since 1988 like some people here.

 

[pseudolobster]

I believe if you put a resistor in parallel with your pot you can cap the max current... Otherwise, alternate approaches involve PWM or something like a microcontroller and a digital pot.

It's doable, but I'd sooner just set it and forget it... Tune it to the colors and intensities you want, then leave it like that.

 

[jamilm9]

Couldn't you place 2 pots in series. Set one to no resistance and set the other one at the amount of ma you want. Then all you have to do is adjust the one with no resistance to change the power.

 

[jayrob]

MISTERWILLING, I don't have the spiro built in mine, but I can tell you that getting perfect alignment is much harder than I thought it would be!

There cannot be any movement at all in the lenses.

I ended up using thread lock. Best visual focus at 75' worked very well for my build. (I was less than 10' away from the dots, so I could see the best visual focus and alignment as I bounced them off a mirror in the other room)

As far as power, I have not tried anything higher than the 9mW green, but I would guess that even a 30mW green may be too much for a 300mW blu-ray. For sure not 80mW's of green. It would drown it out. (Just guessing from what I saw with a 110mW blu-ray vs a 9 mW green)

Anyway, it does sound like a great project. It will be expensive with the 8X. Especially if you go with the glass lenses, but if you go with that kind of power, you will want glass.

I would recommend staying a little conservative on the power because you will not want to have to replace diodes in this build. Not for a while anyway.

These are just some ideas that I am throwing out there off the top of my head, and I could be wrong, because combining beams is all new to me.

I wonder if you could just double the power of what we know works with the color blend, and it would still be the right blend?

Anyway, I will be interested in what you come up with!

Let me know when you are ready for the lenses!
Jay

 

[CRFultz]

The 317 circuit that Mo posted many moons ago has a resister in series with the potentiometer. Some people, me included, just leave out the pot and use the resister alone on the adjust leg of the regulator. Or you can leave out the max current resister and use the pot if it can handle it. It is there to give you a top end limit.

 

[FireMyLaser]

If you can't find a 1/2W pot, get two 1/4W 100 ohms pots and wire them in parallel, then figure out how to mechanically connect the shafts. Now you'll have a 1/2W pot, and 0 to 50 ohms. That will handle up to 400mA at 1.25V. It may sound a bit tricky, but if you can make a portable RGV, you can definitely do this!

 

[rog8811]

I agree with Jay, too much green, (I would guess a 10mw would be plenty) the only way to get around adjusting it is to do away with the existing green driver and replace it with a DDL (LM317) circuit.

As has been stated above you set the maximum possible current for each driver/LD combo with a fixed resistor then you can twiddle the pot to your hearts content without damaging the LD.
On power supplies what you suggest will be a bit dodgy due to the different current draw, you will end up with batteries trying to charge each other due to the mismatched usage.
Jay used 3 supplies...which is the best way.
I used 2 supplies one for green and one for red/BR to save space, it works but is not ideal.

Good luck
Regards rog8811

 

[MISTERWILLING]

Sweet

Thanks for help so far, I have figured out what I will do for adjustability on DDL drivers.
I will also takes jay's advice and use threadlocker when I focus my lenses.
I know that the green will be over powering when at full output. I just want to have the ability to use this as a bright green pointer as well as all of the other colors. Most of the time I will have to green turned down in 10mW so I don't overpower the other lasers.
I hear what you are saying about the batteries, it would work but my batteries would drain at different rates. I guess I'll re think this, I may just use 6 3.6v cr123 and have diff power supplies for each laser (3 for blue 2 for red and 1 for green). This would be the same size as using the 3 4.2v 2500mAh 18650 batteries but each laser would have its own battery pack for equal drain.

 

[sightfx]

Not so Pocket 7 Color...

My Build will be a bit bigger but I think the changes are worth it.

I'm adding some heat sinks to the mix so I can raise the life expectancy a bit. I will be adding a GGW-H20L Blue Ray and LOC diodes when they get here. My Green is a DX 200mw that I think is a good 150 or so. Hard to say with no meter yet. in any case I'm sure it is too strong so I will either have to get another one or modulate this down when I want to. The plan is to modulate all 3 and add stepper galvos for more overall control.

I didn't have a PS3 but this dichro from a SF-AW210 seems to do alright from a visual test and the fit is perfect. (atleast some good can come from that sled) If anyone has a this sled and a meter I would be interested to know the ~ power loss with the 3 wavelengths.

For the red and blu ray mounts I used drilled out rivit turned down a little and a rubber washer pressed between the lens and bezel. The bezel will later be fixed to the sled so a bit of flex here shouldn't matter.

That is as far as I have gotten with mine.


Good luck with yours.

 

[rog8811]

Aha! pop rivets, good thinking, let us know how it pans out, the stumbling block for a lot of people has been the adaptors.

Regards rog8811

 

[sightfx]

Quick Update

Happy Day

My GGW sleds are here. The Blu-Ray harvesting was a success and it is safely tucked away in one of my heat sinks. A nice surprise was this great little heat sink cap that came with the sled.

Time to go after the Red.

 

[hydrogenman15]

rivet adapters

Aha! pop rivets, good thinking, let us know how it pans out, the stumbling block for a lot of people has been the adaptors.

Regards rog8811

Pop rivets are what I was using too! I glued mine to the front of the focusing ring because i was worried that it might move around. I suppose that it wouldn't really matter once the glue dried.

--hydro15

 

[sightfx]

I ended up ditching the rubber washer and just epoxied the pop rivet to the inside. If I screwed the lense in tight you would start to see some of the washer blocking the edges of the beam. Can't have any of that.


-SightFX

 

[Alexizupinhea]

Yeah, those pop rivets look great. The adapters (as rog said) have been the only thing holding me back from trying this. I may start this project now