DIY Laser Glow Aquarius, sort of

[Gryphon]

Using an old Laser Glow Elecra as a host and a Dragon Lasers' 473nm module I've put together an LG Aquarius equivalent but in a black and gold host rather than a Blue and gold one. Having never purchased from Dragon Lasers before It did feel a little weird wire transferring $400 to China but the module showed up several weeks later without issue.

The module, driver and 18650 battery holder came in a bag with a cover over the module aperture

Some lovely 473nm photons, its brighter than I was expecting

30mW, not too bad!

Assembly was straight forward since the host is designed for this size module, the only issue I ran into is the normal 3V CR2 battery doesn't quite have the mustard to power the laser. Thankfully a rechargeable equivalent provides 4.2V fully charged

I'm very pleased with the final product

The LED on the driver shows through the rubber button, I don't think this was a feature on the original Aquarius

Thanks for looking!

 

[julianthedragon]

Very nice! 30mw of 473 in this host is a dream come true. I have the CNI 473nm in the blue host from DL, essentially the same as the Aquarius, and it outputs a humble 2mw. Definitely no driver LED visible through the button, it's a metal button in fact.

I wonder if I should try a rechargeable in my unit, since the CR2's are a pain to replace at $15 a pop every few uses..lol

 

[paul1598419]

Nice job! The host looks small for a 473 nm laser. Does it get hot quickly?

 

[RA_pierce]

It's cool that after all these years, DPSS 473 nm is still so rare.
Did you end up soldering the driver directly to the diode?
I did so for my 589 nm CNI module and it was scary just touching it with the iron...

 

[Gryphon]

Very nice! 30mw of 473 in this host is a dream come true. I have the CNI 473nm in the blue host from DL, essentially the same as the Aquarius, and it outputs a humble 2mw. Definitely no driver LED visible through the button, it's a metal button in fact.

I wonder if I should try a rechargeable in my unit, since the CR2's are a pain to replace at $15 a pop every few uses..lol

A metal button? I thought they were all rubber, good to know. CR2's are absurdly expensive so the rechargable is a nice alternative, no clue if the driver in the factory Aquarius will be happy with the extra voltage, I imagine they are all the same but I don't know for sure.

Nice job! The host looks small for a 473 nm laser. Does it get hot quickly?

It gets a little warm after a full minute of use but nothing crazy

It's cool that after all these years, DPSS 473 nm is still so rare.
Did you end up soldering the driver directly to the diode?
I did so for my 589 nm CNI module and it was scary just touching it with the iron...

Sure did! Snipping the wires to directly solder the driver was terrifying even with anti-static measures. When soldering the push button to the driver board I had a scare thinking I accidentally bridged two components that should have been separate. After much struggling to remove the solder bridge, I saw the pcb trace connecting them underneath lol