**More Dorcy Jr questions..**

i know i know enough with all the dorcy jr questions!! and i did read other threads about this build, but this is my first build so i thought id make sure id get it right!! maybe i just wasnt clear about the other threads, but im planning on putting the blu-ray in a dorcy.. i ordered the blu-ray with the rkstr micro driver and i understand that i need to use the flexdrive, and the full body heat sink from hark horse, so does this mean i must remove the "guts" from the dorcy? i want to keep it simple since i dont have much knowledge in these territories! i know that the dorcy has a led driver, does this need to be removed? if i do remove it will i have to hook up the on-off button differently? i still havent ordered my flex-drive but i will as soon as i do some practice soldering lol. and my second question, is if i decided to do a red laser build also using the dorcy, what driver would i use? cuz i understand that the flex drive boosts power, so would this be a problem? since the red diodes take less power to operate?  i was lookin to make an open can running at about 420ma. thanks in advanced!!! sorry for the noob questions guys but i appreciate all the help..  

Deepimpact,
If you are using the "Full-body" heatsink, you will have to remove everything inside of the original host. The parts in the head slide out easily, but the "cap" or pill that contains the original-driver is pressed into the top of the battery-tube. I remove these by replacing the battery with something of similar diameter, but longer, such as a deep-socket for removing spark-plugs. A little pressure or light tapping should pop- the pill right out of the top.
You will need a Flex-Drive to boost to the diodes voltage, but it will adjust itself within a range, (for voltage not current), so you may use either a red or violet LD with this driver, the current must be set appropriatly for your given diode of course.
The ON-Off button will work exactly the same as before, since it only interupts the ground connection from the battery, to the host-case.
This is one of the easiest-builds available.

Tha basic instructions for building in the Dorcy Jr-host with a Flex-Drive and a "DH Full-Body heatsink" are as follows:
1.) Remove all of the "guts" from the original-host.  

2.) Connect the "case-pin" to the neg-pin of the diode by bending it over carefully to touch the neg-pin, this will eliminate the need to run a seperate neg-connection for the driver, It will ground through the body of the host/heatsink, this means only 3-solder connections!  

3.) Solder the Flex-drive directly to the diode pins, and add a spring to the "+"=terminal for the battery-connection, (short as possible, you do not have a lot of room to work with),  you are almost done now.

4.) Slide this little package into the heat-sink, tighten the set-screws, the "module is now complete!

5.) Slide the whole module into the Dorcy-head, screw the head onto the body, install battery and you are up and running.  

DH

thanks DH But this "case pin" is apart of the host? and i bend over to - pin of the diode and solder? and im not sure if i understand how the driver will ground through the heatsink.. but im ordering my heatsinks, dorcy, and driver today so i can get this puppy running. thanks for the help dark horse, got the information i needed from the right person! props DH, props!

deepimpact00 said:

thanks DH But this "case pin" is apart of the host? and i bend over to - pin of the diode and solder? and im not sure if i understand how the driver will ground through the heatsink.. but im ordering my heatsinks, dorcy, and driver today so i can get this puppy running. thanks for the help dark horse, got the information i needed from the right person! props DH, props!

Click to expand...

The "case-pin" is the "3rd-pin" on the back of the diode, "+" ,"-" and "case-pin". It is simply a pin that is connected to the case of the diode, (no insulation around the base of the pin). Not all diode have case-pins, but the 803T's do. This allows you to run a case-positive, case-negative or floating-case set-up. The method I described would be the common "Case-negative" configuration. by connecting the case-pin to the negative-pin, you are essentially maknig the entire diode/heatsink/case the negative-connection on the diode. Think of the case-pin, diode, module, heatsink, and host body all as a single-wire, in this case a negative-wire to the diode, the tail-switch disconnects this circuit to turn your laser off.
BTW, welcome to the fun!
DH

ah hah! got it lol thanks for the help again, just need to do a few soldering projects before im ready to try and solder my diode and flexdrive. one more question to clear things up. what do i do with the - on the flex drive where the - from the battery will go? sorry for all the noob questions, im sure ill get the hang of things, thanks. and what would you recommend the flex drive to run at? i was thinkin about 120-130ma. on hightechdealz he said with the rkstr driver runtimes are estamated at about 5min running at 120ma but i imagine with a different driver this might be shortened. thanks,

A couple solder-projects would really help, although this is not the most difficult soldering in the world. I usually carefully "fill" the little-holes in the Flex-Drive with solder, don't let it get onto the componets. Once I have a little-dome where there was a hole, I place a tiny dot of solder on top, place the diode-pins onto the solder-dome, squishing the flux between, and carefully touch the solder onto the dome/pin, just for a second or less.

The "-" contact on the battery-side of the Flex-Drive is not needed at all when the module is inside the host, (the host is the ground-wire). But when you are working on the heatsink/module outside of the host, (like adjusting/measuring the current) you have no ground-wire, so you can just use a wire from the negative-battery-contact to the "-" wirehole in the Flex-drive, hook another wire into your "+" spring and the other end to the positive-contact on the battery, and now you can test the assembly outside of the host. Other than testing, this hole is left empty.

120mA should give you a reasonable life-time with a PHR-803T diode, this sounds like a good setting. I would personally consider 150mA to be a max-setting, and one that some diodes die in less than an hour when run at. At 150mA or more, you should be willing to rebuild your laser, and go through several-diodes to find an extra-powerfull/tough one you can set it for the higher currents.

Duty-cycle will help some, the Flex-Drive will generate less heat than the RckStar as the FD is a booster-circuit and the RS is a linear-regulator. This means that the FD-built laser will not heat-up as fast, your batteries will last longer also.

Good luck on your build,
DH

deepimpact00 said:

ah hah! got it lol thanks for the help again, just need to do a few soldering projects before im ready to try and solder my diode and flexdrive. one more question to clear things up. what do i do with the - on the flex drive where the - from the battery will go? sorry for all the noob questions, im sure ill get the hang of things, thanks. and what would you recommend the flex drive to run at? i was thinkin about 120-130ma. on hightechdealz he said with the rkstr driver runtimes are estamated at about 5min running at 120ma but i imagine with a different driver this might be shortened. thanks,

Click to expand...

I agree with Dark Horse. 120mA is a good setting. As a warning, I just had one of my customers run his Aixiz Rkcstr module that he bought from me for 2 minutes, then wait a while, then run it for 3 minutes, wait a while, then his diode burnt out and was just an LED.

As DH said, each diode is different and most diodes can last for longer amounts of time at 120mA. I think that customer just got unlucky to get a not so strong diode. Because of this I just changed my website to recommend no more than 3 minutes of use at a time.

For reference, That was the first customer of mine out of 20 or 30 that had their diode burn out so quickly with the Aixiz Rkcstr blu ray module.

thanks,
Kendall

alright, thanks guys.. i havent received my flex drive or my dorcy yet, but i did get my fullbody heat sink, (thanks dark horse!! ) as i look at the heatsink its hard for me to imagine that once the flex drive is soldered onto the LD, and the flexdrive is soldered to a spring,isnt going to make contact with the battery, from the looks of things, the driver, and spring is going to sit inside of the heatsink.. but i may be wrong, afterall i am a noob and havent had a chance to look at the FD or the dorcy.. and it looks im going to have to be super carful since the dorcys case is negative ground and i dont got much room to work with for the spring.. does anyone recomend a spring they like to use? i have one out of a small maglite that is nice and tiny.. thanks for all the help guys

deepimpact00 said:

alright, thanks guys.. i havent received my flex drive or my dorcy yet, but i did get my fullbody heat sink, (thanks dark horse!! ) as i look at the heatsink its hard for me to imagine that once the flex drive is soldered onto the LD, and the flexdrive is soldered to a spring,isnt going to make contact with the battery, from the looks of things, the driver, and spring is going to sit inside of the heatsink.. but i may be wrong, afterall i am a noob and havent had a chance to look at the FD or the dorcy.. and it looks im going to have to be super carful since the dorcys case is negative ground and i dont got much room to work with for the spring.. does anyone recomend a spring they like to use? i have one out of a small maglite that is nice and tiny.. thanks for all the help guys

Click to expand...

In the Dorcys, you actually need a fairly-long spring to touch the battery, you will be surprised at how small the Flex-Drive is. Some people have used the spring from the original-pill, but they do not compress much. I usually use a small battery-contact-spring harvested from some old electronics, some springs do not like to solder well though. Do not compress the spring too much, (too long or too strong), or it push the heatsink away from contacting the battery-tube, this will cause a "break" of your ground, (just like the switch does). I am working on finding some better O-rings to send eveyone for the Dorcy-head, which will reatin the heatsink better.
Below is a picture of the componets that might show a little better how things go together. Although this is not a Dorcy Jr-build it works the same-way, with a different-sized heatsink, (that I have been to lazy to put on my web-site). The spring in your Dorcy will need to be longer.
DH

What is the best thing you could do with that heatsink to prevent the flexdrive from wiggling around too much in there to prevent damaging the diode.

Also, I would love to try soldering the flexdrive directly onto the diode like that, but im not quite sure how to go about trying that... any suggestions?

I might be ordering one of your heatsinks soon depending on how long it takes to receive a flexdrive and the heatsink?

I know you dont have much to do with the drives, but do you know by any chance how long a flexdrive will take to ship to somewhere in FLorida?

I only have 3 weeks in florida starting on the 16th of december, and then I have to leave again to a horrible place that loses all of your mail.

laserman22 said:

What is the best thing you could do with that heatsink to prevent the flexdrive from wiggling around too much in there to prevent damaging the diode.

Also, I would love to try soldering the flexdrive directly onto the diode like that, but im not quite sure how to go about trying that... any suggestions?

I might be ordering one of your heatsinks soon depending on how long it takes to receive a flexdrive and the heatsink?

I know you dont have much to do with the drives, but do you know by any chance how long a flexdrive will take to ship to somewhere in FLorida?

I only have 3 weeks in florida starting on the 16th of december, and then I have to leave again to a horrible place that loses all of your mail.

Click to expand...

Once you are happy with the settings on the Flex-Drive, I usually fill in around the edges of the driver-board in the slots with some thermal-adhesive, it holds the board pefectly still-solid. It also heatsinks the driver-board a little. Try this product:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.4579

The Lava-Drive "should" make it to your within a week if Dr Lava has them in stock, as would my heatsinks. Make sure to allow some extra-time for transit during the holidays.

what about keeping the heat sink from sliding out of the end of the host once it is all assembled? i'm guessing apply some thermal adhesive also?

deepimpact00 said:

what about keeping the heat sink from sliding out of the end of the host once it is all assembled? i'm guessing apply some thermal adhesive also?

Click to expand...

The original O-ring does this. I am looking for a supply of larger-ones (thicker), that will do this even better.
Or in the case of the "Sliver-build" shown above, there is a lip at the end of the head, that the heatsinks presses against.

the o ring from where the top of the host screws on to the body of the host? :-?

Hey not sure if this will help you, but I posted my tutorial online at http://www.i-hacked.com/laser

deepimpact00 said:

the o ring from where the top of the host screws on to the body of the host? :-?

Click to expand...

No, the O-ring that was originally under the flange of the original-lens, at the front of the head. I now provide a better O-ring with all Dorcy Jr heatsinks that works perfect, just PM me if anyone needs one, I will send to you for the cost of postage.
DH