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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

Making a 6.6W blaster 465nm

Joined
Feb 12, 2016
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I started a thread about making this device in 445nm section, but probally here is the better place for other blues than 445nm, so I continue here.

I do not get how NUBM07e can produce 3W at 2.3A like stated here on LPF, both I have received only gave 2.5W ouput at 2.3A and 3.5W at 3.5A, maybe they were underspec?
So, in short, I combined them with waveplate-PBS-3 CL set in a compact device, now they produce 6.6W combined output, beam visible indoors at day, and spot is round, ca 7mm on a wall 5m away.
Electrically, both LDs are driven in series from one CC+CV driver set at 3.5A, 8.9V.

Now I want to make a blaster. I found a gun-type host being an end of the line handdrill with 12V Ni-Cd battery on sale for 13EUR. Unfortunalely ones with Li batteries are still too expensive. Body is plastic, but this device has already survived 1min on, 3min off duty cycle for 5 times, so it is OK.
There is only place for device itself and I am still not sure if this funny driver can fit inside of this host (hope it will), but I have replaced former big Volt/ammeter by a small Ammeter only, and put a small fan on top. In addition, a thermometer will be attached by adhesive tape to the side: the pieces are on pic 1.

What I do not understand: When ammeter is fed from a separate battery before I pull the trigger (pic. 2), 3.5A are held by this (not properly for LDs) driver perfectly (pic. 3).
But if I attach feed wires of this ammeter to the driver input instead (so it turns on only at the moment current starts to go through LDs), the current jumps to 5A and even more (pic. 4). Why is this? First I thought it was the ammeter what showed incorrect number, but also LPM showed 7.3W output in this moment compared to 6.6W at 3.5A. What means the driver set to 3.5A lets 5+A go because ammeter was not turned on before trigger was pulled. Is it not strange?
 

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Hi again,

In more than a month many views but not even one reply. I suppose it is because everyone wants at least to see how this device will work.

Here are new pictures where the finally finished prototype is open and assembled. Yes, I could not find place for all parts in this handdrill body, so some of them have to be attached to the sides with beautiful rubber bands. Does it not look crazy and funny? When the white button on top is pressed, the thermometer with sensor in one of the modules and small fan on top both turn on. They are fed directly from the battery and not from trigger as the driver is.

First, I soldered the ammeter to the battery like fan and thermometer, but this action lead to a big failure: once I pushed the FWD-SAFE-REW switch (which I use here as safety switch) - the 7.5A! current went through both LDs and the 4 EUR cheap driver you can see on the right side (rated at max 5A) burned with smoke and smell in a part of a second. So, I quickly removed the battery, checked the trigger (in this handdrill it is one block with REW-SAFE-FWD switch) and ordered 2 more of these drivers from dx. Hoping that 7.5A did not burn my both NUBM07e!

One month after that I have finally received the new drivers and this time soldered the ammeter feed wires to the driver output where 2 LDs in series are fed from. Finally the blaster works as expected. Both 07s have survived 7.5A!
I set the driver to 4.3A and soon will post the pictures of it beaming into the LPM sensor.
 

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Unconvential !!! Surly " Out of the Box "...Steampunk...with a twist'o' homebrew !! !! Now...to dress up the front....Find a brushed SS lamp....and harvest the body.....Think " Marvin the Martin "....Disintegrator pistol !!:eg::eg: Good work !
 
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Yes, there are many funny looking toys in toyshops where this laser device could pass but none of them has a conveniently powerful battery and trustable wiring like this handdrill does.

I would like to try this body for more than two LDs combination but these hammers are too expensive when new. Maybe I can find used ones somewhere to find out how much free space they have inside.

Yes also I set driver to 4.5A current, so according to info from this forum the combined beam should be 7-8W at 470nm.
 

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Very nice, I have thought about using some RC high drain li packs for multi builds and have a charge port so I can build a sealed sub gun size unit and not have to mess with battery tubes or holders, plus the square/rectangle packs would fit better in my concepts.

We need to see some beam pics, and what's the output with that battery pack? My drill draws 10 amps plus under heavy load so they should carry it.
 
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CurtisOliver

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Never seen a drill turned into a laser before. Nice job :) +rep
 
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I just found this thread, I don't look around the forum enough! Now for beam shots! I wanna see it in the night sky, or perhaps if you live near an airport and can't do that shooting across your backyard if possible :)
 
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Hi Alaskan,

I do not have backyard and like most people in Europe live in a block.
And yes, a small airport is not far away from here. This is the reason why I did the shots in a big classroom early in the morning. You can see the ammeter shows 4.56A current when trigger is fully pressed.

Now I have 2 LPMs:
One is old and its sensor is rated for 7-8W (made in 2008 by Kenom if I recall it right), so it is at its limit.
Another is what ABarnett made for me lately. I asked to do it with the biggest sensor available, so his builder used 150W rated one for CO2 lasers and equipped it with watercooling and temperature sensor but due to some misunderstanding they calibrated it to be precise for 100+W thinking that I am not going to mesure less than that. And yes it is true for the future, but today I still did not get to that point...
As result, it shows too high numbers reading such "low power" laser - 10.5 W output would be to high to be true from 2 combined 07e´s.
7.6W output seems more trustable to me.

Oh, mess! I forgot to turn on the thermometer when doing pictures! But you know it is only needed when this thing works for 1 min or longer.
 

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Burn something? Get a little smoke in the air.:eg: :eg: The spot size looks great.
 
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There are smoke detectors everywhere here. An we have very little humidity in Spain in the summer.
But I will think of it. Maybe it rains one day - hope I do not have to wait untill winter.

This beam does not burn through white paper - it is too expanded, but makes holes in black tissue of course.
 
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Well, now I add some more pictures of the beam. I did not get the chance to do open air photo session, so all shots were done in the same classroom, however this time overall luminosity is lower (spot is absorbed by black resin and is not in the cadre) and the beam becomes more visible this way.

But to make it really visible we had to spray some water on the beam path. Yes, this is cheating, but doing pictures in the dark night forest would be cheating too - the reason to make this device was to get a beam visible at DAY!
 

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Added some outdoor pictures of the beam (always at 4.5A current).
 

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CurtisOliver

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Nice images, love the shade of blue in the first picture on post #13. :)
 




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