can some one help me?

first i would like to say i love this site, i have learned ALOT from browsing this site

i have some real newby questions that iim sure n e one could answer
I have bought all of the parts listed in daedals driver

how can i tell which was ups and lowers the resistence ont eh pot, i have a circle type pot that doesnt appear to be to good for a circuit board, as i would like fit it into a flash light

on the other side of the pot are three leads, they form a triangle shape, ow do i know which is the negative, positive, and the adjust(i guess its called?)

also i read that you can use a led in the driver to test the connection, but when i plug the led in it is very faint no matter which way i turn the pot i cant even tell a difference but is very bright when connected directly to the battery

sadly i think i fried my diode while soldering it , how do u tell if it gets the "LED effect"?

Here's a thread on how to test your driver:
http://www.laserpointerforums.com/forums/YaBB.pl?num=1197651171
As for the pot, sorry I don't know, isn't there supposed to be a drawing on the package, :-? I actually never thought of that, but I'm sure someone else can clear that up.

I will assume you have a multi meter....Set it to ohms connect up to 2 of the pins, twiddle the knob.

If the resistance doesn't change at all you have found the pins that connect to the 2 ends of the resistance track. the other one must be the wiper.

If the resistance does change you have one end of the resistance track and the wiper.

As suggested by chido, test your circuit as described in the thread he has posted the link to.
An LED is only usable at low ma's and is not a suitable load for the driver if testing for use with a high power LD, use the 4 diodes method, it takes out all the guess work.

regards rog8811

evilmatchbox said:

how can i tell which was ups and lowers the resistence ont eh pot, i have a circle type pot that doesnt appear to be to good for a circuit board, as i would like fit it into a flash light

on the other side of the pot are three leads, they form a triangle shape, ow do i know which is the negative, positive, and the adjust(i guess its called?)

also i read that you can use a led in the driver to test the connection, but when i plug the led in it is very faint no matter which way i turn the pot i cant even tell a difference but is very bright when connected directly to the battery

sadly i think i fried my diode while soldering  it , how do u tell if it gets the "LED effect"?

Click to expand...

If you have a meter, follow Rog's testing thread. If you don't, I have found that usually turning the pot screw clockwise will increase current. But I'm not sure if that way depends on how you've hooked up the leads or not.

When looking at the leads, usually the center lead is the wiper. So for the circuit you shoudl use that middle one and either of the side ones together. If it is a round pot, and you can't tell which is center, usually 2 of the leads will look similar and one will be different, for example the wiper will have a notch or small whole in the lead.

If you hook up the circuit wrong, it is possible that the pot won't affect current. If you have cold solder joints, it's possible that you don't have enough current and/or voltage.

Best thisg to do is buy a $5 multimeter if you don't have one. You can easily find a meter that is cheaper than a laser diode.

Hope that helps.