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Newbie help!!

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Sturmgewehr

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Hello all! New to this forum and you all seem very knowledgable so i hope you can help! Just recently got into lasers in the process of developing a series of props for my haunted house. Looking to get a 5mw green laser that has a continuous 100% duty cycle. I have been experimenting with one that according to the company is 45 sec. On 15 sec. Off. I put a heatsink/mount on it in hopes of extending the duty cycle out of it but it seems that the attatched driver seems to warm up quite a bit. Can this be made to the cycle i need or should i start from scratch? What do you all recommend?
 





hwang21

hwang21

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Welcome to the Forums! Be sure to read all of the stickies under each subforum. Also, use the search bar found down the page! That will probably give you some answers, or at least some hints.

I would try Laserglow.com if you have some money to spend, they have a clearance right now too. Their Galileo 5 might be a good choice, lots of those in the clearance section. Good luck and enjoy your stay :beer:
 
norbyx

norbyx

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For a 100% duty cycle I would go with ether a lab diode laser or a HeNe laser. They aren't as cheap as a hand held but you can leave them on for longer times.
 
Cyparagon

Cyparagon

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You can leave your low-power green pointer on for as long as you like. Duty-cycles are a myth for these things.
 
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Sturmgewehr

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Thats what i thought but my only concern is that id seems the driver board seems to get hot after a bit and i am concerned about frying it. I will put up a pic of what i'm working with as soon as i can.
 
Danteslayer

Danteslayer

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If your using a 5mW laser you should have absolutely no worry about frying it. 5mW lasers have no noticably heat output. Dont be worried.
 
Eudaimonium

Eudaimonium

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Sturmgewehr said:
Thats what i thought but my only concern is that id seems the driver board seems to get hot after a bit and i am concerned about frying it. I will put up a pic of what i'm working with as soon as i can.
Click to expand...
Electronics can suffer quite high temperatures actually. Don't forget, they are soldered at 200°C minimum :p

The driver board should probably be fine, just make sure it's not enclosed in something, it should have enough air around it. Normal room airflow should suffice.

It's only a problem if it reaches a temperature that can be described as hot in relatively short time, such as 5 seconds or so. It shouldn't, though.
 
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Sturmgewehr

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Not enclosed? Hmm.. the unit looks like a module built to be used inside a pointer judging by the spring soldered on the end. As far as the heat it takes between 45-60 seconds then there is a spot on the driver that quite hot to the touch. Wonder if maybe this is overdriven and not 5mw? Will a 5mw green laser have a visible beam in the dark?
 
Eudaimonium

Eudaimonium

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Sturmgewehr said:
Not enclosed? Hmm.. the unit looks like a module built to be used inside a pointer judging by the spring soldered on the end. As far as the heat it takes between 45-60 seconds then there is a spot on the driver that quite hot to the touch. Wonder if maybe this is overdriven and not 5mw? Will a 5mw green laser have a visible beam in the dark?
Click to expand...
It's very likely it's overdriven, if it was a cheap module. but still, even it it were only 5mW, it's very likely it's drawing some 100-150mA of current.

In any event, it looks fine to me, I'm pretty sure it could be left on all the time. I've had drivers running much hotter than that (blisters on finger tips), so this should be fine.
 
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Sturmgewehr

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Yikes! Thats pretty hot! This is where i wished i had an lpm so i could test it.. Well it's a good laser with a nice clear beam. Makes the cheapo pen i got look pathetic. But for the price i got it for i can afford to experiment with it. Gonna hook it up and just run it a few hours to see how it survives. I'll do that and post my findings. Thanx mucho everyone! You guys are awesome!
 
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