I am planning to start working with my first laser in an etch a sketch laser plotter I've been building, which is intended to burn wood and if everything goes well various other materials as well. I have a few questions I've been unable to answer on my own, I hope you can help!
1. Will the standard 12x30mm Aixiz housing fit most laser diodes? Do I have to worry about sizing?
650nm 5mW laser module.3.2V to with lens 650 nm OEM - eBay (item 360293174546 end time Aug-30-10 14:31:00 PDT)
2. I am looking at the following two laser diodes.
Either this ultra-cheap 300mW IR diode:
808nm 300mW High Power Burning Laser Diode DIY Lab New - eBay (item 280543956960 end time Sep-02-10 14:19:31 PDT)
Or the more expensive 500mW IR diode found on this page(third from top):
Diodes : StoneTek Electronics, Your Laser Parts Store
Notice that on the stonetek page another 300mW IR diode is for sale for 11 dollars, as opposed to 1 dollar on ebay. Why is that? Will the ebay diode be a piece of junk? Can you give me some advice as to which diode I should choose, having wood and plastic engraving in mind?
3. For the laser diodes driver circuit I will follow the guide here:
Bulding a burning laser
In which the following schematic is supplied:
Driver.jpg (image)
I assume the given values for the capacitor, voltage source, etc. will vary from laser diode to laser diode, but the guide does not specify the laser diode this driver is catered to. How can I determine, for the diodes I've specified above for instance, how to tailor the driver to the particular diode? I've seen almost the exact driver schematic in a number of different places, but hardly ever is it specified for which diode the schematic is built. Is it not that important, or are most diodes rated the same?
Thank you
1. Will the standard 12x30mm Aixiz housing fit most laser diodes? Do I have to worry about sizing?
650nm 5mW laser module.3.2V to with lens 650 nm OEM - eBay (item 360293174546 end time Aug-30-10 14:31:00 PDT)
2. I am looking at the following two laser diodes.
Either this ultra-cheap 300mW IR diode:
808nm 300mW High Power Burning Laser Diode DIY Lab New - eBay (item 280543956960 end time Sep-02-10 14:19:31 PDT)
Or the more expensive 500mW IR diode found on this page(third from top):
Diodes : StoneTek Electronics, Your Laser Parts Store
Notice that on the stonetek page another 300mW IR diode is for sale for 11 dollars, as opposed to 1 dollar on ebay. Why is that? Will the ebay diode be a piece of junk? Can you give me some advice as to which diode I should choose, having wood and plastic engraving in mind?
3. For the laser diodes driver circuit I will follow the guide here:
Bulding a burning laser
In which the following schematic is supplied:
Driver.jpg (image)
I assume the given values for the capacitor, voltage source, etc. will vary from laser diode to laser diode, but the guide does not specify the laser diode this driver is catered to. How can I determine, for the diodes I've specified above for instance, how to tailor the driver to the particular diode? I've seen almost the exact driver schematic in a number of different places, but hardly ever is it specified for which diode the schematic is built. Is it not that important, or are most diodes rated the same?
Thank you