1W 520nm Custom Build/Review

Hey everyone!

I wanted to share my latest edition with you all! These part were all donated to me from a friend. I'm not sure if he wants me to put his name in the thread so I'll leave it out for now. (You know who you are!)

Parts list:

1x Custom Ehgemus white powder coated host with side push button momentary switch
1x Custom focus adaptor by Ehgemus
1x DTR's Laser Shop NDG700 700mW 520nm Diode In Copper Module W/X-Drive & G-2 Glass Lens - Driver set to 1.8A

Description:

This laser is super light weight and very beautiful. The module was a perfect fit! I added some arctic silver thermal compound to give the laser a slight boost in thermal conductivity since I am running the laser very hard.

A few issues I had were that the powder coating was cracked/flaking a bit near the button but it's not a huge issue as I can probably hide that with a glow ring or just sand it away. Another issue was, polarity was not immediately obvious (Can't always trust the colors of the wires even though in most cases red = + and black = -). I had no way to tell which way the batteries had to go in unless I tested it. Which I did.

Lastly I would like to thank my friend, DTR, Lazeerer, and Ehgemus for all the hard work you guys do. Now some pictures!

Cool to see my host being used for such a beautiful laser (The guy you got it from bought it from me). I have a similar host with a 520nm module in it too, only 80mW though. I like single modes haha.

I had some difficulties finding the correct polarity as well, but Ehgemus helped me out on that.

Enjoy the laser!

I love 520nm. Very fine looking build. Still need to do something with my Ehgemus host. Great job :gj:

jeffreythe00 said:

Another issue was, polarity was not immediately obvious (Can't always trust the colors of the wires even though in most cases red = + and black = -). I had no way to tell which way the batteries had to go in unless I tested it. Which I did.

Click to expand...

gozert said:

I had some difficulties finding the correct polarity as well,

Click to expand...

This should never be a problem, it's a good idea to own a DMM if you assemble a laser, sometimes you put it together and it doesn't work the first time, so you may need the DMM. Be sure not to test it by trying it with the batteries in each way to see what works, you can kill a driver that way. Any host using a battery contact board and not a round driver can be wired either way. Use the DMM to test continuity from the metal of the host to the black or red wire, if the host is anodized it won't conduct so you may need to test from the threads where the tailcap screws on. Even then you can still wire it either way by simply reversing the wires soldering the black to the red and the red to the black. Don't try that though if using a round driver that doubles as a battery contact board or it will go up in a puff of smoke. There are some cases such as red diodes that are case negative or IR diodes and DPSS modules that are case positive where you don't have a choice and must know what you're doing or again it will die in a puff of smoke.

A very nice looking laser you have there.

Alan

A beam shot please ??

great looking build.

I'm glad you like it Jeffrey,

You did allot for me, so this in return