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PLTB-450B laser66 build with LED indicator

Pman

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Finished this a couple days ago and it was a bit of a pain in the butt but also satisfying as it took quite a bit of time to get it right mainly because I kept changing my mind on how I wanted to get the wiring and components arranged.
Although I have lasers in many shapes and sizes pens tend to get be my favorite and I still have some Laser66 pens in gold, silver and black standing by awaiting funds to complete. As far as I understand he has a lot more of these pens and its best to buy directly from him and not go through his email. If someone can offer up the link that would be great.
Feel the need to mention that the gold plated ones will lost their plating and start to look more and more silver like the silver ones as the laser is handled. It's a very thin layer of gold but I will also note that the gold ones can be turned into the nice shiny silver with the use of NEVR-DULL so don't despair;)
As usual I tend to show lots of pics so others can copy if they want so I'm sorry if you have a really slow service but this is what I do.
***Before I start if anyone can help out with additions or identifications of diode case +, - or n (neutral) in the following thread it would be greatly appreciated as it benefits all of us. Post #9 specifically:
http://laserpointerforums.com/f67/diode-driver-combination-wiring-96176.html#post1399847

So here are some of the basic parts I need to achieve the goal. I believe the LED is a 12V rated one and I received 3 of them from Crazyspaz awhile back but don't know where he acquired them from. There's also an un-populated board, tiny clear plastic pin on the left, plastic board holder and little oval plastic piece that has a little piece of sticky tape on the other side to attach to the button hole on the host. The wire wasn't originally there on that board but soldered on before I took the pic:
j393FO.jpg


Here's another pic of the wire I added to the back of the board. You will see why it's there and soldered to one of the negative spots (going to be host negative) in a moment:
JtIFJ2.jpg


I took a piece of thin copper and tinned it all with solder both sides just to make it slightly thicker and make it conduct better than copper that could tarnish:
K8TPGQ.jpg


fGFEDs.jpg


So here's a pic of the LED along side the board in its holder before I added that piece of copper. The piece of copper will end up sitting on the opposite side of the holder shown here so that when the whole thing is pushed inside the host it will be snug against the host wall. The LED is actually too large to fit into the host properly and will be dealt with:
nQLEaI.jpg


Not a good pic but I quickly realized that I wouldn't be able to fit the LED in this way especially because on the anode side theirs a resistor under the heat-shrink that sticks way out and will get in the way of putting everything together:
wi5YP3.jpg


So, this is what I ended up doing to make everything fit and still get a great result. Remove the heat-shrink from the LED, remove the resistor and cut the pins really short. Took my dremel and flattened one side of the LED and then cut the length down. Epoxied it down onto the board right up against the button with the cathode side oriented the way I wanted to connect it to the negative of the board. It's also moved closer to the one side so I could fit the resistor up against it (glued) on the other side and wired correctly. You can also see a little notch I made on the side to fit the wire through:
cKLUpw.jpg


Should have grabbed a piece of black wire even though it doesn't matter:
KTnwTJ.jpg


This shows the added resistor soldered to the anode side of the LED and then the other end soldered to the switched side of the button:
9RKeXd.jpg


HnE6vx.jpg


Before I go any further here's the diode I had already pressed in and attached the B-Linear driver to:
ympe5g.jpg


Driver is set to max and I attached a nice copper piece to the backside for cooling although it's basically a moot point considering the laser can't be on long due to the lack of any added heat-sink with the host. There's a bit of Arctic Alumina there to make sure the driver isn't going to move if the power input wires end up twisting although it's not really necessary here but more of a habit:
XryAUS.jpg


So now I have to make it all come together and sit inside the host to just the right length to align the button properly while press fitting it straight in. I soldered the driver wires to the switch on the back side to the appropriate spots on the board which were different from any of the already soldered spots I had used and would not interfere with the plastic board assembly sliding in place over it all:
XIfR5m.jpg


uI4r3T.jpg


You can see how it came together with the holder:
sjylmz.jpg


Keeping things in place:
RYrMv5.jpg


2Kvapx.jpg


Finished product with fingerprints all over it. Uses (2) Efest 10440 host negative (very small neo magnet on the - battery end for good connection to host back cap). You can see the small clear plastic piece that fits into the really small hole made for it in front of the button hole. Obviously I add the button too:
tSo6hS.jpg


Pic in lit room you can still see the beam and lit indicator LED:
eLhMw0.jpg


A bit of a shaky pic. 2W+. I am very conservative on duty cycle and it gets warm very quick at that kind of output so personally I wouldn't run it past 10 or so seconds from a cold start. I did a quick comparison to a 2.2W M140 and visually I couldn't see any difference in brightness.
1vuVtd.jpg


As a bonus I was at Home Depot a week ago and picked up a little (2) AAA flashlight for about $6 and found that it is absolutely perfect for adding a 5V Fasttech module with no modifications other than a long spring, jumpering the switch and a 10440 battery:
A1uPJ7.jpg


QJ3k4g.jpg


5uf9fR.jpg


lyb5Ip.jpg
 





GSS

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Pman, what an awesome tedious trial an error project that came to life. Its a great feeling isn't it:beer: and how much did you crank up the fastech module?:)
 

BowtieGuy

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Very nice pen build, Pete. Nice to see the all the build details in the photos! :beer: Unfortunately, I can't +rep you just yet.
:gj:

BTW, I picked up a 2pk. of very similar "defiant" pens at Home depot recently at 2/$4.88, can't beat a host for under $2.50.
 

Pman

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Yeah, I saw that 2 pack on-line when I tried to look up the one I bought but they don't show in stock at any of the stores around me:( Would have bought a couple packs of them to mess with. They don't sell them online. I just found it really odd that the one I bought has the perfect space between the halves to hold the module right with no wiggle and fully conductive.
I used to have calloused work hands but now I have dish pan hands as you can see in the pics.
 
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BowtieGuy

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Glad to see that yours fit the module right out of the box, the ones that I bought were a little too large.
I ended up boring it out even larger, and then putting in a sleeve with a short extension to give enough length to accomodate the module/driver assy. and retain enough room for both batteries.
 

Gabe

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Awesome, thank you for sharing Pete! Seriously! I've been wondering what it takes to put together one of those laser66 hosts. Wish I could +rep you. Also, great find with that little flashlight! :)
 
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Pman, very nice comprehensive tutorial on your builds. I enjoyed it very much. Would rep you again, but it won't let me right now. Thank you.
 
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Hi p,
WOW !! well awesome build buddy i'm impressed with the detailed pics. You really put yourself out to complete such a superb unit. LED. Heat sinked all sweet am
nd the defiant pen find for $6.00 nice simple build no fuss. Pen Man still got it brother best yet. +rep to you..

Rich:)
 
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Pman

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Thanks. If I remember correctly I think he doesn't have any of the single hole hosts left but you certainly don't have to put an LED in it either. I hadn't tackled building one with an indicator before but Crazyspaz made at least a couple of them so I certainly knew it could be done.
That little flashlight was in a display with other things kind of sitting out in the middle of the floor over by the tool section if I remember correctly and it doesn't show up online.
For some other pens just click on my pen laser sig link or:
http://laserpointerforums.com/f72/pen-laser-thread-93892-2.html
 
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Nice pocket blaster.
I had a PLTB450B running at 1.8A and it did not last, but maybe I just got a bad one, it was a little tighter as far as divergence but not that it made any real difference burning leaves at 15 feet. Up close it seemed to focus nice and tight.

I think the slightly lower output negated the slightly tighter bar/spot.

GSS was asking me about the 450 but I only had the 1, how does yours compare to the bar size of a M-140 or 7875 and how hard have you pushed them in a heavier sink?
 
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Pman

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Since I build and then put them in cases I can't really answer a question concerning longevity.
The beam itself has better divergence than the others and I believe that is the same diode I have in my Jayrob Star Trek phaser.
I'll have to take another look at the dot and compare it but I could have sworn it was better than the others you mentioned.
As far as output goes I know that the phaser was set to 1.6W right from Jordan but it may have also been an older diode revision as that was a couple years ago.
When I switched it on for the first time I was quite surprised how bright it was and was even more shocked when I measured it. It peaks on start over 2.3W and then drops back into 2.2W+ for the multiple short readings I took. I'm wondering if the diode has had another revision. Checked my Ophir with a couple much older lasers that Blord had built for me that he had measured and the readings are correct. I even visually checked it side by side with a 2.2W M140 and even though that isnt legit they sure looked like the same brightness to me. Don't have an answer for running one in a good size heat sink but with an Ophir I can pretty much catch the initial peak outputs. With this kind of build you might not get to actually see the end of the output rise using a slow response sensor before the diode blows.
 
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Hibro, there's a huge difference between a 445nm and a 405nm laser. The 405nm is in the ultraviolet range and is much dimmer to your eyes than the blue 445. If the 405 is a single mode diode, its divergence will be much tighter than the multimode 445.
 
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Hibro, there's a huge difference between a 445nm and a 405nm laser. The 405nm is in the ultraviolet range and is much dimmer to your eyes than the blue 445. If the 405 is a single mode diode, its divergence will be much tighter than the multimode 445.

Pretty sure he meant 450nm. Not 405nm.

Is there a difference? Yes.
Can you tell without them side by side? Doubtful.
 
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ah nuts i can't rep you again... in due time :p
Thanks for the advice on getting a dremel in the mix with the led size.
I just built a 1W 638nm gold pen with an LED that was a bit more festive than i had hypothesized.
It reminds me of rainbow road from mario cart when its on. Going to do a build post this weekend with a big ol shout out!
 




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