New Guy Here

[Rico2]

What's up LPF? My name is Gregory Lee, I'm a 34 year old redneck from the backwoods of central Kentucky. I own several low power lasers up to 1 watt, and just purchased a 3 watt from forum member trussmonkey25. Can't wait for it to arrive! I always practice safety first when beaming around my house out in the country. Just wanted to introduce myself to everybody, and I'm hoping to gain knowledge while here and be able to build my own lasers from start to finish one day. Thanks

 

[NightExplorer96]

Welcome Rico2 :yh:

-Alex

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

Hi Rico, welcome to LPF :beer:

 

[Pi R Squared]

Hello Gregory, welcome to LPF. Building your own lasers can be very easy, you can buy parts where the hard part is already done for you, and then as you become familiar with the parts and what works together and what doesn't then you can progress to something more complex.

Alan

 

[Rico2]

I'm wanting to buy one of the nubm44 diode module with the sxd driver and g2 lens from dtr for $210 to start my first build. I know it's a bad boy, but I think the satisfaction from building a laser with that power would be never ending. Can you all recommend corresponding parts that I would need? Could I use a kryton groove host?

 

[Lifetime17]

Hi rico to LPF,
First you need a host with a huge heatsink for this diode. This diode get hot and generates a ton of heat. If your fond of Mag light mods there the heat sink is huge. i did a few of these and you can run the quite long cycles.Here is a few pics to get an idea this is a 2-cell 32650 build SXD set to 4.650mA The Reading shown is with 2-26650 cells with the 32650's it tops over 7+W's. Huge heat sinking is the key here..

 

[Rico2]

Question. I own a titanium softball bat from my playing days in slow pitch, could I cut and modify it into a host? Is titanium good for heatsinking?

 

[marcuspeh]

Welcome to lpf

 

[Vision]

Welcome!

 

[EllyEnthusiastic]

Question. I own a titanium softball bat from my playing days in slow pitch, could I cut and modify it into a host? Is titanium good for heatsinking?

Huh. You might be able to, but it probably wouldn't be practical.

For starters, the host (baseball bat) would play a small part in dissipating the heat. You'd still need a solid (probably custom machined) heatsink for the laser. Your bat would almost certainly have plenty of empty space inside it, unless you filled the whole thing with a giant heatsink so you never have to turn the laser off to let it cool down. Though if you did that, it would be super crazy heavy, and aiming it would be dangerous. It'd pretty much be a bat-shaped laser that's as heavy as a small sword.

So, it could work (you can build in laser in almost anything!), but it would not be practical. It could even by dangerous to you and bystanders, as it's much easier to flash someone in the eyes when the host is so unwieldy. It would be better (but still kinda dangerous) if you had a large tripod you could hook it to, but at that point you'd have a telescope-sized laser.

Fun idea, though!

 

[Rico2]

Thanks EllyEnthusiastic, i realize it would be unpractical considering most lasers will fit in a standard pants pocket, i still wonder about the titanium. When the temperature is cool the bat will be warm, and when warm the bat will be cool.

 

[RedCowboy]

Hello Rico2 and Welcome

The nubm44 makes a lot of by product heat.
With a SXD driver set @ 4.5amps running 2 x 26650 efest cells fully charged the draw is 3.35amps and the drop is to 7.75 volts under load.

So for 7 watts out you are putting 26 watts in meaning there's 19 watts of waste heat between the diode/driver and that adds up fast, also batteries need to be good quality INR or IMR to prevent load sag as the SXD drops out at 6.8 volts input so even with good cells by the time they get to 3.65 volts each at idle from a full charge float of 4.2 it's time to recharge again, but you can run 3 cells with the SXD.

The heat will build up faster than you think so go big on your heat sink and you will enjoy it later.
Copper and aluminum are the standard, titanium I don't think would offer any benefits for heat transfer.

 

[Rico2]

For maximum power would i want the driver set at 5000 mA? Is this a common sense question I'm asking? I'm wanting to build the most powerful handheld i can.

 

[RedCowboy]

4.75 amps is the sweet spot, 5.0 seems to be a little much, they will take it without fold back, but as diodes wear over time the fold back can become sooner.

I wore 1 out at 5.0, it was a powerhouse but I wore it out in a month of steady use, my 4.5 amp nubm44 is still going strong and the one I'm building now is set at 4.75amps

If you do go 4.75a then a heavy heat sink is needed.

Tater builds a lot and he says by 5.4a they fold back.

4.5a is recommended max but you can go 4.75 but use a heavy heat sink.

Oh and get good safety glasses, these make 7watts and that's too much for cheap glasses.

A lot of people here use these http://www.survivallaserusa.com/Safety/cat1667093_1527285.aspx

 

[Rico2]

Awesome. Could you recommend any hosts that are as functional as stylish? I really like the kryton groove host, with the gitd grainde adds to them. I'm wanting to do something similar with gitd, but I realize it has to be large like you said for heatsinking. Any suggestions? Part of the whole laser build for me is gonna be making it super cool to look at, both on and off.

 

[EllyEnthusiastic]

Thanks EllyEnthusiastic, i realize it would be unpractical considering most lasers will fit in a standard pants pocket, i still wonder about the titanium. When the temperature is cool the bat will be warm, and when warm the bat will be cool.

I don't know much about the thermal properties of titanium, but my first thought is the bat's metal would be too thin to work as a heatsink/transfer heat from a real heatsink to the air better than it could if it were installed in a smaller sized aluminum host.

Awesome. Could you recommend any hosts that are as functional as stylish? I really like the kryton groove host, with the gitd grainde adds to them. I'm wanting to do something similar with gitd, but I realize it has to be large like you said for heatsinking. Any suggestions? Part of the whole laser build for me is gonna be making it super cool to look at, both on and off.

You've probably picked one of the cooler budget hosts! If you're looking for alternatives, try some of the sources on this page.