are there guides for this

[dark racer]

are there any guides for building anything like this out there?
i kindof need this in my life.

 

[Immo1282]

i kindof need this in my life.

It'd be possible - but get some extremely good safety glasses first

Basically as simple as machining a heatsink for a load of 12mm modules, wiring them all up. Not easy, definitely not cheap and staggeringly dangerous - but it's definitely doable...

 

[lasersbee]

For your 1st build I'd try something simpler...
Much less expensive with a higher likelihood
of success.

Jerry

 

[dark racer]

i don't see why it could fail.

you buy laser modules that only need a host. (cooling and a battery) and that's it.
i know my way around fusion360 i have 3 3d printers.
and i am a cnc machinist.

the hardest part is setting up the lenses

 

[Immo1282]

i don't see why it could fail.

you buy laser modules that only need a host. (cooling and a battery) and that's it.
i know my way around fusion360 i have 3 3d printers.
and i am a cnc machinist.

the hardest part is setting up the lenses

Well that's good to know - but Jerry's not talking nonsense - you don't want to sink hundreds of euros into a project for you to end up killing half of your diodes etc. I guarantee you the hardest part of a project like this is not one single aspect of it, but the joining of each component together.

To replicate what is seen in the video, you'd need to take a very large flashlight, machine a heat-sink to hold the multiple modules, acquire enough of them with drivers, set all of the drivers up at the same power so the diodes are not unbalanced, somehow figure out how to power 7 high-powered diodes in a handheld (you're talking needing on the order of 10-15A of current continuous for all of them combined). etc.

Other challenges here that I figured would be good to mention;

• Heat - A passively cooled handheld with little in the way of fins is generally pretty poor at cooling a single diode for continuous operation, so you will need to be careful about the duty cycle of a laser with multiple high-powered modules.
• Alignment - Not all laser modules beams exit completely parallel to their sides - given this laser gangs multiple beams into one, alignment is going to be critical.
• Overall cost - 1 high powered 405nm laser module (like the ones shown in the video) from our favourite supplier of drivers/modules/diodes round here (DTR) is between $70 and $90. x7 that's a hell of a lot of money you're talking and that doesn't even take into account the host/power/heatsink.

Bear in mind, I have not taken on any projects close to this in scope with Lasers, but I speak from what I've learned in the last couple of months being here and read elsewhere too (and past experience with big projects outside of the laser world...).

If you do try to replicate this project - good luck to you, and I'd love to see the result - but it won't be without challenge and great expense. There's some multi-diode builds that you might want to look at if you want some inspiration. These tend to use internal optics to combine the beams, but the level of complexity has parallels to what you want to do here...

Verde Volcano (2x 520nm diodes, total power 2.6W) by Minamoto Kobayashi
4.4W 445 Dual Diode Laser by ARG

 

[paul1598419]

This laser is far more complicated than you think it is. The best way to do it is to wire all the diodes in series and use a single driver that can supply the sum of all the individual diode's forward voltage. But, to do that you will need batteries that can supply that much voltage. You set the driver for 500 mW in the case of the BDR-209 diodes and the driver will make certain that no individual diode pulls more current. But, these diodes have a fairly high Vf, so you are talking about a pretty high total voltage. Then, you will need enough heat sinking to carry away all the waste heat these diodes will output. Even then you will have eight parallel beams. But, only if you get them machined to be perfectly parallel. Not as easy to do as it is to say.

What would you do with that many parallel beams? It is not like combining them into a single beam, so you would not have the sum of the powers of all those diodes. With the proper optics you can make the beams converge, but again, only if they are perfectly parallel. There are so very many reasons why this is just a bad idea. You would do better trying to make a single laser for your first try.

 

[Encap]

What would you do with that many parallel beams? It is not like combining them into a single beam, so you would not have the sum of the powers of all those diodes. With the proper optics you can make the beams converge, but again, only if they are perfectly parallel. There are so very many reasons why this is just a bad idea. You would do better trying to make a single laser for your first try.

Exactly .
+ It is not the most powerful anything---just multiple diodes of a given output--the beams are not combined
It is not a "laser" it is "lasers" no more powerful than a single diode except where they all converge at a single focal point.
You can point 10 $10 lasers held together with electrical tape through a lens focused ona single point and get the same pretty much useless effect but with much longer run time before it overheats.
It is a useless and dangerous goofy toy-- a joke to impress people via a video who don't know any better.

If you want to burn things a box of kitchen matches will do that way better and less expensively.

 

[dark racer]

-_- why even respond if that's what you have to say.

point me to a single diode that can cut a box cutter blade like it does in the end of the video.
what? there is none? guess i have to combine a couple then.

 

[Immo1282]

-_- why even respond if that's what you have to say.

Because it's our respective opinions - I'm sorry but the forum doesn't exist to be a pack of yes-men to approve any and every idea in existence. We generally say what we think (and it's pretty apparent from me, Paul and Encap that our thoughts are that this is not a good idea for a first project).

If you take one note from this conversation - it's to temper your expectations. This project will conservatively cost at least £1000 in my opinion, and be disappointing overall (even if you do succeed). If you really want that much burning power - use a magnifying glass and the sun, or a magnifying glass and a powerful flashlight. It's the same level of "impressiveness" in my mind given that it's just focusing multiple parallel beams.

No single diode has that much power - and that's a limit of physics and current LD manufacturing here - nothing you can do about that. If you are insistent on a laser that cuts steel, look at high powered CO2 lasers, or those used in industrial laser cutters.

I will reiterate Encap's sentiment here.

You can point 10 $10 lasers held together with electrical tape through a lens focused ona single point and get the same pretty much useless effect but with much longer run time before it overheats.
It is a useless and dangerous goofy toy-- a joke to impress people via a video who don't know any better.

You're better off starting with something simpler - learning with some practical experience will enlighten you to the real engineering challenges of this project and hopefully we'll see you do some impressive projects like this in the future.

 

[GSS]

are there any guides for building anything like this out there?
i kindof need this in my life.

No guide builds here for that 1 specific one mans build.
He most likely browsed a bunch of forums and studied up for years..
Attempting it is up to you and if you end up building it, by all means show us was you got
No one "need's" one but wanting to have one is putting it better..

 

[dark racer]

Because it's our respective opinions - I'm sorry but the forum doesn't exist to be a pack of yes-men to approve any and every idea in existence. We generally say what we think (and it's pretty apparent from me, Paul and Encap that our thoughts are that this is not a good idea for a first project).

i mean he (encap) didn't even watch the video it seems.
the freaking thing cuts a box cutter blade. and he says i'm better off with a single 4w diode or whatever.
no i'm not because it cannot cut metal

and stop telling me to start somewhere simpler. if i want something simpler i will buy a premade laser instead.
if it cannot cut metal then it's not worth doing

 

[dark racer]

a co2 laser would be nice as one of those square modules that i can mount to one of my 3d printers.

but that is not what i am looking for. i am looking for a laser pointer with that kind of power.

 

[Immo1282]

if it cannot cut metal then it's not worth doing

i am looking for a laser pointer with that kind of power.

I'm concerned that you're going to do yourself a serious injury. There's a secondary reason we're warning you away from this and that is safety. Even highly trained professionals have accidents - and the risk of injury/blindness/severe burns is very large here.

Handheld laser pointers are not toys - stay safe whatever you do. (in my opinion anything class 3R and up makes it not a toy).

 

[dark racer]

why do you guys keep assuming i am some 14 year old unresponsible kid. stop trying to protect me. i can do that myself

 

[Immo1282]

why do you guys keep assuming i am some 14 year old unresponsible kid. stop trying to protect me. i can do that myself

I mean no disrespect - but I base that judgement on how you've conducted yourself and interacted with me and others in this thread:

• Ignoring safety concerns of others
• Lashing out and flatly rejecting advice
• Misjudging the complexity and challenges that have been outlined based on simple dismissals of other's experience (referring to Paul and Encap here, I'm also a newbie but I don't go around professing that I'm an expert when I've not even finished 1 build yet)

As I said in my last post - Even an expert has accidents. And the chance of an accident happening might be the same with a 1mw cat toy, or a 10W thing like that in the Video, but the impact of the latter is far greater. I know this is just a public forum on the internet so liability is a bit more abstract - but no sane member would want any other to have a laser accident and end up hurt or blinded.

I don't know why I'm rising to this - but you've rubbed me up the wrong way in this thread... sorry.

 

[GSS]

dark racer, iv'e noticed you have been here since 2013.
Curious to what laser's you have. What have you built or bought?
Also in the 5+ years you have had to have noticed the general theme of this forum. You can't be thinking you are being singled out.
I don't see a signature of builds either so it looks like to some you just might be new to building or any thing laser related.
That build has been posted before and talked about before. Encap has definitely seen the video..