- Joined
- Jul 6, 2010
- Messages
- 20
- Points
- 0
My first laser experiment was a failure. I purchased a diode from Hightechdealz press fit into an axis housing. Thinking the easiest way to get started with burning laser pointers was to have all the new things pre done for me so all I would have to do was build the driver and solder things together. Maybe machine out a housing. After I spent the morning surface soldering a Rkcstr driver and setting it to 200 ma using a 10mm LED I was ready to light some matches. So I unscrewed the rear of the axis housing and soldered on the connection. To find … disappointment. My LED was way brighter then this 20x dvd burning laser diode (LOC). So I tried turning up the power to 380ma with my multimeter between the driver and the diode but again it was just not impressive.
That’s around the time I did some reading and found this forum. From what I’ve read I think the diodes toast but am not sure why or how. The output is certainly not collimated in any way (should the output be collimated?), its just like a normal LED. Also the axis housing seems to get very hot with use, it seems better suited for burning things then the light. Being that this driver cannot exceed 400 ma I have no idea what happened.
I’ll be trying again, but have no idea where I went wrong. Does anyone have any tips, or at least things to avoid? Is there something I’ve completely overlooked, IE should I be pulsing these diodes? I tried to go out of my way to make sure as much was pre done as possible, and yet…
That’s around the time I did some reading and found this forum. From what I’ve read I think the diodes toast but am not sure why or how. The output is certainly not collimated in any way (should the output be collimated?), its just like a normal LED. Also the axis housing seems to get very hot with use, it seems better suited for burning things then the light. Being that this driver cannot exceed 400 ma I have no idea what happened.
I’ll be trying again, but have no idea where I went wrong. Does anyone have any tips, or at least things to avoid? Is there something I’ve completely overlooked, IE should I be pulsing these diodes? I tried to go out of my way to make sure as much was pre done as possible, and yet…