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Bit of an update for anyone interested in pulse driving laser diodes. I have managed to pulse a BDR-209 at 24 volts without any noticable damage. Pulse width is under 50nS (If I correctly understand how the output of a PMT behaves). The driver is rated for max pulse width of 5nS so maybe some...

Thanks for the resource! I checked it out and it seems that they directly drive the LED without any current protection. So I assume that for LEDs this acceptable. 120V DC across any LED in CW will obviously kill it, so pulse length does seem to matter. I'll try to build one of these up today and...

Quick, possibly stupid question. I've been working on a LiDAR project and I need to either build or buy a driver capable of driving a LD with pulse widths near a few nS. I have found a driver that is capable of that however it has a drive voltage of 50-200V with a current range of 6-20A (I can...

Very cool idea benm, however I don't think I could cram a hall effect, an amplifier, and a mosfet into that tiny tail cap. I probably try it anyways because it would be pretty cool. Powering the amp off the batteries could be problem. But magnet switched laser would be a whole new thread on its...

Thanks all for the replys. Sorry for my late response Redcowboy: Very, very nice mod their. I will definitely be trying that. And yes it's the cap of the SL S4 host. For those who recommended beefing up the spring, that seemed to have worked. I "threaded" another spring from another aixiz...

Ok, I have found another spring and threaded it into the other one and it seemed to have lower temps by about 15 degrees. I can use this for now and just limit my on times. Luckily it cools down faster than it heats up. I'll still be searching for a higher rated tail cap with a beefier spring...

Yes, there are 2 dimples on the metal ring that I can take off, but I'm not sure if I can get inside the switch itself. If I can, I'll try that. But I will still need to fix the problem with the spring nearly melting. I just measured it with a thermal couple and its hitting about 200F after a 15...

So I recently built the strongest laser I have ever made, and have ran into a problem. Everything went together fine, and after a 5 second "on" to test, I took out the batteries to test current draw to gauge the life time of one charge. Right when I took off the tail cap I smelled the all to...

Yeah that was another thing I was wondering too. You would think the beam would be way out of focus miles away. Unless you have some lens that isnt available to the public... Honestly though if I were a passenger on a jet, and saw a cloud glowing green I would be pretty amazed.

Yeah, I would never use this to assume nothing is overhead, just more of a extra precaution, more as a heads up that there might be something on it's way that I can't see or hear. However I was not aware that it's only required in certain areas.

So alongside with lasers and general electronics, ive been getting into another hobby, SDR. Basically SDR, for those who dont know, is software defined radio that allows you to tune into any frequency within range of the tuner. In my case i use a RTL-SDR. Anyways, i just got done looking over a...

So after 50,000 pulses it still outputs as strong as it did. No loss in power but my room did smell like burnt paper, wood, and plastic coated cardboard. In fact there is way to much power and i ended up clamping the LD down. When i do cut things I can either go way slower or turn the current...

So in the middle of building my engraver, I wondered how safe it was to pulse my LD driver. I know that laser diodes are pulsed themselves in optical drives and obviously rarely any damage occurs. But the driver they use in optical drives are meant to be pulsed. So it's not the diode I'm...

Mostly wood and paper type material (I should be able to cut cardboard/paper, balsa wood and maybe black foam, though it may require multiple runs). I might go without a z axis for simplicity reasons, and manually focus the laser. I probably going to have to make my own interperator because...

Most likely going to stick with the RAMPS with the a4988 drivers. I'll do some design searching and base mine off them. That's how I did it with the printer. At this point I'm not sure whether or not I'm going to write my own interperator or not. I think I might actually get away with using my...

I have noticed that since I had built my 1 watt, I can cut things relatively easy. So I was wondering why don't I make a laser engraver/cutter? I have made a 3d printer in the past and have decided to tear it apart and use the electronics to make the engraver. I'll just buy a kit then for a new...

As said, you would be better off with a low power green. A "safe" (<5mW) blue laser is hard to come by unfourtunetly :( Also, you said that you dont want to use mirrors, but they would be ideal. At least for single point pointing. A prism can give you around 4-5 beams or more depending on the...

Wow, we need a permit to shine a laser anywhere in public?!?! That seems a bit outrageous. But then again there are stupid and ignorant people out there unfortunately :( Its a shame they ruin the hobby for people that use them responsibly... Luckily, I live out in the country and I don't have...

Nice! Thanks for your reply's :yh:

Thanks for the reply! Heres my 1 watt setup: The diode is a NDB7412T (datasheet) The driver is a Fixed Current Switching Supply set to 1A (here) Did I pick my diode and my driver right? As in, will it have a decent life on it?