2 x 100Mw 808nM laser's + USB Battery Power Supply = ????

[Jet Black]

I am not new to Hardware Hacking , if you were born in the late 1960's in third world Australia & wanted anything cool or interesting you had to make , modify , salvage & fabricate existing parts to build cool or interesting "stuff".
After completing a formal Electrical Apprenticeship you become a potential danger to society with the eclectic variety of skill sets & knowledge to apply them all over the years , tho you never really stop learning.

I've dabbled with some 200mW green laser modules powered by Li Ion batteries without burning them out , but I have _no_ experience & can't find all that much technical documentation about these 5VDC IR laser modules.They appear to have an adjustable lense & are rated @ 5VDC , 100mW , 808 nm wavelength.

Any recommendations from experienced IR experimenters for eye protection that lets enough visible light to wear whilst I work with < 500mW IR laser emitters would also be _greatly_ appreciated.

Hopefully the photo below will show the basics of what I plan to do.




The 2 lasers would be wired together in parallel & they would be powered from one of the USB outlets. The battery box is rated at 10,000 mAh & both USB ports are marked as 5VDC @ 2 Amps.

A remote illuminated on/off rocker switch & a normally open trigger switch would be connected in series with the Black , Negative or 0 Volt Wire.
All the wires that need to be soldered would be nice & shiny + insulated with colour coded heat shrink.

#1 Do these style laser modules have any form of internal protection inside of them , will the regulated output of the USB battery box be enough or do I need to add extra current or even voltage regulation , to stop them burning out.

#2 What sort of duty cycle do they have as is ? If I want to run them for extended periods of time do they need to be housed inside of a heatsink similar to the 200mW modules with the push button + on board regulator soldered to the end like these ones..



That's some Mica sheet that I cut up & used to shim between the module & the electronics , for heat & electrical insulation in case you were wondering.I added epoxy after & trimmed it all to size.

#3 Is it worth keeping the choke that is in the USB line or should I cut it out


Anything else I may have overlooked , forgotten or should be made aware of would be appreciated. I plan on stepping things up in the future & use a 1.6 Watts IR laser emitter with a 50mm Lens off a 35mm camera to make a wide beam IR Illuminator , but first I need to understand how to safely & reliably power these 100mW emitters :thanks:


JB

 

[Jet Black]

Have I posted this question in the right section ?

Surely someone knows if these 100mW IR lasers need to have a current limiting resistor soldered in series in either the red or black wire ?

A seller was nice enough to reply with these halfway useful temperature ranges , for these particular 100mW 808nM IR resistors.

Working temperature：－１０℃～＋４0℃
Storage temperature ：+10℃～＋40℃

I see other higher powered units in the 250mW & 350mW (@ 808nm) range advertised for sale elsewhere.
A 2 x 200 or 250mW unit was sold with a mains powered power supply that gave out a regulated 5VDC with a current limit of 1 Amp. The 350 mW unit had a mains powered supply rated at 5VDC maximum current of < or = to 450mA , there appears to be no consistency with the what the current should be limited to.
I search these forums & via Google (who usually points me to these forums) I cannot find _jack_ about the method or what I should limit the supply current to with these smaller 100mW emitters to.

Does anyone in here use or work with lasers that emit in the 808nm range , the reports on protective glasses to use when experimenting in this specific range are very "vague" People seem more concerned with the milder powered IR radiation that comes off Green & other visible coloured lasers than avoidng a direct or reflected hit from a laser that emits ~780nm ----> 1080nm.
I have done a lot of theoretical research into the 3 non visible areas of the IR spectrum & would really like to start to put that theory into application Safely , this whole forum can't contain people who like to pop baloon's , burn various toxic plastic , burn creative wood designs or figure if an IR laser would be a cool way to light up their experimental crops.
FWIW The wavelength generated by a concentrated IR laser will quickly destroy the potency of the "active ingredients" in your crops to a value approaching 0 very quickly , & I'm pretty sure that high end UV laser lights will quickly lower the potency of "the herb" to 0 as well , a visble flame is the best method to combust unless you want to mess around with vaporizers...

105 looks & not a comment , have I posted a simple n00b question in the wrong area here or is there a better forum to use where people want to use narrow & broad beam IR radiation for assisting night vision & other areas where angels fear to tread ??

JB

 

[Spooky]

I work with high powered IR between 808 and 1064 if that is of any help?

PMMA (acrylic) is pretty much solid to anything in the 2.8–25µm band, (the guarding on most high power lasers is made from reinforced, tinted acrylic)

best wishes

Dave

 

[Jet Black]

I seem to be mostly talking in a vacuum in this part of the Forum.

I've been doing a _LOT_ of searching to try & find more info on these little adjustable focus 100mW 808nm Laser modules with the nice lens coating. I actually found this modules factory part number , which has a lot of technical details & other things I have yet to fully decipher , smart thinking if you are manufacturing ten thousand different component housings that can have 1000's of components & parts jammed inside of them to that will give 100's of different outputs when finished



Maxium Input Current _seems_ to be < 250mA DC.
Voltage In seems to be marked as 5VDC

Using those numbers you are feeding the module 1.25 Watts of DC Power & it's output Power is 100mW of IR light @ 808nm.

I'm still fairly new to Lasers... but I usually get better efficiency with the electronic components I have previously work with.
Is it normal to put 1.25 Watts into a laser module & only get 100mw out ?
power in vs power out is 12.5:1 Efficiency is ~.08% at best.
I can see why heatsinks are such a big deal around here , these little IR modules have to be able to quickly get rid of over 1 Watt of power to get a decent duty cycle out of them & to avoid thermal runaway....

Maybe I should have another skim over Sams Laser Guide , his site is one of the few sites that have been on the interweb in one form or another as long as I have.
Back in 1994 it was all good info , but the simple HTML & ASCI diagrams on it were for experienced people with very deep pockets & large work areas to securely house all their commercial or ex military equipment....

I hope the figures above help someone out in the future.

JB

 

[trussmonkey25]

I have a 2 1/2 940 nm. great for burning wood and other orgNic maaterials if focused up close.. the beam divergence sux but does spread out nicly for illumination.