Woooot! As of today i'm finally the proud owner of my own DIY red mini dorcy laser. I got this thing working on my third attempt, after already destroying 2 other diodes. I might post some pics up later on, but as of yet it's nothing special. My next step is to try and build some sort of heatsink inside the head to disperse some of the heat. I'm gonna try and look after this laser, but I don't expect it to last very long as my soldering was very dodgy. I'm suprised it's not shorting as it is. For the time being, it's one hell of a laser though! So far i've been able 2 light a match and burn a hole through paper without any trouble. This thing is unbelievably bright (i'll be careful ;D)
So what have I learnt from this thing, after spending $60 on diodes? My only advice is, don't second guess yourself. If you solder a pin or connection, and you're worried you might have not done a good enough job, leave it! Don't try and correct urself until you're 100% sure there's no contact. Otherwise, as I have learnt, you'll probably only end up making things alot worse for yourself.
Well anyway i'll leave it at that. Any questions i'll be happy to answer. And a big thanks to SenKat for all his GB work, without his time and effort none of this would have been possible.
End of speech!
So what have I learnt from this thing, after spending $60 on diodes? My only advice is, don't second guess yourself. If you solder a pin or connection, and you're worried you might have not done a good enough job, leave it! Don't try and correct urself until you're 100% sure there's no contact. Otherwise, as I have learnt, you'll probably only end up making things alot worse for yourself.
Well anyway i'll leave it at that. Any questions i'll be happy to answer. And a big thanks to SenKat for all his GB work, without his time and effort none of this would have been possible.
End of speech!