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FrozenGate by Avery

520nm laser pointer powered by AAA?

L

lazylazer

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Jun 14, 2011
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I'm looking to buy a 520nm laser diode pen style pointer powered by common batteries like AAA or AA. Do they exist?

The reason is I plan to use this once in a while at star parties and I only turn them on very briefly to avoid too much disruptions. So there is no need for long duration lithium rechargeable batteries. Rather I prefer the convenience of AAA or AA which I have alot of at home.

I see laserland has a 520nm laser pointer on ebay for $24 but it uses 16340 batteries.

o-like has a $99 120mW for $99 and uses 18650.

I already have DPSS green pointers using AAA. They work fine but I just want to have a laser diode version.

Any suggestions?
 





Not aware of any commercially produced, although maybe someone else is? I'd need to do a little searching.

I built my 515 to run on 2x AAA, although opted for the Lithium primary cells (not rechargeable) from Energizer. Found regular alkaline AAA batteries did not last long under the load.
 
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Considering the price of the alternatives, I'd opt for the LaserLands pointer which I got it an auction for $17.00. They do take 2 16340 Li-ion batteries, but at the power they are set at, will last a very long time between charges. I have to believe that the other two options wouldn't last long on AAA alkaline batteries.
 
lazylazer said:
I'm looking to buy a 520nm laser diode pen style pointer powered by common batteries like AAA or AA. Do they exist?

The reason is I plan to use this once in a while at star parties and I only turn them on very briefly to avoid too much disruptions. So there is no need for long duration lithium rechargeable batteries. Rather I prefer the convenience of AAA or AA which I have alot of at home.

I see laserland has a 520nm laser pointer on ebay for $24 but it uses 16340 batteries.

o-like has a $99 120mW for $99 and uses 18650.

I already have DPSS green pointers using AAA. They work fine but I just want to have a laser diode version.

Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
I suspect Paul's reply is correct. If that is true then you'll in the long end up spending more money on batteries then you would on li-ion.
 
You know while I was measuring the wavelength of these SB1573N91 Sharp diodes, I also measure my LaserLands pointer and it was rock steady at 510nm for over a minute before it started to rise slowly. That is a pretty nice shade of green. Not any yellow in it compared to a 532nm.
 
OP, you might have a much easier time picking out a 520nm laser that uses one 18650, and instead of the 18650 using one of these:

wimxed.jpg


It's a 3xAAA to 18650 adapter, and they're all over the internet. Try eBay, alibaba, etc. At least that way you can run most standard 18650 lasers from AAAs (given <~500mW?), and you've also got a much larger selection to choose from vs AAA native devices.

I don't know how long they would last though, definitely not as long as an 18650.
 
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EP, that's a good alternative if you are strictly limited to AAA batteries. As you mentioned, I've got to believe that they wouldn't last anywhere near as long as an 18650 cell.
 
Definitely not. A good AAA alkaline has 1000 mAh capacity or so, at a discharge rate of 100 mA (i.e. over a 10 hour period). By the time you discharge it with 1 amp that capacity drops quite a bit, i would not expect to work over half an hour (though it "should" work for a full hour based on capacity).

I'm not sure how much current your laser will draw, but it's something to consider.
 
Would depend on the driver's minimum input voltage, as the three AAA will drop as they discharge. I doubt you'd get more than half its capacity. But, that's just a guess.
 
@Paul, that's another issue indeed, the minimum input voltage the driver would accept.

Considering i supopse it's boost switchmode solution here it would probably cut off at 3.0 or 2.5 volts to save a lihtium battery, which is not -that- bad for 3 alkalines in series. Especially if the load is not that high (few hundred mA at best) a cut off at 2.5 vots (0.8 per cell) would get most of the energy out of an alkaline cell.

If you wanted to use NIMH AAA cells things would be even better, those don't drop under 1.2 volt a cell until almost completely depleted, typical lithium protection may even risk over-discharge there if the cells are not well matched.
 
The other problem here is that with the Vf of the diode being fairly high, a boost driver must pull more current to supply the diode and so will run the batteries down much faster than diodes with a lower Vf. I don't see those AAA lasting very long at all.
 
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