Hello there!
It's nice to see so many constructive critics, well, I don't have much time since I've got a new job (hurray!).
I will first start by saying that my baby is already waiting for me in the Post Office... my friend needed my signature so I couldn't pick it up today, anyway, also my new reprap J-head has also arrived... time to get creative on various "front lines"!
Well, starting from the top down here it goes, all the green numbers are meters, I've used some to have a "hint" of what was going on over there, the op-amp, depending on POT resistance can get 0V on + rail, what I think is weird is the meter on the Vg on the FET stays @ 4.09 thus keeping the FET allways open... this could be bad if (in real life) there is actually some voltage building up there, but even if I disconnect the load the voltmeter still gives me insane voltages... like +134 volts or more!! :O
Well, if the OpAmp only outputs a bit above the + rail... this doesn't make any sense... I guess it's a software bug anyway, here's what I mean (on pic_1):
Well, about the capacitor C2, I have placed it across the Laser diode but the results weren't very good, the thing would burst in amperage (to whatever I would set the POT) and on the Oscilloscope (on the laser output) the ripple had came back, so I've decided to stick with the values on C2, It seemed to me that changing this value will attenuate the rippling according to amperage that is being drawn by the load, or, I could TTL after the laser itself, since the circuit is already limited I would (i think.. correct if wrong) be able to shut it down "right from the source"... but I think it would interfere on how the Op would read the current and probably "drive the FET crazy".... hum not a good idea!
Anyway, C1 also remains the same because that can actually prevent some crazy spikes from coming into Vdrain and... I have some big capacitors laying around that I don't mind "testing"... But nevertheless I still putted it across the Laser diode (aka Output)... After reading your advice this seemed keen to do.
Meatball, that was actually the kind of current shunt I was looking for!! And it has the sense current needed to drive this circuit, I was going to parallel 1% resistors on a big board to make the sense resistor that might have saved me a bit
Like Cyparagon said, I need to keep that ground on the FET, once the power goes down, like he said, I need the remaining current to be driven through that bleed resistor...
I will use some 100A diodes to test the thing out first, don't worry.. let's see what happens. Anyway I'm going to take a better look at this circuit and as soon as I can, I will post something.
Check out Pic 1 to see that weird bug.. actually that's what is bugging me most...
Regards to all!