A little confused

[beantastic]

I have decided to finally build my lasers. Something I have been thinking about for years now. I have 2 diodes that I plan to build. One is from a PS3 KES-400A and the other I plan to extract from an LG DVD burner that I have on hand. If that one does not work I might just buy a red. I want to use drivers from DrLava to keep things compact and simple so I do not have to build the drivers myself. Also I am using the 12x30mm AixiZ module for both builds.

I have been researching but there is so much info I am feeling overloaded.

My question is what batteries and what driver should I use for each of the builds? I have not selected a host for either though I do have a minimag light with a push button back already which I could use.

So which of these should I use and what power source I guess is what I am really asking.
Micro FlexDrive

Micro BoostDrive

Groove V2 Driver

Thanks in advance this is a great community.

 

[rhd]

Downgrade the weight you give my advice if someone with more experience chips in later -

In your case, with those diodes, the question is probably more dependent on the type of battery setup you want.

(TWO BATTERIES)
If you're going to use 2x lithium cells (so two CR123s, or two 18650s, etc), then you'll have 7 to 8 volts when fully charged. In that case, the Groove V2 Driver would work for you, because the Groove requires 1.25 volts PLUS the voltage required by your diode. So for a red diode, a Groove driver would need a battery supply of roughly 1.25 V + 3.25 (red diode requirement) = 4.5 V.

Two lithium cells provide MORE than this amount, so a groove driver would be just fine.

(ONE BATTERY)
If you only want to use 1x lithium cell, you're only going to get 3.6 to 4.2 V fulling charged. In this case, a Groove driver WON'T work, because once you subtract the 1.25 V the driver itself requires, you're only left with about 2.5 V for the diode (which isn't enough). The key problem here, is that Groove drivers DON'T BOOST the voltage.

This is where a MicroDrive or FlexDrive become necessary. They can BOOST the voltage of a single cell, at the same time as regulating current. I forget all of the nuances between the two, but I'd probably go for a FlexDrive just because it has a higher output current range - which you may care about if you ever reuse it in the future for 445nm diodes (and I think both drivers are around the same price)

 

[beantastic]

Thanks for the input that helps a lot. I think unless someone else chimes in for these two since they are my first builds I will go with the groove drives because they are only $13 each. So I can get both for the price of a single Micro or Flex.

Though if someone else wants to chime in then I will take all the help I can get.

 

[joeyss]

Wrong topic

 

[rhd]

Given wrong topic of ^ post, I remove my comment