- Joined
- Jan 2, 2008
- Messages
- 1,513
- Points
- 83
I bought a couple early on because they were 635nm instead of 650nm and as mentioned - cheap.Not sure why you bought them if you had no idea of what they are nor a definite use them -- perhaos cheap for a lot of them?
You get what you pay for most of the time generally speaking
Yes just drill a 6mm hole or holes in whatever material and push one into it to hold it or just use as is.
A 5mw $0.30 TO $0.50 red laser is not worth putting in a pointer host housing really. If you really want one in a housing buy a $3 cat toy or keyring laser fully assembled.
Forget eBay for a moment and cheapest poor quality stuff .
Have a look here to quickly get an education on what laser diodes, drivers, modules and lenses all of which are needed to make a pointer are: https://sites.google.com/site/dtrlpf/ .
You need a host/housing for the complete assembled module with diode, driver, and lens--nobody runs just a 1500mW module by itself without a heat sink of some description because you will quickly destroy it with thermal runaway overheat. . Use a host with a heat sink for a pointer
PS a host from Lifetime17 is as good as it is going to get---excellent quality and very reasonable price
You can drill a small hole in anything and wire them direct, but as mentioned other than being small, they aren't worth much. (pre made with worthless driver and no adjustment)
Don;t know if it was discussed yet, but there are basically 3 sizes of diode that are made to fit the 12x30 modules, so they are used a lot and for many projects, although there have been other options in the past. (Meredith modules, Kryton Grooves, DTR heatsinks)
MOST diodes you buy will be one of those three sizes (3.8, 5.6 or 9 mm) so you need the right sized module for the diode you have.
Most hosts are designed to fit these "AixiZ Modules"
I chime in on quality hosts from Lifetime17.