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FrozenGate by Avery

Batteries with LM317?






If you want to make a laser with a driver, you should get a red laser diode and use that. Greens are usually best left to laser companies because you have these tiny crystals and lenses that need to be placed just right to produce green light from the near-IR the 808nm laser diode produces. Back before green lasers were common, people would buy crystals and IR pump diodes (the 808nm laser diode) and try to make their own green lasers, but that's really for those hardcore folk.

Another problem is that the pump diode is a high powered IR diode, meaning it will be quite dangerous for you to try and align without proper eye protection. The light is also invisible to the naked eye which makes it a pain to work with.

Finally, the IR laser diode uses only about 1.5V I believe, and the driver board it comes with is best suited to making sure that the output is not too much for the crystals and diode to handle, since providing too much power can burn out your hardware.

If you don't have a red laser diode yet, you can still build the driver and get it ready by using a dummy load. You'll need to do that anyway before you connect up to a laser diode or you might overpower it. Your lantern battery will work just fine for a red using a LM317.
 
Bionic-Badger said:
If you want to make a laser with a driver, you should get a red laser diode and use that. Greens are usually best left to laser companies because you have these tiny crystals and lenses that need to be placed just right to produce green light from the near-IR the 808nm laser diode produces. Back before green lasers were common, people would buy crystals and IR pump diodes (the 808nm laser diode) and try to make their own green lasers, but that's really for those hardcore folk.

Another problem is that the pump diode is a high powered IR diode, meaning it will be quite dangerous for you to try and align without proper eye protection. The light is also invisible to the naked eye which makes it a pain to work with.

Finally, the IR laser diode uses only about 1.5V I believe, and the driver board it comes with is best suited to making sure that the output is not too much for the crystals and diode to handle, since providing too much power can burn out your hardware.

If you don't have a red laser diode yet, you can still build the driver and get it ready by using a dummy load. You'll need to do that anyway before you connect up to a laser diode or you might overpower it. Your lantern battery will work just fine for a red using a LM317.
Click to expand...


Thanks... When people talk about the diode from DVD burners, and the speed. They are talking about The DVD Burner Speed... Right?
If so I have an oldish computer with a DVD burner, and it's X8 I belive. How hard would I push that (mAh), and is the 6v Still a safe Voltage?

Thanks for that info.
 
Yes, generally the 8x or whatever is the burn speed as the readers are usually pretty low power no matter what optical media technology. The LM317 should be able to drop whatever voltage you give it. It will also drop 3V regardless, so you need at least 3V headroom over the diode's voltage. 6V should be fine.
 
Thanks!

Last question, cause the answers I keep finding are not for my particular setup, or parts.

Is 6V @.125mAh safe for a x8 Diode?
 
should be. but to be honest those diodes haven't been around a while so i would be hard to find then info. take note that you can spend like $10 on a much more powerful red laser diode.
 
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