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So I had a PHR803T diode that the pins had come off multiple times, it wasn't dead yet however so I decided to take it under my wing and create something of my own. so I soldered both pins back on and used silicone around it everywhere to hold the pins on better and let it dry for a few days.
I only have a few DrLava flexdrives that I need to make Dorcy Blu Ray's so I couldn't use those to power it, however I do have some extra low range adjustable rkcstr drivers that were just sitting around so I decided to use one of those.
I also have some spare MXDL flashlights that I bought a while ago from DX thinking I was going to make a lot of lasers with them but I never actually have yet, my Dorcys seem to be doing well and Dark Horse is a great supplier of heat sinks, so Dorcys are my main flashlight, meaning that these MXDL lights are just sitting there. so I had to use one of those. I am using one of the Dorcy Jr heat sinks though and fit it on the end of the MXDL by flipping the MXDL reflector inside out and cutting it up to fit in the flashlight and to have the heat sink press fit along the reflector to hold the module in place. There wasn't exactly enough room inside the head of the MXDL for the rkcstr driver to fit so I just barely screwed the head on then hot glued it on to try and keep it in place. also when you twist the head on all the wires get twisted which is bad, so this was a good alternative
I have a lot of wildfire CR123 3V batteries that I ordered for the MXDL's and rigged up a blu ray to run off 2 of the CR123s... this was way too low of voltage and the laser just barely turned on, it looked pathetic... I went up to Walgreens as well as Walmart to look for 3.6V cr123 batteries but couldn't find any... I was dissapointed and posted in rkcstr's thread about it. Aparently 7.2V would have been too low for 405nm diodes anyways so I decided to use a 9V battery instead.
this is where it gets interesting. I was going to try and mod the flashlight or battery to fit the 9V inside the MXDL but this would be impossible, so I thought of attaching it to the outside and just running a wire down in. well it's quite deep in the MXDL to reach the + connection, so I just taped a wire to the - of one of the 3V cr123s and used that as a connection to the + of the MXDL. this wire runs out and I connected it to a 9V battery clamp thing that I got at an electronics store a while back. worked out great for this purpose
for the negative, the whole case is ground negative on the MXDL, so I experimented with just touching the wire in certain spots on the case and the laser worked! it seemed that the threads on the end were the best spot to attach the negative to. I was going to just tape it on there but I remembered a long time ago I had bought some clicky switchs from DX that I was going to use for my minimaglites. Turns out they fit perfectly in the MXDL! the connections on the side of the clicky switch fit right on the top of the bottom of the case, and the negative wire from the 9V connector wraps around the spring near the end for a tight snug fit.
this laser is just for me so I simply used electric tape and taped the switch on the bottom, then the 9V battery around the flashlight.
this is quite possibly the strangest laser I've made. it's running on 12V (or a little less) with two different kinds of batteries, one inside the flashlight and one outside... the wrong heat sink modified to work anyways... and a beat up PHR803T diode.
pics (click for larger picture):
[link=http://www.kendallwyatt.com/pictures/DSCF0716.JPG]
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[link=http://www.kendallwyatt.com/pictures/DSCF0717.JPG]
[/link]
[link=http://www.kendallwyatt.com/pictures/DSCF0718.JPG]
[/link]
all in all I'm glad I made it and I'm going to keep it until it goes to the laser heaven :
disclaimer: i would never sell anything like this and take much more care when building my Dorcy Blu Rays or any other laser I sell. this was just for fun and personal use. (every laser I make I end up selling so I wanted to have a blu ray to keep for myself!)
thanks,
Kendall
I only have a few DrLava flexdrives that I need to make Dorcy Blu Ray's so I couldn't use those to power it, however I do have some extra low range adjustable rkcstr drivers that were just sitting around so I decided to use one of those.
I also have some spare MXDL flashlights that I bought a while ago from DX thinking I was going to make a lot of lasers with them but I never actually have yet, my Dorcys seem to be doing well and Dark Horse is a great supplier of heat sinks, so Dorcys are my main flashlight, meaning that these MXDL lights are just sitting there. so I had to use one of those. I am using one of the Dorcy Jr heat sinks though and fit it on the end of the MXDL by flipping the MXDL reflector inside out and cutting it up to fit in the flashlight and to have the heat sink press fit along the reflector to hold the module in place. There wasn't exactly enough room inside the head of the MXDL for the rkcstr driver to fit so I just barely screwed the head on then hot glued it on to try and keep it in place. also when you twist the head on all the wires get twisted which is bad, so this was a good alternative
I have a lot of wildfire CR123 3V batteries that I ordered for the MXDL's and rigged up a blu ray to run off 2 of the CR123s... this was way too low of voltage and the laser just barely turned on, it looked pathetic... I went up to Walgreens as well as Walmart to look for 3.6V cr123 batteries but couldn't find any... I was dissapointed and posted in rkcstr's thread about it. Aparently 7.2V would have been too low for 405nm diodes anyways so I decided to use a 9V battery instead.this is where it gets interesting. I was going to try and mod the flashlight or battery to fit the 9V inside the MXDL but this would be impossible, so I thought of attaching it to the outside and just running a wire down in. well it's quite deep in the MXDL to reach the + connection, so I just taped a wire to the - of one of the 3V cr123s and used that as a connection to the + of the MXDL. this wire runs out and I connected it to a 9V battery clamp thing that I got at an electronics store a while back. worked out great for this purpose
for the negative, the whole case is ground negative on the MXDL, so I experimented with just touching the wire in certain spots on the case and the laser worked! it seemed that the threads on the end were the best spot to attach the negative to. I was going to just tape it on there but I remembered a long time ago I had bought some clicky switchs from DX that I was going to use for my minimaglites. Turns out they fit perfectly in the MXDL! the connections on the side of the clicky switch fit right on the top of the bottom of the case, and the negative wire from the 9V connector wraps around the spring near the end for a tight snug fit.this laser is just for me so I simply used electric tape and taped the switch on the bottom, then the 9V battery around the flashlight.
this is quite possibly the strangest laser I've made. it's running on 12V (or a little less) with two different kinds of batteries, one inside the flashlight and one outside... the wrong heat sink modified to work anyways... and a beat up PHR803T diode.
pics (click for larger picture):
[link=http://www.kendallwyatt.com/pictures/DSCF0716.JPG]
[link=http://www.kendallwyatt.com/pictures/DSCF0717.JPG]
[link=http://www.kendallwyatt.com/pictures/DSCF0718.JPG]
all in all I'm glad I made it and I'm going to keep it until it goes to the laser heaven :
disclaimer: i would never sell anything like this and take much more care when building my Dorcy Blu Rays or any other laser I sell. this was just for fun and personal use. (every laser I make I end up selling so I wanted to have a blu ray to keep for myself!)
thanks,
Kendall
