Building my first laser w/ flexdrive...

[electricmonk9@aol.com]

Hey LPF-
I've been lurking for about two weeks in preparation for my first build, a phr-803t, but i'm stuck.  I ordered a cheapo lp from amazon to use as a host, but i'm not sure what to connect to what.  I pulled out the ld from the pointer and the thing (driver?) that connects the batteries to the ld has three connection spots.  They are labeled "Vcc", "ld", and "pd".  I'm going with a case-negative configuration so I only need to know which pin is the + of the battery.  Does anyone know which one it is, or if this won't work for some other reason?

edit: I've googled some stuff and it looks like the "Vcc" is the battery +, but i'd like to be sure before I ruin my driver.

 

[pseudolobster]

You'll want to bypass the driver circuit in the pointer you bought and have the leads going straight to the battery through the button. I'm not sure why, but that driver sounds more complex than it should be. The fact that it has a "pd" (photodiode) pin confuses me and makes me wonder if it will work. It's much safer to cut the traces on the circuit board so that the original driver isn't used, then run some bits of wire to the flexdrive.

Vcc is positive voltage, LD is laser diode, and PD is photodiode. I'm guessing this is a green pointer since it sounds like the case is negative.

 

[electricmonk9@aol.com]

It's actually a red pointer. I was kind of confused when I opened it up too. I'd post a picture if I could but I don't think I can until i get my post count up. I was thinking of hooking up right to the switch but the board is WAY to complicated for me to mess with it. It has an adjustable pot (think that's what it's called) and a bunch of other stuff too. I guess I'll try to bypass it anyway, thanks.

 

[pseudolobster]

It should be pretty easy to bypass, just find where the voltage comes in, cut the traces on the board using an exacto knife, and run some wires to the flexdrive.

I think you need 10 posts before you can post pics... Say hello on the welcome board, maybe browse around a bit and see if there's any simple questions you can answer, maybe post some other questions you have about lasers... Otherwise, you could post the pictures to an image hosting site like http://www.imageshack.us or http://www.photobucket.com then post the links here using spaces instead of dots.

 

[electricmonk9@aol.com]

Yeah, I've seen some other newbies doing stuff like that. I kind of figured that the rules were there for a reason and didn't want to start off on the wrong foot. Anyway, I think I'm just gonna run a some short wires from the spring to the switch and the switch to the driver cause I can't even see where the battery connects to the switch right now.