Daedal's home made driver

[mhouse974]

Thank you Daedal for making the Driver, thank you senkat for providing the group sale for diodes

The black plastic used is called ABS plastic, battery springs were taken from a AAA battery holder
metal ring is a normal washer i sanded it down a little, the driver was set up by Daedal to use 4 RCR123A batteries.

will post more info on quality after using the laser for a little longer
http://s44.photobucket.com/albums/f41/mhouse974/laser/

 

[Gazoo]

Sweet... But you could have got by with 2 RCR123's. Better yet would be to use them in parallel and increase the current . Nevertheless, do not let the voltage drop below 3 volts per cell.

 

[mhouse974]

well, 4 RCR123's guarantees a long running time between charges. I have a question though will the driver automatically shut off when the volt gets too low(3v) or will the thing run until there is zero power left in the battery?

 

[woop]

well, 4 RCR123's guarantees a long running time between charges. I have a question though will the driver automatically shut off when the volt gets too low(3v) or will the thing run until there is zero power left in the battery?

not really, all that extra voltage will just be wasted as heat in the lm317
and as the battery gets flat the LD will just get more dim until it goes out

 

[Gazoo]

You need to watch the voltage as I said in my previous post. If you let them run down to where the diode starts to get dim, you would have less than 1.5 volts per cell! Running them below 3 volts per cell will ruin them and the risk for venting is much greater when charging. So do NOT let them run below 3 volts per cell.

 

[Daedal]

VERY nice work!! I love the design and the final housing. looks like a nice labby unit... but portable... ;D

As about the batteries... just like Gazoo said, I wouldn't let them run below 3V each... they should be fine down to 2.7 though I think. At that voltage the laser power would start dimming. You'll notice the burning power start to drop. Although, with the power of 4 RCR123A batts, you should be fine for a very long time

Nicely done.

--DDL

 

[Gazoo]

2.7 volts X 4 = 10.8 volts! The diode will not start to dim until the batteries have reached less than 1.5 volts per cell. For maintaining the longevity of a li-ion battery, running it at less that 3 volts per cell is not recommended.

 

[Daedal]

Gazoo, he's not using the simple driver... he's using my home-made voltage and current regulator. The recommended voltage is 12V. Once the voltage goes below the limit of the first IC, the second will start to dim... I could be wrong though... with a 3V diode, and nominal 3V each IC, it should be find all the way down to 9V, but the resistors would compensate for the rest... I personally never tested it with less than 12V supply.

--DDL

 

[Gazoo]

OK..my bad sorry... ;D But he still needs to keep an eye on the voltage of the batteries, at least for the first run so he will have a feel for when they need charging.

 

[Daedal]

True

--DDL

 

[woop]

Gazoo, he's not using the simple driver... he's using my home-made voltage and current regulator. The recommended voltage is 12V. Once the voltage goes below the limit of the first IC, the second will start to dim... I could be wrong though... with a 3V diode, and nominal 3V each IC, it should be find all the way down to 9V, but the resistors would compensate for the rest... I personally never tested it with less than 12V supply.

--DDL

is it a linear voltage regulator?
it looks like it. whats the point of regulating the voltage? it just seems like a waste of power to me. why not just run it off 2 lithium cells and a current regulator?
having a voltage regulator is just a waste of 6V AND it won't even last any longer than using only 2 cells.

 

[mhouse974]

ok, the laser burnt through duct tape just fine then i tried to light a match and it just made a little smoke but no fire, so i adjusted the current pot and now it lights a match almost instantly. Woot

 

[mhouse974]

This laser is powerful! it even lights matches without me having to color the match head black.