DIY 1W 808nm lab build project, Help needed

[hugo999999]

ok cool thanks

 

[hugo999999]

im probably gonna get one soon.. are they any different to mount in a module than normal 5.6mm diodes? thanks, hugo

 

[slifer]

sorry for the late reply.
These diodes are 9mm, so normal aixiz modules wont work. meredith modules will work but are more expensive and are recommended more. i simply bought the module from ebay and was 9mm.
As far as im aware all 1w or above infrared diode in the to3 package are 9mm. cmount ones are different shapes.

 

[slifer]

Ok so i have now successfully mounted my new infrared diode and soldered everything together.

Here are a few pictures;

This thing burns like crazy, but i do want to learn how to focus the this for further range. any help on focusing will be very helpfull.

All i need now is a heatsink for the module and an enclosure. i would be very gratefull if anyone could point me in the right direction to anyone who would make and sell me a descent square heatsink. should i just buy a generic plastic enclosure or do people on this forum sell custum enclosures.

So to sum up, all i need to finally finish this project is;
- Heatsink for the module (square/cuboid) so it will mount in the enclosure nicely
-Enclosure. help on custum made ones or normal enclosures i can use.

Thanks for everyones help so far. alot of money would have been wasted without your help so far.

 

[hugo999999]

very nice. what module did you use to focus the laser diode?

on heatsinks: you could get them from modwerx, they have a good lab heatsink as well as zbolt. you could try ebay. for my builds i just use basically a square chunk of aluminium with a hole drilled through the middle for my lab builds (you can buy logs of aluminium off ebay for cheap).

focusing: im not sure but this may be a multimode diode, if it is you will need an additional lense to focus the fast axis. the lens is called a FAC.
infrared in general is a lot harder to focus in length as it diverges greater than other wavelengths, so this may just be it.

hugo.

 

[hugo999999]

focusing: im not sure but this may be a multimode diode, if it is you will need an additional lense to focus the fast axis. the lens is called a FAC.
infrared in general is a lot harder to focus in length as it diverges greater than other wavelengths, so this may just be it.

hugo.

just realised you already had this information in one of your above posts

 

[slifer]

thanks for your help, ill see if i can make a heatsink myself

 

[hugo999999]

any luck? i found a large bar of solid aluminium yesterday for $5 at a metal recycling plant, you should try there if theres one near you, or at a dump etc.
Hugo

 

[Blackfoot]

Hi all!,
What an INCREDIBLE site this is, I have been searching the net for 4 days, reading all sorts of things, then I found this site about 6 hours ago and learned 10 times more than I did in the last 4 days!
I too am setting up an IR Laser, I am going to use the 1 Watt 808 nm, I just have a few things to clear up since these are hard to find and not cheap, so I don't fancy the idea of burning any out.
I am doing a "proof of concept" research in physics and I really need to finish this planning stage up; didn't realize how complicated these buggers were ;-)
1) Most important part first, I am unclear on the safety rating for the goggles; I need to make sure I have a strong enough pair to guard against any stray reflections from this thing (and also a good place to get them).
2) I have been following the DDL driver set up here, and if need be, I can do all that with no problem using the LM 150 if I need to. But my question here is on the "Micro FlexDrive V5", if I can miniaturize this, I will pay the $23 http://hacylon.case.edu/ebay/laser_diode/Micro_FlexDrive.php ... I am unclear if this is just for a pulsed laser? Or will this supply continuous power for the Quantum Well Structure of this 1 W 808 nm? It shows in the manual http://hacylon.case.edu/ebay/laser_diode/MicroFlexDrive_V5_manual.pdf that with a heat sink, it can be configured for up to 1.5 Amps as long as the voltage is low, (2 v should work if this is based on steady power).
3) Here is my concern on the laser itself, I am looking at the following for $118 (unless someone knows where I can get one locally) http://www.roithner-laser.com/All_Datasheets/datasheets/laserdiodes/ldm-0808-1000-93.pdf ... I am not really fond of ordering this thing from here, but they seem to be hard to find. If someone, (like maybe billg519 ... hint, hint, BTW, would love to see your collection ;-p), knows where I can get one here in the states, that would be fantastic! I am also worried about the photodiode connection, it seems people are leaving this disconnected, but from what I have read, I thought this was needed to prevent the thing from going into thermal-runaway? Could use a little input/clarification here.
4) And lastly, I believe I will go with the "Laser Diode Collimating Lens (Glass) by Meredith" Meredith Instruments but this posses another mystery for me (I know, I have NooB written all over me ... LOL). I am uncertain if this lens has the heat sink built with it, or if I also have to get a separate heat sink. From the picture, it looks like it is a combo ... is this correct?
Ok, sorry for the long wind, as well as some things that may appear obvious to seasoned laserist, I just can't afford to have too many delays because have to get the project done that requires the use of this. I will provide pics of the process when I have it built, if it is desired, and I will probably make a YouTube video as well.

Thanks in advance for any hints, tips, and advice. Also hope I can be a welcome member of this community, because I can see now, this is going to be contagious. :bowdown:

 

[hugo999999]

1) Most important part first, I am unclear on the safety rating for the goggles; I need to make sure I have a strong enough pair to guard against any stray reflections from this thing (and also a good place to get them).

1watt is an extremely dangerous laser for a beginner, even more so as it is IR. try to go overboard with the glasses as you won't know if the laser is pointed in your eyes with IR before it is too late. i recommend o-like or oemlasers. basically 1 OD takes the lasers power down by 10%, so you will want at least 4 OD to be safe.

 

[hugo999999]

;
2) I have been following the DDL driver set up here, and if need be, I can do all that with no problem using the LM 150 if I need to. But my question here is on the "Micro FlexDrive V5", if I can miniaturize this, I will pay the $23 http://hacylon.case.edu/ebay/laser_diode/Micro_FlexDrive.php ... I am unclear if this is just for a pulsed laser? Or will this supply continuous power for the Quantum Well Structure of this 1 W 808 nm? It shows in the manual http://hacylon.case.edu/ebay/laser_diode/MicroFlexDrive_V5_manual.pdf that with a heat sink, it can be configured for up to 1.5 Amps as long as the voltage is low, (2 v should work if this is based on steady power).

no it isn't for a pulsed laser... anyway i wouldn't try to use something that small to power such a high powered laser, they don't work too well at such high current draws. anyway for a 1watt laser youre build will be fairly large as you will need a huge heatsink. i would reccomend doing a daedal driver with a lm350 or 2 lm317s in parallel.

 

[hugo999999]

3) Here is my concern on the laser itself, I am looking at the following for $118 (unless someone knows where I can get one locally) http://www.roithner-laser.com/All_Datasheets/datasheets/laserdiodes/ldm-0808-1000-93.pdf ... I am not really fond of ordering this thing from here, but they seem to be hard to find. If someone, (like maybe billg519 ... hint, hint, BTW, would love to see your collection ;-p), knows where I can get one here in the states, that would be fantastic! I am also worried about the photodiode connection, it seems people are leaving this disconnected, but from what I have read, I thought this was needed to prevent the thing from going into thermal-runaway? Could use a little input/clarification here.

not sure what youre talking about with the photodiode, as much as i know theyre only present on disk drive lasers.

as for the diode, try ebay they are much cheaper, the person who started this thread bought one there.

 

[hugo999999]

4) And lastly, I believe I will go with the "Laser Diode Collimating Lens (Glass) by Meredith" Meredith Instruments but this posses another mystery for me (I know, I have NooB written all over me ... LOL). I am uncertain if this lens has the heat sink built with it, or if I also have to get a separate heat sink. From the picture, it looks like it is a combo ... is this correct?
Ok, sorry for the long wind, as well as some things that may appear obvious to seasoned laserist, I just can't afford to have too many delays because have to get the project done that requires the use of this. I will provide pics of the process when I have it built, if it is desired, and I will probably make a YouTube video as well.

Thanks in advance for any hints, tips, and advice. Also hope I can be a welcome member of this community, because I can see now, this is going to be contagious. :bowdown:

no this has no heatsink built in, at least not one that could be used with a 1 watt laser. you will need a huge heatsink for this. the thing that looks like a heatsink is a mounting block.

also with the collimating lenses your laser will not go very far as you need a FAC lense to focus these lasers properly as they are multimode.

and yes it is contagious :eg:

 

[mitbrown]

Is there a cheap way to get a good size heatsink without the ability to machine such a thing?

 

[hugo999999]

yes read this thread i already talked about it. go to a dump or metal recycling plant and buy a block of aluminium, you can get them very cheap

 

[mitbrown]

I read that, but I assumed that you would have to do some machining to make it into a heatsink

edit: sorry, I definitely missed that information. Thanks for redirecting me