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FrozenGate by Avery

DIY Homemade laser diode driver

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knimrod said:
Nice work!  I hope you'll let some of us buy a few of those off you... :)  
Click to expand...

Well, I just couldn't wait, so I went ahead and etched the boards and built my first one!

I made the board slightly smaller to fit better in the DX casing, it is now 9.1 x 17.2 x 6.2mm actual measured size.

I haven't measured actual output, but it drove a trash diode fine. I'm still waiting to get my diodes from Senkat, so I'll have to wait til then to actually see what it can do.

There's enough parts to make 10, and I'll probably hold onto 5 of them, but I may be able to let go of the rest. Also, the etching made 44 boards, so I could also buy more parts and make more, but for now I'm too busy with school to do it. Maybe while I'm on winter break or after March (when I finish the class I'm currently in).

Anyway, I'll have to give an update when I'm able to test the circuit on a good diode. In the mean time, here's a pic:
 

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rkcstr said:
[quote author=knimrod link=1185701612/615#622 date=1196916094]
Nice work!  I hope you'll let some of us buy a few of those off you... :)  
Click to expand...

Well, I just couldn't wait, so I went ahead and etched the boards and built my first one!

I made the board slightly smaller to fit better in the DX casing, it is now 9.1 x 17.2 x 6.2mm actual measured size.

I haven't measured actual output, but it drove a trash diode fine.  I'm still waiting to get my diodes from Senkat, so I'll have to wait til then to actually see what it can do.

There's enough parts to make 10, and I'll probably hold onto 5 of them, but I may be able to let go of the rest.  Also, the etching made 44 boards, so I could also buy more parts and make more, but for now I'm too busy with school to do it.  Maybe while I'm on winter break or after March (when I finish the class I'm currently in).

Anyway, I'll have to give an update when I'm able to test the circuit on a good diode.  In the mean time, here's a pic:
[/quote]

Nice.. I'll take 4 of your left over parts kits if you want to let them go. Let me know.
 
rkcstr said:
There's enough parts to make 10, and I'll probably hold onto 5 of them, but I may be able to let go of the rest.  Also, the etching made 44 boards, so I could also buy more parts and make more, but for now I'm too busy with school to do it.  Maybe while I'm on winter break or after March (when I finish the class I'm currently in).
Click to expand...

I'll take a couple off your hands if you have any spare. PM me!


Dan :-)
 
Hi, I am newly registered to this forum and have 2 questions.

First, I have built this driver for my laser diode. However I could not locate a 100 ohm pot.
I was able to locate a 1 k, a 1m, and a 400 something k. for the sake of seeing if I could even build something like this I made it with the 1k pot. When I connect an xmas bulb to the driver and power it on I turn the pot all the way up and theres a dim glow in the bulb, very dim. I turn the pot down and the light goes off. Does this mean that I have built the driver correctly and its working? I know I have the wrong pot and it wont power my diode but I need to know if this means my driver is functioning correctly. I think it is. Also I have the driver powered form a 7.4volt lipo battery pack form a team losi micro t. From what I understand as long as I input at least 6 volts to the driver the power output remains at 2.5volts. If this is correct it would be safe to use the 7.4 volt pack right?

Second question, My diode does not look like the one that came out of my aixiz housing. I assume its an open can. I can see right inside of the diode and see 2 pins and the laser in the center. I placed it in the housing and can somewhat focus the beam. This will still work right?
It is form a lite on it 20x dvd burner. I connected it to an old laser pointer and it lights up fine. its just not as bright as I would have expected.

So after reading this all that I should need now is the 100 ohm pot right? Is there a work around so I can make this work with out it? i have been waiting a very long time to build my burning laser and if I'm this close I am happy.

Thank you for your time in answering my questions.
 
Its sounds like it works. I'm not too familiar with the voltages on the circuit. I was wondering myself if I could use something larger than a 100ohm pot? The reason it lights up dull in an old laser it because it isn't receiving much current.
 
You can use any pot there - just be sure you put it in series with a 4 or 5 ohm resistor. If you know the maximum current on your diode, you can use a meter and manually walk the current in with the pot, then measure the final resistance setting.

You can make a pot of a smaller value by putting a fixed resistor in parallel with it.

For my test version using the Sony 16x DVD burner diode, I used the 25 ohm rheostat they sell at Radio Shack.

Be sure to check the schematic you're using - one of the schematics on the board here has the output and adjust pins swapped, and if you build it that way, you'll have nearly 6v at nearly max I flowing to your diode (death of diode is nearly instant).

Check your schematic against the regulator's datasheet to be sure.

It SOUNDS like it is working correctly, as the adjustment to the pot makes the light intensity change. Also, again, use a meter to measure current and voltage being supplied to the output.

Good luck!

Dave
 
DNMEBOY said:
Hi, I am newly registered to this forum and have 2 questions.

First, I have built this driver for my laser diode. However I could not locate a 100 ohm pot.
I was able to locate a 1 k, a 1m, and a 400 something k. for the sake of seeing if I could even build something like this I made it with the 1k pot. When I connect an xmas bulb to the driver and power it on I turn the pot all the way up and theres a dim glow in the bulb, very dim. I turn the pot down and the light goes off. Does this mean that I have built the driver correctly and its working? I know I have the wrong pot  and it wont power my diode but I need to know if this means my driver is functioning correctly. I think it is. Also I have the driver powered form a 7.4volt lipo battery pack form a team losi micro t. From what I understand as long as I input at least 6 volts to the driver the power output remains at 2.5volts. If this is correct it would be safe to use the 7.4 volt pack right?

Second question, My diode does not look like the one that came out of my aixiz housing. I assume its an open can. I can see right inside of the diode and see 2 pins and the laser in the center. I placed it in the housing and can somewhat focus the beam. This will still work right?
It is form a lite on it 20x dvd burner. I connected it to an old laser pointer and it lights up fine. its just not as bright as I would have expected.

So after reading this all that I should need now is the 100 ohm pot right? Is there a work around so I can make this work with out it? i have been waiting a very long time to build my burning laser and if I'm this close I am happy.

Thank you for your time in answering my questions.
Click to expand...

start a new thread, PLEASE!!!

and I have bout 20 extra 100ohm pots on me...

PM me
 
Ok.........sorry...... :(



BTW, I dont have a meter.......but ill figure it out somewhere.
 
DNMEBOY said:
Ok.........sorry...... :(



BTW, I dont have a meter.......but ill figure it out somewhere.
Click to expand...


get a meter, NOT from radioshack, they rip u off (no offence RS employees) go to DealExtreme, or ebay, and you can get a preety good dmm for under 10 bucks
 
DNMEBOY,
Please do not post the same question in multiple threads. It makes it very difficult to track who already answered your questions.... and the answers they gave you. Thanks.

There are lots of recent threads with information about the open can diode. I am sure if you read up just a little you will find the information you are looking for. Thanks again and welcome to the forum.
 
I stopped posting here.......

I was told "start a new thread, PLEASE!!!"

I'm being told conflicting things here.......you guys confuse me............

Anyway I am done posting anywhere here.


Thanks for the help.

Bye....
 
rkcstr said:
New here. Planning on building me a Senkat red laser and a Bluray from Daedal. I've been planning to build Daedel's circuit here, but I wanted to build a small driver that I could run off lower voltages and would fit in my DX housing. So, I designed an SMD circuit and am working on building it. I just got the parts and did a test fit on a scale printout, you can check out the mockup attached (circuit isn't correct, and has been revised, but still has mostly same arrangement, in case anyone notices).

I'm etching the boards myself using a method that should yield very nice boards. Unfortunately, I have exams next week for my graduate classes, so I can't get it finished until then :-/

Anyway, the board size is 10x18.5mm and should be less than 6mm thick. Just slightly longer than the diameter of the dime in the pic. Test fitting the scale printout was good, I just have to make an actual size mockup of the board to make sure. But, if all goes well, it should fit no problem by soldering the LD directly to it and capable of outputing 1A using an On Semi NCP1117 LDO regulator (~1v drop out).

I'll be sure to post up some pics when it's finished and my results :D
Click to expand...


O_o nice! have a look at the one I have designed and am building. in my sig.
I am etching a prototype myself but I didn't want to do 200 of them :P so I am using pad2pad www.pad2pad.com for my boards.

Would you consider consulting with me and Daedal on revision 2 of my boards? I intend to build something much smaller and better than I have done, and probably get them assembled somewhere so I can go SMT.
 
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