yuip said:I reread Daedal's post, and it sounds like the capacitor is used to regulate the voltage. If the laser diode becomes disconnected from the capacitor, for even half a second, the capacitor will take on a nearly 6 volt charge. In your case, it would be nearly 7.2 volts. If you connected that too the laser diode without cutting the power to the circuit and discharging the cap, the LD would blow. So you don't really want to loose the connection.
I am making an assumption that the capacitor only feeds the LD the voltage that it needs. :-/
Gazoo also said that the way the circuit is designed, the most you will see out of it would be 3 volts when you used 6 volts in.
Comidt said:So, if i got this: http://cgi.ebay.com/LM317M-SMT-Volt...2582019QQihZ017QQcategoryZ36331QQcmdZViewItem
ANd I put it together, it would be really small?
But, can it only take 100mA?
What is it mounted on?
Thanks
Comidt said:Okay, now If I put one of these circuits in my light which takes 2 lithium batts (7.2v total), how would I reduce this to run a LD from it?
Resistors or what?
Does the LM317 regulate voltage and current or just current?
Thanks
JOnno