Just wanted to throw this out there and there for anyone who hasn't the means to come up with the parts to build this great little unit grainde has shared with us.
I absolutely applaud the building of this unit and grainde and anyone who knows me at all on this forum and some of the things I've done will attest that I would.
That being said, IF anyone would like a small pocket burner like this on the cheap and doesn't have stuff around to harvest I would like to nominate a big bang for the buck from O-Like that I ran into over 6 months ago.
I like to mess with the voltage of units that are rated for a couple standard alkaline cells to see what they will push with either a 10440 or 14500 with spacer. Have seen from no change to a dramatic increase in units.
I keep a log book of all my units and when I test like this I write down both the output with standard batteries and what would be essentially 4.2V lithium at full charge right off the charger.
Bought 2 of these units and they averaged about 137mw with alkalines and 220 with the jump in voltage. Have never done any other tests on them although I could certainly mess with them more with my variable DC power supply and see what is going on with the amp draw. Just never felt the need to push them harder and I don't deliberately push things til they break.
The units come with a focusable lens and feel like quality in the hand because they are very weighty for the size. I am certainly not saying they are quality but just that they feel that way (what do you expect for $12 anyways).
I have never seen anyone else test one or say they purchased one.
100mW 650nm red laser pen/ focusable /Pop balloons [OL-650-100P] - $11.99 : Zen Cart!, The Art of E-commerce
If anyone is interested in one, you better hurry as there are only 582 units in stock
Again, I'm just throwing this out there. I have no idea how long the unit will last "overdriven" and this in no way shape or form compares to what grainde has done here so PLEASE no one think this is meaningful in comparison to this thread.
That unit just came immediately to mind when I saw what grainde had done and I am only sharing this because it is a way to have something in this format so inexpensively.
Don't anyone dare compare what he did on his own with a store bought unit. Besides, the O-Like unit is 5.9" (150mm) long unless you cut it down to use without a spacer and has a side button. I just kind of assume when someone says "keychain" they are hanging their keys outside their pocket. I've never seen a store bought unit this inexpensive that had that kind of output. Has me curious as to how hard it would be to modify it to be shorter. You could also take it apart and put the "guts" in a smaller host maybe like the short MXDL's. Sorry, my brain won't stop thinking of possibilities when I get into this "stuff" Lol
If this public service announcement offends in ANY way grainde I will immediately remove it no harm no foul
Pete