Driving NUBM08 8x4.75W 445nm array

[cowmoon71]

In the process of acquiring parts for getting a NUBM08 445nm 8x4.74W array based laser. I plan to use a 7.4W 5400mAh LiPo I have as the power source. My obstacle now is driving the diodes. They are individually soldered onto a PCB with some isoteric connector on the PCB. I think I’ll just solder the wires from the drivers onto the pins of the diodes. Problem is I need to find a suitable driver (or drivers) for it. I’m wondering if anyone has experience with this or advise on a path from here.

Additionally, are my Eagle Pair 190-540nm OD5 goggle sufficient for this wattage, presuming I’m not acting stupid with it? I’ve never tried anything above 6W (445nm) wearing those.

 

[Light superglue]

Hi Cowmoon,
Your post came just at the right time. It is years since I started to try making a big laser from a whole Nichia block. Just check my neighboring thread (where you might find a name of this isoteric connector) and some of other threads... and I prefer to drive all LDs in series - in my opinion it is safer to have high voltage than high currents in the system.

And it is a very long work and many-many-many parts, believe me!

Eagle pairs are good if purchased from reputable sources (mine is from Survival laser) - just keep from buying cheap goggles from ebay or aliexpress. Mine are OD6 for 50usd.

 

[cowmoon71]

My goggles are from Survival Laser, yes. They are quite good and not fake. I am actually going the route of a weaker laser. Building a laser pen from a SHARP GH04850B2G 488nm 55mw diode. Going to drive it with an LM317 though I’ve never tried using one of those so some experimentation is due.

 

[m3vuv]

you wont drive them with a 317,a 317 has a max rated output of 1500ma,ive just built a driver using 2x 338 regulators,they are good for 5 amps,the first one is regulating 8 or so volts from 2x 18650 cells in series down to 6.3volts,that feeds a 2nd lm 338 wired as a contstan current source fixed at 1800ma to drive a 450nm nichia m-140 2 watt diode,easy to build on some perf board,the hard part was finding a .7ohm high wattage resistor for r2 in the current regulator,in the end i stripped some nichrome wire from an old electric kettle element and clamped it between 2 chock boxes just a bit of trial and error to get it right,hope tat helps Paul m-3vuv.

 

[cowmoon71]

I’ll be honest and that is that I’ve never constructed a driver circuit myself before. Do you have any recommendations of where I could find detailed instructions on how to do so that would suit my needs?

 

[m3vuv]

try thishttp://diyaudioprojects.com/Technical/Current-Regulator/ and thisshoulg give you a starting point if your ok using a soldering iron. also this: http://www.reuk.co.uk/wordpress/electric-circuit/lm317-voltage-calculator/

 

[cowmoon71]

Very comfortable soldering so I can for sure make it myself. Just confused with what exactly I need to do. I plan to do some research. The diode is 0.055W (55mW) and in the pictures from the seller on eBay it appeared to be hooked up to a lab power supply at 6v at 0.13 amps. My goal is to have this set up in a laser pointer housing, even though it’s a little too powerful to use without goggles. I’d like to have it run off AA or AAA batteries but I have some 16340 3.6V lithium batteries I could use too.