duty cycle

[jcoon840]

I know the lasers get hot because of how hot they get and need to be shutoff after usually 60 seconds, is there any way to increase the duty cycle or because of the power they put out itll only be 60 on 60 off until new batteries come about.

 

[Cyparagon]

I know the lasers get hot because of how hot they get

:wtf:


And... how hot DO they get?

 

[jArdi]

:wtf:


And... how hot DO they get?

i think he means:
"Considering the fact that the temperature of a laser diode is proportional to its duration in the 'on' state and output energy, how can i increase the duty cycle to avoid have to change its on/off state every 60 seconds?"

im not a laser expert compared to some of the other guys on here, but as with some types of electronics (absolutely not all though) you might be able to run it at a low frequency - so rather than it being constant current, perhaps the LOWEST you can go (possibly with some flicker) is 50hz. I have very limited knowledge about laser drivers, so i cant tell you if this will have any negative effects on the driver, but theoretically because its switching ON/OFF very quickly, it could.
This is just an idea, pm me if you wanna know how to do this, but I wouldnt do it until someone with more experience comes in and says something about the driver being run at low frequency.

 

[pschlosser]

...is there any way to increase the duty cycle...

improved cooling.
larger heat sink.

 

[jcoon840]

I guess I was just assuming that was the reason was because the diode heats up I just wanted to know if it is possible to make the duration longer to maybe closer to 5 minutes.

 

[Mrcrouse]

Check out my Mace of Doom in my sig. That should get you your 5 minutes, especially if you go with a custom heatsink. Also duty cycle is obviously going to depend on your output power. What kind of output are you trying to sustain for 5 minutes? Also check out some of Justinjja's TEC Maglite builds. Those monsters will run nice and cool for a very very long time.

 

[jcoon840]

I have seen it lol really nice laser and I used the g oodle search bar and found a post of someone using a gold coing that got him a half hour run time but I dont have resources or knowledge to do that yet so im just gonna buy a laser for now and learn about them then learn how to solder and make some custom ones