First laser / first build

[cwa11is]

Look what you guys made me do! More like an assemblage than a build, but still got my hands dirtier than just buying a shiny thing.

Hand picked parts that I learned about here on this forum.

Survival Lasers:

Eagle pair 190-540nm and 800-1700nm goggles
Stainless steel host
Battery tube extension
Heat sink driver pill
Blank battery board
Green extended focus ring
Extetnal lens spring


DTR's Laser Shop:

NUGM03 1W diode inside a 12mm module with full solid back half.

ACS4500BU driver set at 2.2A (yeah a little hot).

G8 lens


Liion Wholesale:

4 18650 3500mah batteries

4 18350 protected batteries for use without extension tube (too long..frown, just ordered some unprotected ones. I hope they fit).

Nitecore D4 charger.






Had to do a little hacksawing and soldering.







This little sucker popped off and I had to solder it back on which added a little drama to the build.



Working model



Wow!! Even the dot on the wall inside the house is too bright to look at without glasses.

 

[Giannis_TDM]

Look what you guys made me do! More like an assemblage than a build, but still got my hands dirtier than just buying a shiny thing.

Hand picked parts that I learned about here on this forum.

Survival Lasers:

Eagle pair 190-540nm and 800-1700nm goggles
Stainless steel host
Battery tube extension
Heat sink driver pill
Blank battery board
Green extended focus ring
Extetnal lens spring


DTR's Laser Shop:

NUGM03 1W diode inside a 12mm module with full solid back half.

ACS4500BU driver set at 2.2A (yeah a little hot).

G8 lens


Liion Wholesale:

4 18650 3500mah batteries

4 18350 protected batteries for use without extension tube (too long..frown, just ordered some unprotected ones. I hope they fit).

Nitecore D4 charger.

View attachment 71058
View attachment 71063
View attachment 71060


Had to do a little hacksawing and soldering.
View attachment 71059
View attachment 71061
View attachment 71055
View attachment 71056



This little sucker popped off and I had to solder it back on which added a little drama to the build.
View attachment 71057


Working model
View attachment 71062


Wow!! Even the dot on the wall inside the house is too bright to look at without glasses.
View attachment 71064

The inductor popped off????!!!
I bet overheating, The inductors are undersized for the job on those. Many of my X worse drivers overheat because of that but when I swapped em out for some bigger inductors with a bigger Isat from panasonic they worked fine. Else It wasn't soldered properly which I doubt but possible.

 

[cwa11is]

The inductor popped off????!!!
I bet overheating, The inductors are undersized for the job on those. Many of my X worse drivers overheat because of that but when I swapped em out for some bigger inductors with a bigger Isat from panasonic they worked fine. Else It wasn't soldered properly which I doubt but possible.

Thanks for your input. It popped off before it ever powered up. I could have overheated it with my solder job though. This is my first one, so I have a lot to learn. For now it works seemingly fine. I still have to thermal paste the heatsink to the module and epoxy the driver to the shelf..just waiting on the amazon truck.

 

[Lifetime17]

Hi,
Good job for your 1ST build. we all learn things by doing, and mistakes are the best lessons learned.
Rich

 

[Giannis_TDM]

Thanks for your input. It popped off before it ever powered up. I could have overheated it with my solder job though. This is my first one, so I have a lot to learn. For now it works seemingly fine. I still have to thermal paste the heatsink to the module and epoxy the driver to the shelf..just waiting on the amazon truck

I don't think so, The inductor has huge thermal mass compared to the other components so if your soldering managed to unsolder that, All of the other components would have desoldered too.

 

[cwa11is]

I don't think so, The inductor has huge thermal mass compared to the other components so if your soldering managed to unsolder that, All of the other components would have desoldered too.

Hmm. Well after the pop off, I applied a little liquid flux, clamped it back in place with an alligator clip and heated the sides with the iron for a guesstimated 10 seconds or so. It stayed in place and works...for now.

 

[gazer101]

Beautiful beam. Just out of curiosity, how much of a duty cycle does your laser have? My similarly spec'd NUGM03, but inside a C6 host, has at most 15 seconds before it becomes too warm for comfort

 

[cwa11is]

Beautiful beam. Just out of curiosity, how much of a duty cycle does your laser have? My similarly spec'd NUGM03, but inside a C6 host, has at most 15 seconds before it becomes too warm for comfort

I don't know how to determine the limits of a duty cycle, but I just shined it for 70 seconds and it was only beginning to get warm.

 

[gazer101]

Makes sense, its good that you have a properly large host to dissipate all of the heat