Green Dotting Laser Module opinions?

[Teslahed]

I may be able to get hold of one of the following;

http://www.snochina.com/ArticleShow.asp?ArticleID=63

Has anyone got any experience or thoughts on a module like this? Would i be right in thinking it could be driven by Daedal's driver circuit? ( http://www.laserpointerforums.com/forums/YaBB.pl?num=1185701612 ). It looks ok to me but I'm a little worried about buying something unknown like this and also it is not obvious from the picture where on the PCB i would attach the + and - wires from the driver circuit.

 

[MarioMaster]

it already has a built in driver board - ready to accept 3v, no need for anything besides maybe a battery pack

 

[Teslahed]

I was thinking of using a driver anyway so that i could run it at lower power levels for longer periods of time. Would this work?

 

[Benm]

Hardly... it's usually possible to lower the green output by reducing supply voltage for these modules, or just the current when driving the laser diode directly.

However, it will not result in a big increase in duty cycle. The problem is that the heat comes from the pump diode, and that the green-light/pump-current curve is very steep.

For example using a DX20 pointer (similar to the one you linked, i guess), there is almost no green output at 200 mA, while it's maximal at 300 mA. So dimming in all the way to zero green only reduces electrical dissipation by 35% or so.

If you want to run these modules permanently, i'd suggest just using a big heatsink.

 

[rog8811]

I dont know how much those modules are, have you seen these? They already have the wires fitted

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.10094

I am going to experiment with adjusting the input voltage to one of these, working on the theory that as the batteries get weaker in DX pointers the output light decreases, it must be possible to emulate this with an adjustable supply.

Regards rog8811

 

[Teslahed]

Those do look good, but they are rates at 5mW instead of 50. I wanted a module that could do high enough power for popping baloons, just wanted to be able to turn it down as well.