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Greenie current.

Rafa

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Well the button of my cheap green laser (look at my sig) just died so I extracted the module and now I bypassed the switch. I want to know hoy much current should I put into the 808nm diode, because I want to make my own decent driver for it.

The laser was 10mW but I think its putting out about 25mW.


Thanks.
 





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Interesting you give 200ma for an answer.
I have 2 of the 5mw green overspec penstyles. From my reading here they are putting out abt 25mw...guessing by visibilty of beam and other characteristics.
I also have a DX 200mw Green 532nm module. It puts out much more, but I'm sure nowhere near 200mw.
I measured the current draw of all 3 at the battery and all are right at 200ma.
Is 200ma a magic number for 532nm diodes?
The 200mw has a pot on the river, but I'm not touching it. Everywhere on this forum I've read when someone does that , even a little, a diode dies.
I've considered cutting the PCB board at the diode and doing a direct current reading of the diode itself. This would eliminate the driver usage ma's.
I haven't found much so far on the forum yet abt 532nm greens and current draw.
Other than "don't crank the pot up"! lol I'd prefer not to kill mine.

Thanks in advance for any replies.
 

Toke

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Is 200ma a magic number for 532nm diodes?
I would think the reason for the 200mA is that 532nm diodes do not exist, and it is the current for the IR diode that make green light through a crystal set-up.

That does imply a huge loss in low mw greens, and that a 25mw would need more heatsinking than a 125mw.
 

Rafa

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Yeah Toke is right.

BTW I have potmodded my greenie and the whole switch died before the diode so I think that if what you want is to have more beam visibility (not to make a 5mW burn lol) is fine to pot-mod them.

This evening I'll put 200mA in the IR diode to see if it works fine.

Thanks all.
 
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Thanks for clearing that up, at least for others. I did post that thinking more of it as a green 532nm unit, while inferring an actual 532nm diode which technically is incorrect.

In reality, from all my reading, Green 532nm lasers are the end result of using an IR diode output through multiple crystals, frequency ranging to 1064nm, then thorough another crystal which "doubles" (photon combining 2 into 1) resulting in a 532nm frequency output. Simply put, the material being excited in the diode to the point of lasing is not really outputting green @ 532nm.

I guess my actual post, technically correct, should have been:
Is 200ma the highest current input for the IR diodes being used in the low end Green 532nm pointers without killing it? It seems odd that a cheap 5mw Green 532nm pointer measures the same 200ma battery current draw as my advertised 200mw 532nm Green DX module( most state this module @ 100-125mw output), and it measures the same 200ma current draw at the battery.
This seems very odd, or at least an odd coincidence. Especially when the posters answer recommends the same 200ma for a 25mw. That is a wide range of outputs all drawing the same current.

I think you can see what my actual question is. I haven't done much reading/research on IR diodes yet. Due to the invisible beam, no blink response, no protection goggles at this frequency, its not a build I'd consider, but I do realize that the green 532nm lasers have the potential for emitting alot of IR. Much which may being used in the output green rating.

So, do most IR diodes pretty much max @ 200ma? I try to do my research & reading so the math works out and then start small working my way up, but knowing what to expect, at least in the ballpark. This one is still baffles me.
I know what I'm trying to ask, but having a hard time expressing my inquiry!
A quick read in the green threads tells me they are fairly new to the hobbyist scene so the vast amount data is not available as with the reds & blues.
 

Toke

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No, IR diodes come in much more than 200ma.
It just appear to be the one size used for green pointers/modules.

You can get them in up to 3W, maybe 7W. After that you can get blocks of them approaching 1KW. (for industrial use, most are 20W)
 
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I thought I'd seen 1w IR lasers in some sigs.
I'm just baffled at the 200ma battery draw measurement in 5mw -100mw+ and if the pot is bumped up even slightly the diode immediately dies.
Postings indicate that if you bump the pot up on a Green 532nm unit, overspeced or not, it kills the diode. It doesn't output a higher mw.
I'd have to make an assumption that they are using different diodes, yet all are requiring approximately 200ma for maximum operation. This seems like a unique situation.
Something I'll have to ad to the "1 million things I don't understand" list. lol
 

Rafa

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1W for IR lasers are not too much, as Toke said there are lots of powers.

I remember a 808nm 8W hanheld (torch style) laser.

Pretty cool.
 




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