hello :D

[dasraiser]

hi

love this site, ive been trolling for awhile now and grabbed as much info as i could for my build, on a shoestring using an LX8383A (3.3) as a regulator, it seems to work well giving around 2v at 30ma powered by a wall wart at 4.5v 500ma, tho ive got an old A.T. supply im think of using, will test with some diodes and leds 1st tho.
im also using dvd sled with LD but without the focus lens,using the inbuilt collimating lens, a great suggestion,i believe by one of the members here (sry ive no name, but ty ), i do have an odd problem with the sled out of an NEC1300A burner, although its collimated it has extra beams a bit like this

. o . O . o . (these are all in a perfect line about 2" at 1m, with the main ~5mm beam in the center)
im not sure if its an internal optics problem or by design, any idea?

being on a shoestring is tough as i want to try my hand at holography or pattern projection (as i have a number of stepper motors now, lol), but as far as learning electronics and optics go, i cant think of anything more fun

thankyou all for your advice and mad skills

 

[Coherent Light]

Welcome to LPF.

Can You provide a picture? Someone on here is sure to recognize the pattern once they see it.

 

[dasraiser]

hi

will do, will try to get some up in a few hours, tried with web cam but resolution was terrible.

 

[Morgan]

Welcome to LPF from another UKer! :wave:

Loads to read, (as you know), and learn on this site. Much fun to be had!

Check the, "Rules and Stickies", section, (apologies, standard response), but read, read, read! Check out the links in my sig below if you haven't already. There's a good homebuilt driver in there called the DDL and will probably give better results than the one you're using right now.

Any help I can give, or parts or, anything then drop me a PM but most of what you need to know can be found with a bit of patience.

Where in the UK are you?

M

 

[dasraiser]

hi
ok this pic is a tad bad but shows the output pattern from the sled at about 3m on an A4 sheet of paper

 

[dasraiser]

hi morgan, thankyou, if i cant search what im looking for i'll drop u a pm

and yes im from hampshire - isle of wight

 

[Coherent Light]

IMO thats an Optics problem. Can You get a new lens to try?

 

[dasraiser]

yep thats what i thought coherent, ive not got that problem with the other sled ive got so may swap out the diodes, could explain why this burner was being thrown out, gotta love pc repair shops and the of chance visit to see if they have any dead ones

im also using harddrive platters for mirrors, i hope if there glass i can cut them with the appropriate tool.

 

[Coherent Light]

Not sure what the platters are made of, but I suspect rare earth elements are involved somewhere.

 

[ped]

Welcome freind :wave:

 

[dasraiser]

hi ped

just googled it coherent , it seems theyre made of either aluminium or glass as a base with several coatings to get it smooth as a bbs behind, it does make for half decent mirror, i think i got a glass one, so will cut through surface substrate then use cutter for rest, i'll lyk how it goes. also some rare earth magnets in there too to drive the coil on the head, hmm actuator, probably bit weak tho..

 

[Coherent Light]

Good to know. They would be FS mirrors since the coating is applied to the top layer. I wonder what kind of loss happens when these are used as mirrors.

 

[dasraiser]

little bit of heat and some static build up, hmmm gives new meaning to data mining and cleaning windows.

however would be impossible for me to find out lacking any basic (aka prism) kind of spectral analysis equipment, would luv to know if anyone can rip apart an old drive and test its response range and if it absorbs/amplifies(could it?) any frequencies, tho if i was at that level of optical requirement i'd invest in some equipment after some organ harvesting, in the mean time i think the 1st thing will be to improve my driver as the lx8383A 00CP 33 is more of a voltage regulator, ive set up in variable reg mode but from what ive read and seen its better to go current driven, so an lm317 is on the shopping list.

 

[Coherent Light]

Yes Laser Diodes need Current regulation! The will keep pulling all the current they can until the go belly up on You. I had a bunch of old HD's but I recycled them before my latest move. I will see if I can find another one in the garage to sacrifice for science.

 

[dasraiser]

ahh science cool cant wait for the results :beer:

i was unsure with the reg ive got, it has current limiter built in but not sure to what extent, ive run my diode for about 30mins with no heat on either diode or reg but it was operating at just over threshold.

 

[Coherent Light]

See if You can build the DDL in Morgan's Sig. I think that if Your power source provided more than the listed (probably less than) 500ma the Diode would run away on you. That is just a guess since I don't know what your driver setup looks like.