help with 1.8W+ 445 nm build

[Laser Smith]

Here's a quick pic of a 405nm C6 I have with a black anodized heatsink. Crappy pic but it shows that it's quite smaller, the head is almost half the size of a C5

 

[EliteFunk]

yeah its def a c5 that I ordered

 

[ARG]

hey thanks! I'm from vancouver but currently living in the okanagan

I live near the airport. The pic in my avatar was taken in Vernon. If you ever need LPMing drop me a PM

 

[EliteFunk]

awesome! I love vernon, I live in penticton though

 

[EliteFunk]

So I'm still not sure what driver I should use for this build. I'm looking at this one 17mm Round Linear Driver - $5.99 : Zen Cart!, The Art of E-commerce but it only goes up to 1.8amps. I also had in mind http://laserpointerforums.com/f39/fs-x-drive-v6-3a-buck-driver-sale-info-75495.html#post1089421, but I'm not sure if it will work in my host since its not round. Any help and advice is greatly appreciated! I want this build to come together smoothly and work properly the first time around.

Edit: just to be clear it's for a C5 host

Edit again: was just re reading the thread and lasersmith already stated it doesn't need to be a round driver my bad. So I'm gonna go with the x-drive, unless anyone has another recommendation... And thanks again for the help lasersmith, answering my questions before I even ask them

 

[EliteFunk]

My host has arrived! its a pretty lame flashlight, only 300lm and has an ugly spot. but it will make a great laser! I removed the black anodized coating and polished up the aluminum to match the heatsink I ordered from Eudiamonium (THANK YOU!!!!). Next paycheque I'm going to order 445nm 9mm Diode In V4 Copper Module W/2.1A X-Drive and 3 element glass lens option
Can anyone give me an estimate of the output and duty cycle I will get from this setup? Also I'm wondering if I could put more power to the diode with such a big heatsink? Or will 2.1a be sufficient?

 

[EliteFunk]

so its been over a year but i finally finished my build. very happy with the results. thanks to Eudiamonium for the heatsink and DTR for the 9mm diode, also i want to thank Will Manners for showing me a great deal on the C2 host i used, as well as ARG and lasersmith for answering some of my questions. heres some pics (crappy cell phones pics)