homemade 405nm blueray laser

[aaron_inc]

i finished making my blueray laser today  im guessing the output is around 5-10mw which isnt that impressive because its almost uv but its still a cool thing to have and it proves its power when it hits something flourescent.
this picture below is the circuit i made for it-
-edit- in the pictures below the laser is putting out around 1-3mw i found the problem and fixed it it is now 15-20mw.

 

[aaron_inc]

heres a picture of the bottom of the laserdiode(it has 5 pins 1- ground 2- violet diode 3- red diode 4- infra red diode and 5- photodiode)

 

[aaron_inc]

heres a picture of the top of the laser diode

 

[aaron_inc]

the battery pack, driver and diode\lens assembly

 

[aaron_inc]

and heres the dot shining it on my kitchen bench (i photoshopped the image so it looked more violet)

 

[aaron_inc]

heres the laser shining into my camera :-/

 

[aaron_inc]

this violet laser diode diverges alot more that other laser diodes usually do so i had to make the hole in the plastic before the lens bigger so it wouldnt cut out half the light (thanks senkat for the diode housing ) this picture shows you how much the light diverges with a flourescent plastic.

 

[aaron_inc]

this picture is the same as above but with a yellow plastic

 

[aaron_inc]

please note that the laser is not as magenta colored as the camera says it is, it is quite hard to tell where the dot is in a well lit room and at night it is visible to around 30 feet unless it hits something that flouresces then it is more impressive.
im considering selling this laser to get some money together to get a higher powered diode so if anyone has any offer pm me this wont be one of those lasers you impress your friends with by showing them a bright beam and it wont burn anything either, stick with greenies for that.

 

[SenKat]

Aaron - I might suggest finding a cool little flashlight to mount it all in - then you may be abe to get the $450.00 something that Huurresciences (spelling ?) did when he sold his on ebay !  He CLEANED house by selling his homemeade little unit !

By the way - NOTHING is wrong with your pics - and I love the home made unit - it is incredible ! Thanks for posting up pics for us !! I am gonna move this to the blue and UV lasers area.....

AWESOME JOB !

 

[timelord]

I totally agree with SenKat AWESOME JOB THERE!!! Aaron it's great to see a success story in a project

 

[aaron_inc]

yeah after seing that one for sale on ebay i hope that blueray laser pointers become popular i cant wait
im thinking of putting it in one of those 3 X AAA led flashlights you see in the camping sections of $2 shops and just having a 110 ohm resistor instead of the LM317 setup ive tried this both ways and it dosent make that much difference really.
its really hard to get it to focus though the near UV light plays tricks on my eyes so i have to use a fluro orange pencil tin to see the real shape of the dot.

 

[aaron_inc]

heres the pattern of the light comes out of the diode it is shining onto some paper with a highlighter scribbled onto it

 

[SenKat]

Okay - try this : take a small drill bit - pull the lense out of the diode housing - look at the back side of it - now, CAREFULLY remove some of the "extra" plastic around the aperature of the lense....be very careful to not scratch the lense - maybe with more surface area on the lense it will focus better....

 

[stevetexas]

I don't normally disagree with you Senkat, but I'd avoid messing with the diode until it is a LAST resort. These things aren't cheap or easy to come by.

Consider getting a few lenses (plano-convex) and adjusting it until the beam is better focused. http://www.optics-online.com/ach.asp

 

[pseudonomen137]

I don't normally disagree with you Senkat, but I'd avoid messing with the diode until it is a LAST resort.   These things aren't cheap or easy to come by.

Consider getting a few lenses (plano-convex) and adjusting it until the beam is better focused.  http://www.optics-online.com/ach.asp

I think SenKat meant to try cleaning the collimating lens, not the actual diode window, though it was a little vague from the post.