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FrozenGate by Avery

How much voltage and amps does a laser want?

my potentiometer is open full blown, it.s only 5 ohms now? and im getting 230mA, do you think I'll get some other reading if I put on those diodes for the load?
 





I'm done the 4 diode test load, I hooken it up to the output and put my meter in series with the load, and I got, 220mA on the meter
 
ok the load is on and i am measuring the voltage, its around 3v + - , it goes higher if i turn the pot, everything still cool?

What is the max voltage a laser can handle in that state? i can only get 220mA out of that circuit with a 5 ohms resistor in the regulator circuit
 
ok my laser are working, I have some crazy IR laser and some red laser, awesome, any final notes for me? it's running max at 120 mA, can I go higher? both lasers work
 
You should be OK pushing the red diode higher (as high as 300-400mA should be OK as long as it is stable), and remember that the IR is dangerous for your eyes, even though you can barely see it. Also, remember dirt on the diode or lens is bad, so careful if you use it for burning.

Play (safely)!
 
hehe yea, thx man..I just want to ask you some more questions, I want to make a laser show and use this laser just for shining very hard up in the air on the 31 des and put on some mirrors that is spinning and make it blank with my 555 timer circuit is it safe?
and how can I get more current from my regulator, show I lower that 10 Ohms to something like 3.3 ohms, and until I get the target amperage ? and how do you know 300-400mA for that laser should be ok, because I really don't want to blow up my diode, and that is the max current I can give my IR laser just for interest sake? thx
 
I killed my diode, I moved the diode and then the white wire "ground" slipped of the contact probe


now I have another LED
 
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Unlucky! Are you sure it's dead? As long as you discharge the capacitor before re-connecting the diode, you may be OK. Based on the fact that it's a 20x drive, and the fact that it is very similar to the LPC-815, I would have estimated that 300-400mA would be safe, but without knowing more about the diode, or testing the power, it's hard to say for sure what is safe for it. By lowering the current-setting resistors, you increase the current. a 3 ohm resistor gives (in theory) 417mA.
 
yea... :-(

lol, I finally understand that current setting. I think the wire slipped of and then touched and then slipped of, while I was busy pointing the laser to something I say it on..

yea the thing is gone, if I hook it up, it just glows like a led, but If I hook up the IR diode and check it out with my camera, it goes crazy white dot... I opened a old 56X CD writer and the diode works, but it IR, what can be done with IR lasers?
 
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ok hopefully back in business, I got myself broken DVD devices for free from a pc shop, one seems to be a DVD rom and the other a LiteOn SHM-165P6S , seems to be like 16X writer
does DVD roms also have a strong red laser in?
 
Thanks to the both of you. this actually kinda made something of a good tut. what are the specs on the shm-165p6s LD. i have one of those drives in back up. got quite a few LD's from other dvd drives i have. have blown one so far. did the built circuit for the driver with out the lm317. and of course did the dial it in with the LD connected. going to radio hack with in the next few days to get the lm317. suprised with all the computer junk i have setting around. that something did not have one in a power supply. got several regulators. but there output amperage is 5a instead of the 1.5a of the lm317's
 
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