HOW TO: 100+mW 405nm w/ 803T Dorcy Jr Laser

[tony70516]

guys target has the dorcy junior for only $19.99 just buy it from there.
btw i just finished mine and its awesome. thanks!!

 

[mmykle]

[quote author=mmykle link=1214285108/80#94 date=1220846265]k well while im redoing the soldering connection, can someone please help me figure out a way to keep the heat sink from coming out of the casing? I don't want to hot glue it, that seems kinda unprofessional.

EDIT: well i gave in and used hot glue... but just a little so i can take it off. If anyone has a better solution let me know! Also, i tested the laser on a match and it didn't light i DO NOT want to take it apart just to reajust the pot, lol, so i gues this one wont light stuff on fire. oh well :

the little black rubber ring in the flashlight keeps the heatsink in the head of the flashlight, put it back in if it's not already in, otherwise I dont' know.

and you probably just need to focus it better to light a match, you should be able to see a small spark when it's burning and the light will kind of flash dark and bright as it's burning. focus it to about 6-10 inches away to have the smallest dot possible then try again. you shouldn't have to, but you can also try using a black sharpie to color the tip of the match black, should be easier to light that way.

good luck,
Kendall[/quote]

Oh cool, the O-ring worked, thanks! It popped out when i took the glass out so i figured I didn't need it.

I have the laser with me, but not my glasses so I'll fine tune it when I go back to my moms house where the glasses are. Thanks for the tip!

Oh, um my laser is set to 120mA, is that enough to light a match? Should I up it to like 125-130ma?

EDIT: Despite the awesomeness of the lavadrive my bluray eats through batteries (or maybe I just use it too damn much ;D). However, could I get these for the set up? http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.3273 Also do you think my charger for my current 3.0v CR123's would work for those batteries?

 

[Spyderz20x6]

[quote author=sk8er4514 link=1214285108/80#95 date=1220920642][quote author=mmykle link=1214285108/80#94 date=1220846265]k well while im redoing the soldering connection, can someone please help me figure out a way to keep the heat sink from coming out of the casing? I don't want to hot glue it, that seems kinda unprofessional.

EDIT: well i gave in and used hot glue... but just a little so i can take it off. If anyone has a better solution let me know! Also, i tested the laser on a match and it didn't light i DO NOT want to take it apart just to reajust the pot, lol, so i gues this one wont light stuff on fire. oh well :

the little black rubber ring in the flashlight keeps the heatsink in the head of the flashlight, put it back in if it's not already in, otherwise I dont' know.

and you probably just need to focus it better to light a match, you should be able to see a small spark when it's burning and the light will kind of flash dark and bright as it's burning. focus it to about 6-10 inches away to have the smallest dot possible then try again. you shouldn't have to, but you can also try using a black sharpie to color the tip of the match black, should be easier to light that way.

good luck,
Kendall[/quote]

Oh cool, the O-ring worked, thanks! It popped out when i took the glass out so i figured I didn't need it.

I have the laser with me, but not my glasses so I'll fine tune it when I go back to my moms house where the glasses are. Thanks for the tip!

Oh, um my laser is set to 120mA, is that enough to light a match? Should I up it to like 125-130ma?

EDIT: Despite the awesomeness of the lavadrive my bluray eats through batteries (or maybe I just use it too damn much ;D). However, could I get these for the set up? http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.3273 Also do you think my charger for my current 3.0v CR123's would work for those batteries?[/quote]

No, your cureent charger will not work. You have to buy one off of DX. 120mA is more than enough to light a match...

 

[Switch]

Way too lazy to read through the whole 5 pages , so I'm not sure if this has been brought up before, but the pinout diagram shows the third pin as "probably the photodiode". As I recall , that's just the case pin(it's just tied to the case and does nothing, just use to make the diode case negative or case positive by choice) and that this diode has no PD inside. :-/

 

[sk8er4514]

guys target has the dorcy junior for only $19.99 just buy it from there.
btw i just finished mine and its awesome. thanks!!

awesome. i'll check out the flashlight section next time I'm at target and buy them all

$20 for a dorcy flashlight is a great deal.

I'm glad that you finished one, pretty cool huh? It's hard to believe that people were buying 5mW blu ray lasers for $2000 a few months ago.... now you can make 100mW+ blu rays for less than $100

-Kendall

 

[Spyderz20x6]

[quote author=tony70516 link=1214285108/80#96 date=1220926498]guys target has the dorcy junior for only $19.99 just buy it from there.
btw i just finished mine and its awesome. thanks!!

awesome. i'll check out the flashlight section next time I'm at target and buy them all

$20 for a dorcy flashlight is a great deal.

I'm glad that you finished one, pretty cool huh? It's hard to believe that people were buying 5mW blu ray lasers for $2000 a few months ago.... now you can make 100mW+ blu rays for less than $100

-Kendall[/quote]

When was that!?!?!?
I remember $300...

 

[IgorT]

[quote author=shamb1s link=1214285108/60#66 date=1217983504]Has anybody had any luck fitting a rckstr driver into a dorcy. and if so, can I use the dorcy boost driver in conjunction with the rckstr driver?

Do not try that. Things can start working out of phase with eachother, and potentially cause damage to both the driver and the diode.[/quote]

When i told you that, i didn't explain it properly.. I was just trying to convince you not to do it, and you were quite persistant in wanting to do it, so it was hard... I had to make something up.

It's not only "out of phase". It's more about the fact, that the FlexDrive is very sensitive to what it's power source is. It needs a very stable power source, capable of delivering VERY high current pulses at a high frequency. A battery with short wires is perfect for it.

Now guess what the Dorcy circuit does.. It already delivers pulses at it's own frequency. And then the FlexDrive wants to pull even higher pulses at it's own, even higher frequency. This is what i meant by "out of phase".


In order for this to work, the Dorcy circuit would have to be VERY well filtered first, with many huge caps of different values, to smooth it out. And even then there could be problems.


Even a good PSU can cause trouble with the FlexDrive, even if it is well filtered, and it gets even worse, if you use long wires when setting it up. In this case, the current can start jumping around what you set it to, the driver can become unstable, and it can even start blinking the diode, which is not good for it, because of the resulting spikes. And that's what happened on my switching PSU, altho it has a huge dedicated capacitor bank filtering it's output, making it extreemelly smooth.

Now if you connect the FlexDrive to an unregulated and unfiltered boost circuit, like a LED boost "driver", it gets even worse. LEDs are tough devices. They don't care about powerup spikes, current ripple or overdriving. So manufacturers, in an attempt to save money, don't bother making such boost circuits perfect. It's not needed for a LED.

But the noise can be absolutelly catastrophical if such a circuit is used to power another switching driver, like the FlexDrive. The FlexDrive would probably survive, but it wouldn't look good for the LD, once the FlexDrive would become unstable.


Not even to mention the fact, that it doesn't make any sense whatsoever, to power a constant current switching driver like the FlexDrive from an unfiltered unregulated noisy voltage booster, like a cheap LED driver. Especially when the battery in the host is 3V by default, and can be replaced by a 3.6V rechargable, bringing the battery into the perfect range for the FlexDrive.


In any case, if you use the Dorcy circuit, depopulate it first, and ONLY use it for it's battery contacts! Nothing else. Even if you connect the FlexDrive directly to the battery input side of the Dorcy driver, the components should not be left on it, as they will create a lot of noise for no reason.

It's trouble waiting to happen. It's not that hard to unsolder the few components. If you're lazy, at least break off the coil.

 

[photongeek]

[quote/] In any case, if you use the Dorcy circuit, depopulate it first, and ONLY use it for it's battery contacts! Nothing else. Even if you connect the FlexDrive directly to the battery input side of the Dorcy driver, the components should not be left on it, as they will create a lot of noise for no reason.

It's trouble waiting to happen. It's not that hard to unsolder the few components. If you're lazy, at least break off the coil.[/quote]

Yes!!! Igor is not the only one to say this. That Dorcy driver has probably fried more diodes than I can count. When I rebuilt my red, I literally scraped all of the Dorcy components off of the board and wired the Flexdrive to the battery leads as Igor describes. Use the Dorcy as a host but get rid of its driver and use a Flex.

 

[photongeek]

Does anyone have an idea of what's wrong here? I have a CR123 battery into the Flexdrive. Flexdrive set to LOW (solder pads unbridged). Measuring 4.6 volts dc after the Flex but nothing at the Test Load resistor. I unsoldered the RED pads and bridged the BLU pads (on the Test Load) since I'm attempting a Blu-ray build.
This set-up worked fine for my RED build. This one has me stumped. Any help is appreciated.
Rob

 

[sk8er4514]

measure voltage on the test load. 1mV = 1mA

and you might need to turn up the pot on your flexdrive to increase current to the test load.

good luck,
Kendall

PS also you might want to try another test load since you were soldering stuff on it. You don't need to change the soldering pads for red or blu on there, both work as a test load for red or blu. it's more for voltage requirements for batteries. the current will be about the same on each setting.

or you can get some silicon diodes in series and use that as a test load... or a dead diode if you have one.

 

[IgorT]

Does anyone have an idea of what's wrong here? I have a CR123 battery into the Flexdrive. Flexdrive set to LOW (solder pads unbridged). Measuring 4.6 volts dc after the Flex but nothing at the Test Load resistor. I unsoldered  the RED pads and bridged the BLU pads (on the Test Load) since I'm attempting a Blu-ray build.
This set-up worked fine for my RED build. This one has me stumped. Any help is appreciated.
Rob

Got your PM..

You should not be measuring current there, you should be measuring voltage. Set your DMM to 200mV range, not 200mA range!

The idea with the 1 Ohm resistor is to measure voltage on it and calculate the current from the voltage using Ohm's Law, which says U = RxI, if R=1, then U = I (or U = Ix1)..

That's why voltage ACROSS a 1 ohm resistor is the same as the current THROUGH a 1 ohm resistor. You can do the same with any resistor - measure the voltage drop across it and calculate the current. But with a 1 ohm you don't have to calculate.



What was happening in your case, you were basically bypassing some of the current, that would otherwise flow through the 1 ohm resistor, into your DMM, when you used a current measuring range like that. And the DMM only displayed the current that passed through it.

If you use a current measuring range, you have to put the DMM IN BETWEEN the driver and the load - the entire current has to flow through the DMM.
It is easier and safer to measure the voltage on a 1 ohm instead. That way you don't have to establish any temporary connections, that could interrupt and let the FlexDrive run with no load (whih is bad, as it is a current source).

BTW, when you use the DMM to measure the current by passing the current through the DMM, it does the same thing - the current passes through an internal shunt (resistor), and the DMM calculates the current from the voltage drop on that shunt.


So change the socket on your DMM (if it is separate), so it is set to measure voltage, not current, and then set it to 200mV and then you can measure up to 200mA this way. 1mV means 1mA on a 1 ohm 1% resistor (I = U/1 -> I = U).

 

[IgorT]

Yes!!! Igor is not the only one to say this. That Dorcy driver has probably fried more diodes than I can count. When I rebuilt my red, I literally scraped all of the Dorcy components off of the board and wired the Flexdrive to the battery leads as Igor describes. Use the Dorcy as a host but get rid of its driver and use a Flex.

When you say that it killed many diodes, do you mean when the diodes were powered directly by that circuit, or when the FlexDrive was powered by the Dorcy circuit?

 

[Spyderz20x6]

Does anyone have an idea of what's wrong here? I have a CR123 battery into the Flexdrive. Flexdrive set to LOW (solder pads unbridged). Measuring 4.6 volts dc after the Flex but nothing at the Test Load resistor. I unsoldered  the RED pads and bridged the BLU pads (on the Test Load) since I'm attempting a Blu-ray build.
This set-up worked fine for my RED build. This one has me stumped. Any help is appreciated.
Rob

Um, Yea...

Your supposed to be measuring voltage across the resistor. Hence the 1mV=1mA formula on the back of the test load :

 

[photongeek]

Thanks guys. My bad :-X. I had the damned VOM on the wrong scale. I must be getting senile in my middle years! :'(

 

[photongeek]

[quote author=photongeek link=1214285108/100#103 date=1221829447]Yes!!! Igor is not the only one to say this. That Dorcy driver has probably fried more diodes than I can count. When I rebuilt my red, I literally scraped all of the Dorcy components off of the board and wired the Flexdrive to the battery leads as Igor describes. Use the Dorcy as a host but get rid of its driver and use a Flex.

When you say that it killed many diodes, do you mean when the diodes were powered directly by that circuit, or when the FlexDrive was powered by the Dorcy circuit?[/quote]
When I first started to build these Igor, The LD's were powered directly from the Dorcy driver. I only started to use the Flexdrive recently.

 

[photongeek]

I got it working Guys. Thanks for the help! I'm using my custom external heatsink with press fitted axisz module which is also on my red build. I think its pretty effective. I set the current to 105 ma which I believe is OK for the 803T from what I've been reading. I hope this guy survives :-/!