Hey there, I am a laser newbie. I did a lot of soldering in the past building R/C cars. Therefore, I made sure my first kit / build was easy and just involved soldering. I bought a red 16x laser module from Daguin. This was very nice because he installed and preset the driver inside the module. This way I did not have to mess with setting it or soldering it.
I then bought the 4171 Kit from Jayrob to house the module from Daguin. The construction on this could not have been more simple. After the 4171 host was disassembled this is what I had.
You can see on the left the center section of the 4171 LED flash light host then next to it the now useless LED, and then to the right of the LED the power circuit board or what ever you call it.
All I had to do was cut the wires to the proper length on the module (took some thinking / estimating). Then I just removed all of the white silicone adhesive stuff from the surface of the circuit board and removed the resistor that is sticking out of it with the soldering gun. Here is the soldering set up that I bought a decade ago for R/C car building and has been collecting dust for a long time.
Next was even more simple, now that I had the wires on the module cut to length, I just soldered the red positive wire to the spot on the board where the resistor used to be connected to. There was enough solder left on the board from the resistor that all I had to do was tin the stripped section of wire and dip it in a little flux. Then one second of heat from the soldering pen and done deal.
The negative wire simply was soldered to the remaining screw that had been used from the factory to secure the LED to the center section of the host. Like I said, the hardest part of this was getting the wires the correct length. Somehow I got it right on the first try. Here is the end product.
This was my first high powered laser ever. I was shocked when I could see the dot a half a mile away on some pine tree tops at night. You can even see the beam on this thing if it is nice and dark out. I then attempted to burn with the axiz stock lens in place. It would not burn very well. Therefore, next I ordered one of Larry FDFW's SFL (short focal length) lens assymblies.
The module as is from Daguin was measured by Daguin to have an output of 245 mw. The Larry FDFW lens is marketed to give a 20% improvement over that. Therefore it should now have an output of 290-300 mw. I got the new lens in the mail today and installed it. All I can say is WOW!. You can focus the laser into a much tighter dot now. Plus it is visually brighter at the dot. This lens is only for close up stuff, not for far away like the axiz lens was. That is ok with me because I only wanted this red laser for burning.
This lens is so much better than the axiz not only in power output, but there is no longer that annoying wobble and hard to focus annoyance of the axiz lens. Here is the lens installed. Larry was nice enough to teflon tape the threads for me so that the assembly turns nice and smooth and does not move. You no longer need the axiz spring set up with this lens assembly.
Here is a pic of the laser in action. The target of the beam is an incense stick being held by my third hand soldering jig. The laser was only on for about 10 seconds when this picture was taken. You can see that it is already smoldering the dark green incense stick after that short time.
I really like this laser stuff. I have always wanted a cool laser ever since I saw that movie "Real Genius" with Val Kilmer way back in the day. I now have a o-like 150 mw green module on the way. In addition to that I have an Igor 6x high frequency freak build that is on the way as well. Right out of the hole I went and blew 600 bucks on this stuff. Oh well, I would have just bought car parts with it for this anyway. This money hole is usually where my extra doe goes to.
I then bought the 4171 Kit from Jayrob to house the module from Daguin. The construction on this could not have been more simple. After the 4171 host was disassembled this is what I had.
You can see on the left the center section of the 4171 LED flash light host then next to it the now useless LED, and then to the right of the LED the power circuit board or what ever you call it.
All I had to do was cut the wires to the proper length on the module (took some thinking / estimating). Then I just removed all of the white silicone adhesive stuff from the surface of the circuit board and removed the resistor that is sticking out of it with the soldering gun. Here is the soldering set up that I bought a decade ago for R/C car building and has been collecting dust for a long time.
Next was even more simple, now that I had the wires on the module cut to length, I just soldered the red positive wire to the spot on the board where the resistor used to be connected to. There was enough solder left on the board from the resistor that all I had to do was tin the stripped section of wire and dip it in a little flux. Then one second of heat from the soldering pen and done deal.
The negative wire simply was soldered to the remaining screw that had been used from the factory to secure the LED to the center section of the host. Like I said, the hardest part of this was getting the wires the correct length. Somehow I got it right on the first try. Here is the end product.
This was my first high powered laser ever. I was shocked when I could see the dot a half a mile away on some pine tree tops at night. You can even see the beam on this thing if it is nice and dark out. I then attempted to burn with the axiz stock lens in place. It would not burn very well. Therefore, next I ordered one of Larry FDFW's SFL (short focal length) lens assymblies.
The module as is from Daguin was measured by Daguin to have an output of 245 mw. The Larry FDFW lens is marketed to give a 20% improvement over that. Therefore it should now have an output of 290-300 mw. I got the new lens in the mail today and installed it. All I can say is WOW!. You can focus the laser into a much tighter dot now. Plus it is visually brighter at the dot. This lens is only for close up stuff, not for far away like the axiz lens was. That is ok with me because I only wanted this red laser for burning.
This lens is so much better than the axiz not only in power output, but there is no longer that annoying wobble and hard to focus annoyance of the axiz lens. Here is the lens installed. Larry was nice enough to teflon tape the threads for me so that the assembly turns nice and smooth and does not move. You no longer need the axiz spring set up with this lens assembly.
Here is a pic of the laser in action. The target of the beam is an incense stick being held by my third hand soldering jig. The laser was only on for about 10 seconds when this picture was taken. You can see that it is already smoldering the dark green incense stick after that short time.
I really like this laser stuff. I have always wanted a cool laser ever since I saw that movie "Real Genius" with Val Kilmer way back in the day. I now have a o-like 150 mw green module on the way. In addition to that I have an Igor 6x high frequency freak build that is on the way as well. Right out of the hole I went and blew 600 bucks on this stuff. Oh well, I would have just bought car parts with it for this anyway. This money hole is usually where my extra doe goes to.