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m140 driver

Ruyinju

New member
Joined
Feb 2, 2019
Messages
3
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I recently purchased a broken m140 projector and extracted the 24 2W laser diode bank in it, with a output power of 50W and I wanted to know if there are any cheap drivers out there that I could get 24 of for a cheap price to run each diode.
 





Joined
Sep 4, 2018
Messages
562
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63
I think some members have run banks of many diodes in series before - Don't quote me on that, but you may be able to reduce the number of drivers by ganging up multiple diodes together.
 
Joined
Dec 15, 2014
Messages
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Hi ,
In that projector you will not have 24/2w diodes, you will have A140/1.6W diodes and m140 /2+W diodes. The 2W M140,s will have this stamped on the back. And the diodes that do not have the stamp will be A140 diodes. A140 set to 1.8Will give about 1.6+ as where the m140's set at 1.8A will give 2+W's

Rich:)
 

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Joined
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Get a single 30V 10A bench power supply. Add a balancing resistor in series to each string of 6, and put the 4 strings in parallel. Total drive would then be something like ~27V at ~7.2A. That's what I'm using for a stock 24-diode bank.
 
Joined
Jul 16, 2017
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If you were looking for a driver to drive ONE diode at a time:

Brace yourself....you said "cheap". I don't know if I'd trust these with an expensive diode - but I've had success using them for the same diodes you are messing with a couple years ago..and they still work :)


Outside of that - making a LM317 driver on your own is about a cheap as you can get. Again, because you have a bunch to play with...I wouldn't be suggesting these for $$$$ diodes.

Good luck!
 

Ruyinju

New member
Joined
Feb 2, 2019
Messages
3
Points
3
If you were looking for a driver to drive ONE diode at a time:

Brace yourself....you said "cheap". I don't know if I'd trust these with an expensive diode - but I've had success using them for the same diodes you are messing with a couple years ago..and they still work :)


Outside of that - making a LM317 driver on your own is about a cheap as you can get. Again, because you have a bunch to play with...I wouldn't be suggesting these for $$$$ diodes.

Good luck!
yeah I was thinking about making my own with some lm317s and some resistors, and the funny thing is is that that driver you recommended, I just bought one for a 1.6W diode I had and I did not have a great experience with the board. but thanks anyway!
 
Joined
Jul 16, 2017
Messages
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yeah I was thinking about making my own with some lm317s and some resistors, and the funny thing is is that that driver you recommended, I just bought one for a 1.6W diode I had and I did not have a great experience with the board. but thanks anyway!
Sorry to hear that! And you are very welcome. (y)
 

Sumfinclever

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Nov 23, 2018
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If you do happen to find a decent supplier of "cheap" driver boards for the individual diodes, be sure to follow up with an update. If you happen to have an oscilloscope to check for current spikes, that would be even more awesome. I've been kind of curious myself how well some of those Chinese made PCBs work for the A140/m140 diodes.
 
Joined
Sep 4, 2018
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I'm using my scope at work until tomorrow - but I'll measure the spikes later in the week of the boards I've got. Some £8 buck drivers from OdicForce in the UK sold for use with 405 & 455 diodes up from 0-1500mA
 

Sumfinclever

Member
Joined
Nov 23, 2018
Messages
69
Points
18
I'm using my scope at work until tomorrow - but I'll measure the spikes later in the week of the boards I've got. Some £8 buck drivers from OdicForce in the UK sold for use with 405 & 455 diodes up from 0-1500mA
I was looking at those recently. Hard to beat for that cheap if the power is clean.
 




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