MAGIC and IRON4D by rhd - Info and Guide

[ApexProxy]

Either way yours is superior

Two 700mA IRON4Ds power my 500 Mitsu beautifully. I love having so much power in a crazy small package.

 

[IsaacT]

I am sad my Iron4d I picked up to run my 300mW Mitsu Diode is dead...no fault of the driver, the blame lies squarely on my shoulders and my soldering iron(much too large for our work....more like a broadsword than the rapier needed....). So I went to Cajunlasers to order a second one but lo and behold they are out of stock!

So I am wondering: will there be more anytime soon? I am dying to get my red back together so I can have a red laser again.
OR....will 1050mA driver be overkill? I don't want to fry the damn thing, but I really do want it back in working condition.
OR OR....are there any other drivers that might work....I am looking at the Mohgasm Linear driver at 668mA. Also was looking at the Benboosts but I hear they are not compatible.

Thanks,
Isaac

PS-I picked up a 50 dollar Weller 5-40W Soldering Station and an ST7 Soldering Tip(tiny mofo fosho) and all of a sudden I am soldering like a boss.....in comparison of course! I still have a long way to go. So the sword of betrayal shall lie without power for the duration of its days.

 

[ApexProxy]

My 500mW Mitsu is still going very strong running off two 700mA IRON4Ds. It was very tricky to solder them to the diode's pins but I am very glad it worked.

Very nice soldering iron BTW.

 

[IsaacT]

I am just worried that the 300mW won't stand up to the increase in current. Is 1050mA not too much for the 300mW?

 

[clif]

These awesome little IRON4D drivers are actually so small they're rather difficult to make from what I understand of them. Maybe if I beg Ben just enough he could make a few more for us

 

[IsaacT]

I would love to get my hands on another! I simply DON'T want to use any different drivers for my Mitsu Laser.

 

[IsaacT]

Alright...I hate to ask more questions on this thread but here goes....how many mW's would 1050mA give ON THE 500mW Mitsu Diode? My 300mW Mitsu is dead, some of you may have heard, but I have a cheap Guidesman Host that is begging to be used.

 

[arcaneinsomniac]

Oh my goodness...

So I really love the design of the IRON4D Driver, it's impossible to mess up the pins.

But!

The spaces are SO tiny!

I just spent about 3 hours soldering the FIRST 700mA driver onto my 635 diode: It's taken a tumble to the floor already, and I've peeked at the Open Can diode with my crappy 20X magnifier (used as a loupe) a few times and I don't think I've broken any wires in it, though one of them (the one on the right that is closest to me) looks attached from the side instead of from above. Since my magnifier optics absolutely suck I'm just gonna have to cross my fingers.

But the reason it took 3 hours and not 10 minutes was the diode pins can get shorted together with solder *so easily* it's not even funny.

I had the misfortune of not really knowing what temperature I should have set my iron to, it was too low, and eventually i ended up with all three pins bridged together and my iron wasn't hot enough to "slice" through the little solder bridges with the tip, and I started attempting to remedy things with my solder wick.

Which is a fine idea except I started doing something REALLY stupid which is cut off small pieces of solder wick to try to get the solder wick to higher temperatures (it certainly should, if it is not connected to the rest of the solder wick).

This was completely asinine because the small piece of solder wick eventually came apart, and I now had about 100 tiny 5mm long copper strands entangled in the pins within an ungodly blob of solder.

This was ABSOLUTELY AWFUL and I was eventually able to pick the copper out (some one by one) as I slowly dialed up the temp on my iron and liberally applied flux.

Once I got them all out I was able to slice the solder bridges across the pins since I was up to over 300 degrees C at this point...

At some point in the middle of this process I got smart and set my module into the L2 size heavy duty copper heatsink that I had on hand, and if this baby still lases after this ordeal I'll have my quick thinking to thank.

What a learning experience!

(this is with a 500mW Mits 635 diode, btw)

 

[clif]

Man that's too bad...
As these components shrink down even further they begin to get very tricky to work with.

 

[arcaneinsomniac]

Clif!

I got all my drivers the last few months from your site! You have been an indispensible resource.

I wanted to ask you if you will have any more of these 700mA IRON4D's in stock? I only see the 1050mA (3x 7135) version listed.

Is it common practice to solder an additional 7135 on to a 1050mA version to get 1400mA? It sounds like something that would be incredibly difficult.

Thanks

 

[clif]

I don't have any more left sorry. It will likely be difficult to do.

Ben made these for me, if you send him a PM maybe he still has some boards left. RHD would be the other person to try for one.

You could maybe try two 1050mA boards and desolder one 350mA chip from each and that might work. I don't have a schematic on the boards, you'd likely have to jumper some things where you removed a chip.

 

[arcaneinsomniac]

I don't have any more left sorry. It will likely be difficult to do.

Ben made these for me, if you send him a PM maybe he still has some boards left. RHD would be the other person to try for one.

You could maybe try two 1050mA boards and desolder one 350mA chip from each and that might work. I don't have a schematic on the boards, you'd likely have to jumper some things where you removed a chip.

I see, thanks.

I hope these drivers won't be one-offs. Though it would make my lasers (hmm. laser. singular) that much more unique.

 

[ApexProxy]

I don't have any more left sorry. It will likely be difficult to do.

Ben made these for me, if you send him a PM maybe he still has some boards left. RHD would be the other person to try for one.

You could maybe try two 1050mA boards and desolder one 350mA chip from each and that might work. I don't have a schematic on the boards, you'd likely have to jumper some things where you removed a chip.

You may not have to jumper anything if its made how I think it is... from what I understand the regulators are all in parallel and if so then removing one chip should not effect anything but drop the current by 350mA. I could be wrong though.

Also I found something cool, I found a way to boost the current on these little guys by replacing the regulators with THESE. You can increase the current by 30mA for each chip you replace. Its a slightly different bin of the same regulator that's 380mA instead of 350mA but has the same specs otherwise. Maybe someone can find this useful

 

[clif]

You may not have to jumper anything if its made how I think it is... from what I understand the regulators are all in parallel and if so then removing one chip should not effect anything but drop the current by 350mA. I could be wrong though.

Also I found something cool, I found a way to boost the current on these little guys by replacing the regulators with THESE. You can increase the current by 30mA for each chip you replace. Its a slightly different bin of the same regulator that's 380mA instead of 350mA but has the same specs otherwise. Maybe someone can find this useful

In that case, he may be able to just stack a couple more on top to make a 1400mA board right?

 

[ApexProxy]

In that case, he may be able to just stack a couple more on top to make a 1400mA board right?

Yes, the only worry is that temperatures would have to be taken into account. Those little chips will make a respectable amount of heat all squashed in together. I would suggest adding a little arctic alumina between them and the diode module to give the heat an escape path. They do possess thermal protection so you couldn't damage them but it may limit your duty cycles unless you make a path for the heat to escape.

 

[arcaneinsomniac]

Well my 1400mA Mits 500 in a waterproof copper HS Solarforce P1D build is a blinding (literally) success. This one's a real gem. I'll have review up soon as I get around to uploading the pics.