making the new NUBM44 450nm diode handheld?

[Nikos]

First of all, if I make any unforgivable mistakes, I'm very sorry. This is my first high power laser build and my first thread on this forum.

Now on to the thread.
So DTR recently added this new diode to his store, a MASSIVE 7W+ 450nm diode :drool:

My question was if it was possible to make this handheld? because up untill now, I've only build low-end laser where I just needed to hook up 2xAAA batteries and it was good to go
But with this new diode, it requires 7~12V and around 4500mAh :wtf:

I'm guessing hooking it up to 3 18350 batteries will solve the voltage problem and one 26650 battery can provide 4500mAh with ease but is it possible, IN ANY WAY AT ALL, to find a handheld powersource of that kind of voltage AND 4500mAh?

Lining up 3 26650 batteries is my best guess, but try finding a host suporting that... :undecided:
Not to mention if, and only IF, we manage to find such a host, we still wouldn't have a heatsink

My friend, who's an electrician, said something about Putting multiple drivers in paralel (or something like that). I have no clue what it is, or what he means, but would that solve anything?


So yea that's it :yh: I hope you guys (or girls, equal rights) will help me out on this one :wave:

Nikos

 

[marcuspeh]

Building a laser with this diode is the same as any blue laser diode. You can use a buck driver in which you will need 2 li-ion batteries or a boost driver in which you will need 1 li-ion battery. Look at this link for more information.

 

[trussmonkey25]

Do NOT hook up 3 3.7 batteries. I murdered three diodes this way trying to ramp up the power. Use the buck driver and two fat 26650s. A BIG HEAT SINK is in order for this monster. I have a 5.3 watt solid copper nickle alloy host. Don't like run this guy for more than 30 seconds.

 

[Hiemal]

You're misunderstanding a few things, I think.

When you're stating "mAh", that means milli-amp hour, aka, the amount of current a battery can supply for one hour before it is drained. So, the more capacity a battery has, the longer you can use it before it requires a charge again!

Since a laser diode isn't a battery... well you can certainly see the problem there!

The laser diode itself requires about 4.7 volts at 5.5 amps, if I remember DTR's testing correctly. Now, what you can power that with just depends on what kind of driver you're trying to use.


If you're using a buck driver, then your voltage MUST be over what the diode requires, plus a little extra for losses. So, two li-ion batteries.

If you're using a boost driver, then your voltage MUST be UNDER what the diode requires, aka, ONE li-ion battery.


Buck drivers generally draw less current the more voltage you supply over the diode's voltage, but they can only handle a certain amount of voltage to begin with. Most can handle 2 li-ion batteries, and no more.

Boost drivers are similar, but different. The less of a voltage difference there is between the diode's voltage and your supply voltage the lesser the current draw will be.



Putting two driver's in parallel will *usually* work, it just highly depends on the design of the driver in the first place. Typically this just combines the two driver's output currents together.

Since you're definitely new to this hobby try looking around at other people's builds (the ones that have walk-throughs of what they did) to get a better understanding of how they made it...



I would NOT recommend jumping from small, low power builds to something so extreme, especially since 7+ watts of laser is EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY dangerous to your eyesight. Mainly because you're new and don't understand basic building principles!!




Everyone used to be in the same boat as you at some point, so please understand I'm not trying to insult you or anything, but rather I'm trying to protect your eyesight. Do some research, build a few lower power builds, and get some good laser goggles to protect your eyes, THEN try to build one of these monsters, ONCE you feel comfortable. These things should be treated with the same level of respect as a gun, in these cases.

Please be safe!

 

[crazyspaz]

Also, forget 26650's. Use (legit) Panasonic 18650's- much more power in a smaller volume than 26650's.

 

[LeviathanBaphomet]

Also, forget 26650's. Use (legit) Panasonic 18650's- much more power in a smaller volume than 26650's.

From my research that is simply not true, this graph shows a good quality 26650 vs the flagship Panasonic 18650 and it clearly fails to compete in charge and capacity with the larger battery. Since this build would require a large heatsink to start with the host would already be fairly large and i see no reason to bottleneck such a build with smaller batteries.

I am planning on building a unit similar to OP using the Cypreus IIIB host with 2x26650 as my power source.

 

[Lifetime17]

Hi,
If you decide to you 2- 26650's go wth a 2- D cell mag light host they carry a huge heat sink that will handle this diode. And a sleeve inserted into the battery tube of the host. This will take up the space of the D cells the host was originally intended for.
Jayrob makes the host and sleeves check out his 2- Dcell mag light builds and a lot of options to go with it. Basic is the modified host and heat sink. It also comes prewired pop in the diode and driver solder 2 wires done. I have 2 mag light mods I did myself with NDB7A75 diodes it does not get hot at all . I run them with 4.0mA xdrives output is 5.550mW easy no heat long duty times to. Hope this helps good luck take your time. )

 

[APEX1]

This is a bad idea, if you don't no what your doing on this I'd wait till you get some more experience with the hobby... 6+w is very very very dangerous my friend. I don't even want one of these yet lol. Actually that's the biggest lie Ive ever said lol Be careful bud.

 

[crazyspaz]

From my research that is simply not true, this graph shows a good quality 26650 vs the flagship Panasonic 18650 and it clearly fails to compete in charge and capacity with the larger battery. Since this build would require a large heatsink to start with the host would already be fairly large and i see no reason to bottleneck such a build with smaller batteries.

I am planning on building a unit similar to OP using the Cypreus IIIB host with 2x26650 as my power source.

Fair enough, I have never seen that. In fact I have never seen any 26650 that isn't garbage, and frankly I wouldn't trust those either, but that's just me.

Still 2 or 3 18650's (that can output 15A continuously, mind you) takes up way less space than 2 or 3 26650's. Sure you want a big heatsink, but you don't need a host the size of loaf of bread to do it

 

[Pman]

There's nothing hard at all about building a handheld with one of those diodes and others have already done it. With DTR's option for a complete module a lot of us could put one together in minutes or less than a 1/2 hour with our own module parts but this is NOT something anyone jumps into lightly and if you don't have lots of laser experience and know all the safety issues don't even think about it.
This may be outputting 7W+ but it is NOT the brightest beam or dot out there by far compared to another diode that has been out longer. Wattage isn't everything.

 

[Alaskan]

More DTR Photo's here: https://sites.google.com/site/dtrlpf/home/diodes/6w-nubm44-445nm-laser-diode

 

[LeviathanBaphomet]

Alaskan i do not believe you are not showing the diodes true potential with those brightness comparisons and here is my reason for believing so:

Little new info. Got some images of the raw output compared to a NDB7A75. The NUBM44 is a thinner bar more concentrated and is definitely much bluer than the NDB7A75. I am waiting on a wavelength check but my guess is it is a 462nm diode.

This diode appears to be slightly higher in wavelength than the 450nm/460nm brightness you have compared giving it a noticeable boost if true. I ordered it set to 5500mA and with DTR's tests showing it is almost certainly outputting 7+ watts.

So here is the new bad boy on the block. My meeter does not read past 6.8W but this diode is clearly doing well over 7W but I will call it 6W till someone can show some testing further than I can with my meeter. In this video I show how my meeter is maxing out. @ 4.5A it does 6.8W and I ran it for about two minutes @ 5.5A with the meeter pegged at max the whole time never a drop in reading so there is a very good chance it is doing much more than that.

And with Mattronium's (maybe unrealistic prediction) there is potential for as high as 7900mw @ 5500mA.

I built a graph of the diodes power output vs input and got the polynomial trend line.
According to it the power at 5.5A might be 7.9 watts (7.931225 exactly)
And of course this is assuming that the increase in power is consistent/predictable. Which could be a big assumption.




y = -0.1192x^2 + 2.2559x - 0.873 and R^2 = 0.9996

Knowing it can hit 6830mw without problems, and a theoretical high point of 7900mw here are some reconstructed results.

Are my new comparisons really any more valid or am i just throwing numbers around with unproven information? I think until the true wavelength and peak output tests comes back we can't know for sure.
Having purchased one, i may be bias to hoping it's on the higher end of the brightness scale which would be a pleasant result!

 

[Alaskan]

I just threw out some conservative numbers, I'm not sure of the max power after the lens, would be awesome to get 7 watts or more of collimated output if that isn't pushing it too hard. My best lenses loose 20% of the power.

I ordered a buck driver from DTR set to 5000 mA for this diode, will see. Seems possible to get 7+ Watts out if DTR can get so much with a 3 element lens which probably has 30% loss or higher (as shown in the above photo's in my last post). I am soooo hoping it is 462nm! If it is, this is competition to 1 watt 520nm laser diodes at this this price.

Thanks to LPF member RHD for providing this handy tool. I put his initials in there in recognition but they don't appear on his online calc. http://lsrtools.1apps.com/relativebrightness/

.
Laser Pointer Safety Info: http://www.laserpointersafety.com/index.html

Laser Diode Drivers: http://tinyurl.com/flaminpyro

Interesting fact: A laser with a 2mm wide beam with 1 mRad of divergence will produce a beam which is ~520 ft/~161m wide 100 miles away, at 2 mRad ~1056 ft/~322m. Easy online spot size calculator at: http://www.pseudonomen.com/lasers/calculators/diameterCalculator.html

Newport Corp. PDF doc on building laser beam expanders to reduce divergence: How To Build a Beam Expander

Relationship of diode aperture & wavelength to divergence: http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/79417/why-does-a-laser-beam-diverge

Lens Divergence Calculator, λ to dia: http://www.us-lasers.com/beam_divergence.htm

Links to a few brief YouTube videos on optics: Finding the positive focal length of a convex lens ... Finding the negative focal length of a concave lens ...
Simple way to estimate the FL of a convex lens ...

RHD's Relative Perceived Brightness Calculator - Compare 520 to 532nm etc: http://lsrtools.1apps.com/relativebrightness/
(A 100mw/.1 watt 532nm green laser is perceived as brighter to the human eye than a 1000mw/1 watt 445nm blue laser).

 

[Mohrenberg]

You could also use the SuperBoost driver set at 4.5A and power it with a single lithium battery

 

[vortish]

If you really want this monster I would suggest two things. a) if your looking to do it your self great! But I would practice on a 3 watt before jumping up to that beast. It will give you more of a understanding on the higher powered diodes. b) have one of the more experienced builders build it for you

 

[Mohrenberg]

If you really want this monster I would suggest two things. a) if your looking to do it your self great! But I would practice on a 3 watt before jumping up to that beast. It will give you more of a understanding on the higher powered diodes. b) have one of the more experienced builders build it for you

Building it yourself is the best part though!