My first laser build.

[ahighclown1107]

hey guys well its my first time building a laser and i'm confused with getting a capacitor for it. I have 4.5v 18.1 mA current and i need to get the mA to around 180 or 190. Can anyone tell me what capacitor to use or at least point me in the right direction.

 

[anselm]

Hello and welcome to the foum!:wave:
A capacitor doesn't have much to do with the current....
What driver are you using?
Where are you planning to put that capacitor?

Might I suggest you read the laser building and driver related links inside the
INDEX link in my signature?

 

[ahighclown1107]

The diode is a GGW blu ray. I'm not sure what the Nm are either.

The original circuitry had a a push button wired to a board, Which is attached to
both a Speaker and a led light. Im assuming the original board will burn out with 180mA So i plan to put the capacitor on the + wire between the laser and the led wiring after the board.

As far the driver. I wasnt gonna use one the mA are so low i was just gonna get a capacitor to build it up

On a side note does anyone know if a 200mW unfocused laser could still burn light matches and stuff

 

[BennyF]

Pictures??

 

[ahighclown1107]

Sorry camera was being weird, anyway its 3 batteries connected to a green board in the middle which connects to a button switch, which re routes and adjusts power to the speaker and the led wire( disconnected one)

 

[BennyF]

i'm confused, did you say speaker? its super hard to see whats going on in the picture.

 

[ahighclown1107]

Yeah, its a long story but there is one it makes a wooshing sound Its powered by two separate wires though.

 

[strik3]

so basicaly you dont want to use a driver, but instead want to run the diode straight off the power output from a circuit designed to power a L.E.D (im presuming you mean a standard L.E.D and not a cree), by adding a capacitor in series with the laser diode?

 

[ahighclown1107]

Exactly , i guess i could of explained it like that and yes a regular led 5mm

 

[strik3]

you cant increase the power just by just adding a capacitor.
one way to do it would be to have a separate driver for the diode, and use the switch which is already on the board to activate the driver

 

[ahighclown1107]

Ok, so ill use a microflex booster. As for the diode does the voltage make a difference even if the mA is the same; in the way of burning.