My first laser

[x90z75ek]

This is my first complete laser build. It's an 780nm IR laser around 100mW.
Diode used is from a red burner sled, the driver is a DDL and it uses 2x 10440 batteries.
Here are some pics of the build.

And here's a video of the laser:
YouTube - Infra red laser.wmv


Note: I have no idea why the laser appears orange in the video. It must be the way the camera sees it.

 

[Eudaimonium]

Nice laser, nice video.

Laser burns nicely, comparing to 100mW bluray pen.

Ignites matches very fast, as seen on video.

Also, DDL driver uses 1117 , not 317, if anyone wants to know.

 

[x90z75ek]

Nice laser, nice video.

Laser burns nicely, comparing to 100mW bluray pen.

Ignites matches very fast, as seen on video.

Also, DDL driver uses 1117 , not 317, if anyone wants to know.

Thanks man! I never would have been able to finish this laser without your help.

 

[Eudaimonium]

Thanks man! I never would have been able to finish this laser without your help.

Sure you would.
I was only ... rushing you up a bit

 

[Tech_Junkie]

Is it an IR laser, or a red laser? If it's IR, why didnt you use the red diode?

 

[x90z75ek]

Is it an IR laser, or a red laser? If it's IR, why didnt you use the red diode?

It's an IR laser just like I said (780nm).
I used the IR diode because I wanted my first build to be an IR laser and also because I have more IR diodes than red.

 

[Tech_Junkie]

It's an IR laser just like I said (780mW).
I used the IR diode because I wanted my first build to be an IR laser and also because I have more IR diodes than red.

You mean 780nm.

If I was going to build a burning laser I would have used the red. You can get well over 350mW from the 650nm diode. Plus the sleds are only $10 if you didnt have any reds laying around.

 

[x90z75ek]

You mean 780nm.

If I was going to build a burning laser I would have used the red. You can get well over 350mW from the 650nm diode. Plus the sleds are only $10 if you didnt have any reds laying around.

Yes, I meant 780nm.
As for the red laser, that's going to be my next project. I just started with the IR to get into the laser building. This way if I did something wrong I wouldn't lose a red diode, but a IR one. I have more than ten of these thanks to Eudaimonium.

 

[Eudaimonium]

T_J , title says 'First'.

It's better to practise on some next-to-worthless diodes than one more valuable red, don't you think?
Besides, I got a lot of these from harvesting a lot of sleds, I just saved them.

 

[Tech_Junkie]

T_J , title says 'First'.

It's better to practise on some next-to-worthless diodes than one more valuable red, don't you think?
Besides, I got a lot of these from harvesting a lot of sleds, I just saved them.

Sorry, I thought I was talking to x90z75ek. :thinking:

 

[Byrnz93]

Nice first build! It's always good to practice on a lesser diode like the IR before you attempt the "better" one (the red in this case).

Btw, am I wrong in saying that IR diodes need extra optics to correct the beam (like a cylindrical or FAC lens)? Or is that only for the higher-power ones?

 

[Tech_Junkie]

I've been told the AixiZ lenses work OK.

 

[ReNNo]

Btw, am I wrong in saying that IR diodes need extra optics to correct the beam (like a cylindrical or FAC lens)? Or is that only for the higher-power ones?

Only for multi-mode HP diodes.

 

[Eudaimonium]

Nice first build! It's always good to practice on a lesser diode like the IR before you attempt the "better" one (the red in this case).

Btw, am I wrong in saying that IR diodes need extra optics to correct the beam (like a cylindrical or FAC lens)? Or is that only for the higher-power ones?

9mm and c-mount diodes need Fast axiz correction (fac).
Reason is that you need more emitting surface to have higher powers.

Commonly used diodes 5.6mm case have small emitting surface on diode facet, and result in almost round, eliptical beam profile when shined on the wall without optics.

Bigass powerful diodes need FAC because the emitters are huge, and they result in long ... stripe , and not oval shape.
That is why you need to shrink the fast diverging axiz to the divergence of slow axiz, to get usable beam.

It will also often result in square beam and not round.

But that almost never comes to play when we are talking about class IIIb.
Only Class IV diodes need complex optics.

 

[x90z75ek]

Nice first build! It's always good to practice on a lesser diode like the IR before you attempt the "better" one (the red in this case).

Btw, am I wrong in saying that IR diodes need extra optics to correct the beam (like a cylindrical or FAC lens)? Or is that only for the higher-power ones?

Thanks!
The lens I'm using is just a regular AixiZ lens and the dot can be focused just like that of a red laser. FAC is only needed with 9mm or c-mount IR and red diodes, but I see others have already explained that.