I accidentally deleted my last post (see my other complaining post), so here we go again. *sigh*
After finding a flashlight that took 6 AAA batteries, I finally built my first self-contained laser.
It took a long time to build this laser (four or five hours of work). First the 9 volts weren't causing the diode to lase, and I couldn't figure out why. Finally I followed the wiring of the battery housing that fits into the flashlight body, and found that they were wired in parallel of 3 and 3. I had to rewire the housing to put them in series. THEN it worked. Then I had to bypass all the electrical components on the chip and just put the positive side straight through the button. That took a while, because I had to use a knife to cut into the chip and sever the metal strips and such. The button had four terminals, and I had no idea how to wire the button up, but the first way I tried it worked. I didn't even need two of the terminals. I then had to cut a piece of aluminum sheet metal to fit in the front to hold down the button housing thing, or else the battery housing would push on the button housing, pressing the button up against the flashlight body button hole, rendering it inoperable. Then I wired it up to the laser, stuffed it with paper towel, drilled out the front, and I was done!
I'm using one of Rkcstr's 100mA fixed drivers.
Here it was before I built my flashlight laser:
Here it is shining through light and extra virgin olive oil, respectively.
After finding a flashlight that took 6 AAA batteries, I finally built my first self-contained laser.
It took a long time to build this laser (four or five hours of work). First the 9 volts weren't causing the diode to lase, and I couldn't figure out why. Finally I followed the wiring of the battery housing that fits into the flashlight body, and found that they were wired in parallel of 3 and 3. I had to rewire the housing to put them in series. THEN it worked. Then I had to bypass all the electrical components on the chip and just put the positive side straight through the button. That took a while, because I had to use a knife to cut into the chip and sever the metal strips and such. The button had four terminals, and I had no idea how to wire the button up, but the first way I tried it worked. I didn't even need two of the terminals. I then had to cut a piece of aluminum sheet metal to fit in the front to hold down the button housing thing, or else the battery housing would push on the button housing, pressing the button up against the flashlight body button hole, rendering it inoperable. Then I wired it up to the laser, stuffed it with paper towel, drilled out the front, and I was done!
I'm using one of Rkcstr's 100mA fixed drivers.
Here it was before I built my flashlight laser:
Here it is shining through light and extra virgin olive oil, respectively.
