My Possible First Build? What do you think?

[Shady At Best]

I am thinking about following this How to make a cheap 1000mW+ Blue Laser Pointer - YouTube For my first build.

I am going to order all the suggested parts from the description.

I basically want a bright or 1w+ pointer. I want to keep it around $100. I want to be able to see it in the night sky, want it to burn, last awhile, and mainly want to learn from the build.



Do you guys have suggestions that would make it better?
Thanks,
Shady

 

[IsaacT]

That is a good first build, just take your time. Rushing will make you make mistakes that could kill the diode, driver, or both.

 

[Shady At Best]

I ordered a few extra drivers and another host. Can any driver be used for any color diode or are they color specific? I an under the impression that they can.

 

[The Lightning Stalker]

Some Eagle Pair safety glasses will allow you to do focusing and burning without damaging your eyes.
1W+ is a huge power increase from the <1mW cat toys you are used to. You should also invest in an
ESD wrist strap if you don't have one already. Wearing one will help protect the diode before it's
connected to the module and everything is sealed up.

No, none of the drivers currently available are diode-specific. On a linear driver, you just have to match
the input voltage more closely to the voltage drop of the diode. The driver will run cooler if the input is
about 1 volt above the diode's voltage drop and no more. It's something to consider when buying a host
because the host has to hold enough cells to reach your target voltage.

 

[IsaacT]

I ordered a few extra drivers and another host. Can any driver be used for any color diode or are they color specific? I an under the impression that they can.

You cannot use boost drivers with red diodes. Linear or Buck drivers will work for reds.

Linear, Buck, or Boost will work for pretty much all others, atleast of the well known ones.

 

[Flaminpyro]

Like the Stalker says one driver may not be good for all laser diodes so you have to do your homework and find out which driver is best for which laser diode,
one example is the new PL520 green laser diode it requires between 6.2 and 6.9 volts to operate that is higher than any other laser diode we commonly use,
right now there is one driver that stands out in the front to power this diode and that is a Micro-Boost driver.

So check em out before you fire them up...

I ordered a few extra drivers and another host. Can any driver be used for any color diode or are they color specific? I an under the impression that they can.