Alaskan
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- Jan 29, 2014
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I'm trying to come up with a RGB design too, I purchased a large number of single mode R, G and B diodes to build one which combined will have several watts of output but I'm still thinking of the best way to design this thing, so many diodes it will be a challenge due to that alone.
I'm considering just let them all run in parallel and with the natural divergence they can make a colored spot on cloud bases, but being able to combine them before they leave the rifle sized host would be oh so much better. Maybe I will knife edge each color together and then just have three separate outputs. I have too many project irons in the fire and not concentrating on any one of them, buying parts for all of them in parallel, as I can.. not the way to get something done.
One concern I have is whether controlling a constant current regulator with a slider potentiometer (or any kind of variable resistor) would cause spikes to the diode which could destroy them. I've seen others post that adjusting the pot is a no-no with laser diodes, to set the current first with a load instead. That video seems to show three slider pots being used for adjusting the intensity of each diode output.
I'm considering just let them all run in parallel and with the natural divergence they can make a colored spot on cloud bases, but being able to combine them before they leave the rifle sized host would be oh so much better. Maybe I will knife edge each color together and then just have three separate outputs. I have too many project irons in the fire and not concentrating on any one of them, buying parts for all of them in parallel, as I can.. not the way to get something done.
One concern I have is whether controlling a constant current regulator with a slider potentiometer (or any kind of variable resistor) would cause spikes to the diode which could destroy them. I've seen others post that adjusting the pot is a no-no with laser diodes, to set the current first with a load instead. That video seems to show three slider pots being used for adjusting the intensity of each diode output.
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