PHR in a maglite solitaire

[Scottyzedinosaur]

Hey everyone! So I got bored with my current lasers, and decided to do something a tad challenging to me. Probably not too challenging for many of you out there, but I hadn't seen it done besides Daves solitaire 445, but that was direct drive. So I made a mag solitaire blu-ray laser, WITH a driver.
I made a ton of tiny mods to the solitaire and aixiz module, too many to list...but heres a few. I shortened the module, filed the diameter down, and i modified the tailcap of the mag, it is now a back-twist on laser. I used a 12v battery instead of a AAA, which gave me much more room in the host, and I used an LM317 driver setup. I used a 10 ohm 1/4W resistor, so I should be getting around 90-100mW, with an aixiz plastic 405 lens. and it's running great The only problem is that i only get around 30 minutes runtime. But, i did it on the cheap, and the whole project cost me about 30 bucks. Here's some pictures!^^ Oh, and the goggles in the picture are O-like's 405, 445, and infrared goggles. They work very, VERY well, as you can see in the picture.
The pins I soldered onto the diode didnt entirely fit into the spaces, so I used a small plastic ring from a pen to keep the pins from getting smushed. That's the white thing you see in picture number 7.
Thanks for looking!:thanks:
Edit: sorry for the blurry pictures, I hate my camera...

 

[Benm]

Thats pretty cool - but what about the "12v battery"? Is that something special, like the ones used in some garage door openers and similar devices?

You could be better off using a few AG13/LR44 button cells instead - 12 volts is a lot of wasted voltage (its prob 8 alkalines), perhaps you could suffice with 6 LR44's (which are dirt cheap at DX and actually work well).

 

[Toke]

Looks cool, what kind of heatsinking are you using?

 

[Scottyzedinosaur]

I grinded the module down so that it fits fairly snug in the host, so it makes pretty good contact with the host. So, the host becomes a heatsink. Also, it's only a PHR, and I only run it for~30 seconds at a time.
And would those get me any better battery life? If not, I think I'll stick with my little 12v, since it keeps all those little batteries in a single package.
and yes, they are those 12v batteries for the garage door openers. But those lr44s are lithiums,correct? Caus I hate alkalines. They suck.

 

[Mohrenberg]

I'm curious how long that 12v battery will last...have you timed it's run time on a single battery?

You know you can peel the outer layer off and you'll find about 6 button cell batteries in there?

Flaminpyro still has everyone beat i think.

He has pictures of him wearing his laser as an ear ring. It was impressively small.

 

[Benm]

LR44 or AG13 cells are alkalines too, unfortunately. The 12 volt batteries often contain a stack of ~8 of such batteries encased in some insulation foil and an outer metal casing, but performance-wise this is identical to just using single cells in series.

As far as i know there are no commonly available lithium cells (at least the 3 volt variety) in this form factor. CR2032 cells and such are very common primary liths, but those are large and flat rather than small and thick, so useless in this kind of build.

And i suppose this is as small as you can make a laser of this power level really. If size is the single goal, you can build a low powered laser using a single alkaline button cell and joule-thief like circuit, but that would be of little practical use - apart from a conversation-piece earring

 

[Scottyzedinosaur]

No, I haven't, but it isn't very long at all:/ alkalines are so unreliable. They have lithium LR44s, though, I just learned. So I'm going to test it with those, and I'll try a runtime test with those.
and I did know that the ones I'm using have 8 coin cells inside. The only problem I have with the LR44s is that I'd have to keep up with all those tiny coin cells. I like my batteries to be in one unit, not have a bunch of little ones. But, if it'll help my runtime, I'm going to get those lithiums.
Edit: nevermind. Just read the description of the batt a little closer, not lithium. Eh. Ohwell I'm proud of it