Please help, making a driver

[Kakashi987]

I thought it had to be past flush.

 

[Eudaimonium]

The diode is most likely pressed in fine.

What do you mean by not getting a nice dot?
Can you take some pictures of your setup?

 

[photonaholic]

I thought it had to be past flush.

Fully seated IS just a tad past flush.

Like it was just said, pictures are worth a thousand words....

 

[Kakashi987]

^^^^^^^ That is as focused as I can get it ^^^^^^^

 

[Alexizupinhea]

How close up is that shot? Like, is it a rlly big, bright red light when you take out the lens? I saw you took a picture of it, and from the pic, I can't tell whether it's burnt out or not. Also, for future use as well as now, you may wish to insulate the terminals on the switch and the rkcstr driver. At least wrap everything in electrical tape, heat shrink tubing, or a tape that conducts heat well, such as Kapton Tape like this: DealExtreme: $2.88 High Temperature Tape (10mm / 300-C)

Another thing you may wish to try... I think 4AAAs is pushing it a little bit. My opinion would be to try powering it up to a 9V battery and see if it works properly. Also, you could always check the lens for scratches, or make sure the "window" on the diode doesn't have a crack in it or anything.

 

[mfo]

It's hard to tell because you'll never be able to 100% duplicate in a photo what your eyes see due to the brightness of the laser. However, to me the focus looks fine in that pic. Are you referring to the line that cuts through the dot? If so, that's normal for a red laser dude. We call those wings

 

[Kakashi987]

Those "wings" are normal? Wow, did not know that. I kinda like them . How do I focus it to infinity? @Alex: I think I might put in a nine volt cuz it doesn't have any power at all (first I'm gonna try some new aaa's cuz I just found those in the garage and don't know how old they are).

EDIT: Also is there anyway to get rid of the wings, just in case I want a more focused dot for more power?

 

[mfo]

Those "wings" are normal? Wow, did not know that. I kinda like them . How do I focus it to infinity? @Alex: I think I might put in a nine volt cuz it doesn't have any power at all (first I'm gonna try some new aaa's cuz I just found those in the garage and don't know how old they are).

EDIT: Also is there anyway to get rid of the wings, just in case I want a more focused dot for more power?

The best way to focus it is to use safety glasses so that you can actually see the dot, and not all of the splash & brightness around it. And no, there's no way to get rid of the wings. We all have them. The only red diode I know of that don't have the wings are the SmOC from the BDR-203 & BDR-205 sleds.

 

[Kakashi987]

I just got done putting on a 9 volt but the power seems to be the same. What's wrong?

 

[Carl Witcombe]

Hi,

First things first, Without this forum I would never have got to build a laser Thanks for a great forum, also thanks to Rog8811.com for all the valuable info contained within.:thanks:

I'm new here and to building lasers and electronics, so be nice please.

My question is

I have a few resistors off eBayUK, however these resistors are marked up as being for example 2r7 (colorcode: resistor is a light brown color with these bands:- red, purple?, gold and gold) when tested with a Multimeter in ohm's mode it reads 3.4.

Is this discrepency the norm for resistors, could I be doing something wrong with the multimeter.

 

[Eudaimonium]

Hi,

First things first, Without this forum I would never have got to build a laser Thanks for a great forum, also thanks to Rog8811.com for all the valuable info contained within.:thanks:

I'm new here and to building lasers and electronics, so be nice please.

My question is

I have a few resistors off eBayUK, however these resistors are marked up as being for example 2r7 (colorcode: resistor is a light brown color with these bands:- red, purple?, gold and gold) when tested with a Multimeter in ohm's mode it reads 3.4.

Is this discrepency the norm for resistors, could I be doing something wrong with the multimeter.

Try shorting the DMM leads without anything in between. I'm willing to bet it reads 0.7 ohms of resistance of nothing else but leads (probes, whatever you want to call them).

 

[Carl Witcombe]

Thanks Eudaimonium for your tips i'll try that.