quick question on power supply

[sk8er4514]

so I just got a laser power meter and would like to make graphs for the 22x, 20x, and PHR803T diodes.

I'm curious if this would be good for testing diodes,
http://cgi.ebay.com/Power-supply-11...6388801QQihZ001QQcategoryZ58288QQcmdZViewItem



... wait, actually looking at that I think it's straight 500mA output.

so I could put like a 1k ohm pot between my multimeter and diode and could change the current, yeah?

I know I'm supposed to know all this because I'm a Computer Engineer, but I do the one night before cram study technique for all my classes which works out great, then I promptly forget it within a week.

thanks for any input,
Kendall

 

[Murudai]

Just get an adjustable power supply with an adjustable voltage. Voltage between 1V and 12V, and current between 10ma or 1000ma. Something like that, I'm sure they're out there.

It would save a lot of trouble of having to go through resistors and stuff, and give you a far more accurate reading for power

 

[pseudolobster]

Those AC "wall warts" mostly use oscillating transformers to step down voltage, leaving the power full of noise and spikes and generally dirty.
They should be fine for hooking a 3.2v driver up (a lavadrive maybe?) but you should never run lasers directly off such dirty power... by comparison, running a laser directly off batteries is much safer.

 

[sk8er4514]

Those AC "wall warts" mostly use oscillating transformers to step down voltage, leaving the power full of noise and spikes and generally dirty.
They should be fine for hooking a 3.2v driver up (a lavadrive maybe?) but you should never run lasers directly off such dirty power... by comparison, running a laser directly off batteries is much safer.

hmmm.. alright. yeah I guess I could just hook up a flexdrive w/ my multimeter between the + of driver & diode to read current.

my laser power meter can hook up to my computer so I'll get some really sweet graphs if I do this I'll be sure to post my results on my website & on here.

thanks for your guys' help.