Second red laser pointer that I’ve built!

[treacheroustoast]

This is the second laser pointer I’ve made, and it’s the first one that doesn’t use mostly salvaged parts!

 

[Immo1282]

Is the host 3d printed plastic? Not going to give you much heatsinking but an interesting approach nonetheless...

 

[treacheroustoast]

Is the host 3d printed plastic? Not going to give you much heatsinking but an interesting approach nonetheless...

It is. I’m putting just enough power into it that it will turn on, so its heat output is not that much. I’m only going to have it on for a few seconds at a time anyway.

 

[icecruncher]

nice, what are you using for a driver?

 

[paul1598419]

Since you printed the host for this, you should have made it possible to put the tactile switch inside the host and printed a button to activate it. I hope you are using some kind of driver, or at least a resistor to limit the current if you are under driving the diode significantly. Laser diodes drop in their resistance to current as they warm up and this causes them to pull more and more current until the diodes fails from thermal runaway.

 

[treacheroustoast]

nice, what are you using for a driver?

It's using a driver that came with the diode, so I don't know which one.

 

[GSS]

What red diode is it and how much is it driven?