Stainless steel green laser flashlight build

[BlackOps]

Its been a long time before i made another build. I made another green laser, i found enough time to make another one! Took me a while tough as it kept breaking and condensing. And i had to machine all the parts including the host.

This is a very bright 532nm stainless steel green laser pen, with 7 optics inside it (a shit ton for its size, i know) to make the beam as round as possible, and filter the IR out. I made it so, its actually a flashlight, the beam gets bigger instead of infinity.
It is watertight, fog-proof and shockproof. The fog-proof part means, the internal lenses won't condensate between a temperature of -40 Celsius and 120 Celsius, kinda like military sniper scopes. I had to make the lens cavity airtight (even around the diode!) and trap dry air inside it, not easy.

Shockproof, it can be attached to an firearm. And can be thrown in the water.

It weights about 85 grams, which is pretty heavy, but its solid as a tank.

In the pictures, you can see, its not very big, about 11centimeters long and 14millimeters in diameter. It uses a 10280 lithium battery

It has 2 circuit boards, a LM358 driver and a battery management circuit. I also made a heavy bracket which goes on top of the battery, with two o-rings between them. This makes the lasers weight feel distributed and in case water gets in, it won't go into the vent of the battery.

Bottom line, it feels like a tank and is outstandingly bright.

 

[BlackOps]

Here are the hardware pictures.

Picture 1: the KTP crystal with an o-ring around it to prevent it from knocking loose when dropped severely or put on a firearm.

Picture 2: two metal plates where the lens rests on, which is shown in picture 3. This prevents the lens holder to sit between the module and the ktp crystal, and therefore also prevents direct contact with the lens and the actual crystal.

Picture 3: here you can see a lens that sits on top of the crystal, this makes the beam a lot more round, and has a red/purple AR coating. The lens is secured by a very strong spring (not shown in this picture) and the head of an aixiz module, which screws on top of it.

Picture 4: in the barrel, you can see an IR filter. As you might have noticed, it sits in an aixiz head. This IR filter is secured by an metal ring which fits perfectly in the hole (0.1mm tolerance) and it fits exactly around the protruding circle of the IR filter, and an spring which comes with the aixiz module. And then sealed off with an 3 element glass lens.

Picture 5: back side of the driver, i insulated everything nicely and put cooling on top of the LM358 chip

Picture 6: front side of the driver assembly, here you can see the microprocessor of the BMS circuit i put in there. Looks awesome.

Picture 7: this is the entire module finished up, airtight, fog-proof, shockproof optical cavity. And a plastic holding bracket for the driver. Surprisingly, it still fitted perfectly without me having to modify it. This build is incredibly dense. Its a true tank of all pen lasers this size. It won't break from shock damage

 

[steve001]

Tell us more why the need for 7 optical elements?

 

[BlackOps]

Tell us more the reason for 7 optical elements.

Its more to get the beam comming out of the center of the lens, and to get it as round as possible. Otherwise you will get a shape that looks like a helicopter view of a car. And to seal it off

 

[BowtieGuy]

Hello BlackOps, nice 532nm EDC you've built! It sure looks to be bulletproof as all your builds are. :yh:
What output do you think you are getting, and how does that 10280 battery hold up?

 

[BlackOps]

Hello BlackOps, nice 532nm EDC you've built! It sure looks to be bulletproof as all your builds are. :yh:
What output do you think you are getting, and how does that 10280 battery hold up?

Hi, thanks! I think its putting out between 80 to 120mW. This is a rough estimate. The battery lasts surprisingly long. With my old driver, it died in 20 minutes. The new driver goes over 1 hour straight when used directly after charging. If you let it sit for a couple days, it will last 30 minutes straight. Not bad for such a little battery

 

[Gazen]

Very nice build and design. :gj:

Looks very well build

 

[paul1598419]

Interesting. Do you know the optical power of this laser? Did you built the driver, or use a a prefabricated one? By seven optics, are you including the crystal set or are those all lenses?

 

[BobMc]

Long time no post, BlackOps.

Glad to see you back at your laser building. Love the 405 EDC you built for me. It’s still up and running strong, burning like a little champ. So well built! This one looks the same, a real “work of art”. Don’t make yourself a stranger here. Pop in from time to time and rattle our cages. Hope all things are well with you. How’s your schooling going? Best wishes with your studies.

+reps

PS. Love to add this one right next to your 405 build. If ever it’s up for adoption. Give me a jiggle.

 

[paul1598419]

A jiggle? How would he do that? Are you carrying around a lot of extra weight? I've got to get that picture out of my mind now. :crackup:

 

[Benm]

Very nice build!

I wonder about the temperature range though: the optics can be good enough to withstand it all, but does it actually produce any decent output when very cold or hot?

It doesnt seem to have any active temperature of the diode nor the crystal set, so those would still be temperature dependent just as they are on any other green laser, right?

 

[BobMc]

A jiggle? How would he do that? Are you carrying around a lot of extra weight? I've got to get that picture out of my mind now. :crackup:

Comedians have a term they use, it’s called having a tough room.

 

[BlackOps]

Interesting. Do you know the optical power of this laser? Did you built the driver, or use a a prefabricated one? By seven optics, are you including the crystal set or are those all lenses?

Hi, those are all lenses. I think between 80 to 120mW. Rough estimate but it can ignite firecrackers in a second without hassle. Edit, forgot to mention, the driver was premanufactured, but its a replacement for my older driver

Long time no post, BlackOps.

Glad to see you back at your laser building. Love the 405 EDC you built for me. It’s still up and running strong, burning like a little champ. So well built! This one looks the same, a real “work of art”. Don’t make yourself a stranger here. Pop in from time to time and rattle our cages. Hope all things are well with you. How’s your schooling going? Best wishes with your studies.

+reps

PS. Love to add this one right next to your 405 build. If ever it’s up for adoption. Give me a jiggle.

Thanks! Awesome to hear that the laser i build still works, its a tank so it should last! Its still pretty busy on my school. The last 10 weeks i had 1 hour for my self to build this, but them bastards changed that again unfortunately. I will let you know if i ever plan on selling this one

Very nice build!

I wonder about the temperature range though: the optics can be good enough to withstand it all, but does it actually produce any decent output when very cold or hot?

It doesnt seem to have any active temperature of the diode nor the crystal set, so those would still be temperature dependent just as they are on any other green laser, right?

Thanks! The laser stops working temporarily at those temperatures like any dpss green laser does unfortunately. But i tought having a laser that won’t condens in whatever weather is pretty cool and makes it last significantly longer. I try to make all my lasers fog-proof and waterproof. The interior looks awesome