- Joined
- Feb 7, 2009
- Messages
- 201
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- 0
First post here, so let me start with a big hello to everyone. This place rocks [smiley=thumbsup.gif]
I've always loved lasers. For Christmas, I was given a 50mw DX-ish greenie. It was great, until it crapped out on me. The Amazon seller that we bought it from was kind enough to refund the money, so I decided to buy some components and do the DIY thing. I found LPF while searching for info on how to heal my stricken green pointer, and I was blown away by the wealth of information and the great deals to be had in the for sale section. Before I go on, there are some people that need to be recognized.
First, I'd like to thank Drew of Modwerx for supplying me with a phr-803t sled. Since this was my first go, I opted for the very reasonable $2 harvesting fee, and it was worth every penny. The diode came expertly pressed into an Aixiz module, with leads soldered on and shorted for ESD protection. Everything was well packaged, and I received my order very promptly. Above and beyond, sir. Thanks!
Next, thanks to Greg Stoner of StoneTek Electronics, for supplying me with a variable rkcstr driver when everybody else was sold out. My order shipped quickly, and was packed securely. Big thumbs up.
Finally, I'd like to thank everyone here at LPF who has shared their knowledge and experiences.
Now, onto my build. I didn't have a lot of money to sink into this, so I had to make do with materials I already had lying around. I wanted a bloody big heatsink, preferably copper (almost twice the thermal conductivity of aluminum, and prettier too.) Unfortunately, I didn't have any barstock to use, so I had to improvise. I made a three layer coil of copper wire, soldered it solid, squared the ends, and bored it out for the module. I put it on the drill, and sanded down the outside for a nice, smooth cylinder. It didn't turn out quite as well as I'd hoped, but it's good enough for now. Most importantly, it works.
I scratch built my host out of kydex. I already had some sheets of the stuff laying around, left over from a flashlight holster I built. It's pretty simple to work with. Just score, break, sand and glue.
The switch is a cheap little momentary clicky type. I think I scavenged it out of one of those "Try Me!" packages of christmas lights.
The wiring is some rather nice stranded copper stuff that came out of the cord of a busted N64 controller. Very flexible and easy to work with.
I've got my driver set to about 150 ma, and it seems to be running just fine. The module warmed up quite quickly before I got it in the heatsink, but with everything put together now, I'd reckon the duty cycle to be fairly well unlimited. I don't have any way to measure the output at this time, unfortunately.
The beam is very easy to focus, and I can get it back to infinity in very short order. 405 is strange, though. At a distance, it looks like I have a perfect halo around my dot. At first, I thought I had an issue with focus, but as I got closer to the wall (I weighted to switch and left the laser on the table,) the halo disappeared. Strange. . . At night and in the dark, the beam is nicely visible, and the dot can be seen at least two blocks away. In daylight, you can barely see it. It looks like the afterimage you get after a camera flash, more than anything.
Yes, it burns quite well, too [smiley=thumbsup.gif]
Of course, I can't link to the pictures yet, but they're stashed in my photobucket account. you can view them (and a bunch of inane crap
) if you search for my username - proud2deviate
If someone would link to the pics, I'd be very grateful.
I've always loved lasers. For Christmas, I was given a 50mw DX-ish greenie. It was great, until it crapped out on me. The Amazon seller that we bought it from was kind enough to refund the money, so I decided to buy some components and do the DIY thing. I found LPF while searching for info on how to heal my stricken green pointer, and I was blown away by the wealth of information and the great deals to be had in the for sale section. Before I go on, there are some people that need to be recognized.
First, I'd like to thank Drew of Modwerx for supplying me with a phr-803t sled. Since this was my first go, I opted for the very reasonable $2 harvesting fee, and it was worth every penny. The diode came expertly pressed into an Aixiz module, with leads soldered on and shorted for ESD protection. Everything was well packaged, and I received my order very promptly. Above and beyond, sir. Thanks!
Next, thanks to Greg Stoner of StoneTek Electronics, for supplying me with a variable rkcstr driver when everybody else was sold out. My order shipped quickly, and was packed securely. Big thumbs up.
Finally, I'd like to thank everyone here at LPF who has shared their knowledge and experiences.
Now, onto my build. I didn't have a lot of money to sink into this, so I had to make do with materials I already had lying around. I wanted a bloody big heatsink, preferably copper (almost twice the thermal conductivity of aluminum, and prettier too.) Unfortunately, I didn't have any barstock to use, so I had to improvise. I made a three layer coil of copper wire, soldered it solid, squared the ends, and bored it out for the module. I put it on the drill, and sanded down the outside for a nice, smooth cylinder. It didn't turn out quite as well as I'd hoped, but it's good enough for now. Most importantly, it works.
I scratch built my host out of kydex. I already had some sheets of the stuff laying around, left over from a flashlight holster I built. It's pretty simple to work with. Just score, break, sand and glue.
The switch is a cheap little momentary clicky type. I think I scavenged it out of one of those "Try Me!" packages of christmas lights.
The wiring is some rather nice stranded copper stuff that came out of the cord of a busted N64 controller. Very flexible and easy to work with.
I've got my driver set to about 150 ma, and it seems to be running just fine. The module warmed up quite quickly before I got it in the heatsink, but with everything put together now, I'd reckon the duty cycle to be fairly well unlimited. I don't have any way to measure the output at this time, unfortunately.
The beam is very easy to focus, and I can get it back to infinity in very short order. 405 is strange, though. At a distance, it looks like I have a perfect halo around my dot. At first, I thought I had an issue with focus, but as I got closer to the wall (I weighted to switch and left the laser on the table,) the halo disappeared. Strange. . . At night and in the dark, the beam is nicely visible, and the dot can be seen at least two blocks away. In daylight, you can barely see it. It looks like the afterimage you get after a camera flash, more than anything.
Yes, it burns quite well, too [smiley=thumbsup.gif]
Of course, I can't link to the pictures yet, but they're stashed in my photobucket account. you can view them (and a bunch of inane crap
) if you search for my username - proud2deviateIf someone would link to the pics, I'd be very grateful.
...so what is next then?
