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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

The square plastic LD's CAN be put to use

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After reading about a thousand posts, about the square LD's being useless, i will show you a simple diy flashlight laser using these.
The flashlight is a Panasonic BF-325.
I am using a heatsink for an ordinary round LD, to which i have solderet some of the copper heatsink from the drive, so that it will fit perfectly in the  flashlight.
I am not using a driver, but running it directly off two AA batteries. (i don't use drivers in any of my diy lasers, and i have never burnt out a LD once it was in its heatsink) .
The lens is actually the lens, that came with the flashlight, which gives a beam diametre of about 5-10 mm, no other lenses required.
In the first picture you can see, that i had to file the hole in the middle of the heatsink square, to fit the diode. The diode is solderet to the heatsink, on the backside, to give it sufficiant cooling(do it fast, so you don't blow the LD). build the heatsink, before soldering in the LD, as too much heat will destroy the LD.
The red stuff is silicone i used to make everything stay where i want it to be - Normally i would use epoxy,but i was all out.
 

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I am having a little trouble posting more than one picture in the same post...
 

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And the flashlight is:

By the way this flashlight is waterproof, and it will still be, after the rebuild
 

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Cool! Is the flashlight a tail clicky?How is the divergence with the flashlight lens? Does it collimate well? :-/
I have a driverless mod too and it's been going on since forever, but it still pays to use a driver, even more so with blu-rays.
 
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You turn the tail to switch it on. On my other two diy's i can focus the beam to a smaller spot, but still this one burns as well as both of them(maybe a little better. The divergence seems to be ok, but not as good as with a normal lens.
here is a really bad pic of the beam in daylight and a little smoke (from cigarette - not smoke machine)
 

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I will try to get some outside beamshots tonight.
b.t.w. here are my 3 diy's
By the way, this is the only red, that i have managed to light a cigarette with...
 

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After a little testing it seems, that this laser will burn extremely well as long as the distance is not more than 30-40 cm. At longer distances the flashlight lens is not precise enough to make a sharp enough dot. But it is very cool looking, with a nice thick beam.


Edit the most effective burning distance in my setup is 5-10 cm. In that distance i can light a cigarette in 5-15 seconds(i can not do that with my other reds) - and off course light matches
 
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i have probly 5 of those... what mA are the batteries? did u hook up the + n - ends of the diode to the circut board in the flashlight?

ive tried using these before but the diode only turned on for a second every time i hooked it up to my batteries
 

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Can we have a picture of the said lens? And maybe one of the lens when it's on, with the beam going by the camera not directly into it, of course. ;D
 
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The batteries i have in right now, are 2700mAh ni-mh rechargeble. But i have used normal duracell batteries with no problems. You should not power your diodes, when they are out of their heatsink, that will blow them really fast.
I removed the driver for the led completly. And just connected the + to the diode. -goes through the heatsink to the body of the flashlight, simple and effective.
The lens of the flashlight is made of plastic, and can offcourse be replaced with a normal laser lens, as long as you put the diode in a normal heatsink with threads for screwing in the lens. But i wanted the flashlight to look and focus like the original.
And here is the lens...
 

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And that is really interesting that the flashlight lens is able to collimate the beam that well :p
 
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wew... i was messin around with mine.. n i made 1 too

crappy lookin but u can sumwut c the beam.... n i used a plastic focus from a dvd burner sled
 
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This lens is not as good as even the plastic ones that comes with most lasers, but it works ok. I have also been trying some glass lenses, that i have lying around. They give a very nice beam. but they have to be pretty far away from the LD, before they colliminate well, and at that distance some of the light get lost. I guess they are not strong enough. I am not really sure why this setup burns better than my other lasers. Maybe the LD is stronger, or maybe i can draw more current from the AA, than from the AAA in my other lasers. Or maybe some of the light in a normal setup will spread too much before hitting the lens, and will be lost hitting the spring and inside of the heatsink.
 




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