The Very Best of Components?

[VW]

I wasn't sure whether to create a thread on this, but I couldn't think of any good key words and the search function is a bit funky anyway.  I've got a DVD drive here I'm going to rip open and I'm getting a HD-DVD drive soon also, both of which I'm going to turn into lasers.  I was wondering what the very best components were that I should get to maximize the life time and performance of the diode, as I see it's quite varied.  I think I can find all the theory and method around these boards, but when it comes to knowing what's actually best to buy, I'm a little lost.  I know I need a battery pack, 100ohm pot, switch, batteries, wire, soldering iron, multi meter and all the other bits and bobs.  But what about things like heat sinking?  

I'm planning on building a few B-R lasers and the first I think I should build in the form of a module first, just to get the principles of it down.  But if you can give me any input about both module style and pointer style builds, that would be apreciated...

Oh yeah, I forgot to add. One main thing I'm thinking about is focusing the beam and giving it a good apature...

 

[pseudolobster]

Hi there,

Welcome to the forums...

As far as "bits and bobs" you'll want to build a driver circuit to regulate the current going to your diode. The simplest and easiest to build driver would probably have to be daedal's lm317t based driver.

For focusing the beam, as well as providing a degree of heatsinking, people generally press their diodes into an aixiz module or a cheap knockoff... If you're planning on building a higher powered burning laser or plan on leaving it on for hours at a time, you could either invest in a premade heatsink, or drill a hole in a block of aluminum etc.

You might want to check out the "Experiments and modifications" and the "Help/Tutorials" boards, there's a whole heap of info here you should probably read before you dive in... a good place to start would be here.

 

[pseudolobster]

hmm... for some reason I thought you had 1 post, not 1 rep... well then I take back that bit about welcome to the forums... you should really know better by now. :-X