two short questions

[Sunrise]

1. I have read the good tutorial form Daedal there is a driver for a red laser and he say that it´s for diodes between 3 and 5 volt, but my diode has a operating voltage about 2,2- 2,6 volt is that a reason to change the resistor or do something else??

2. How important is the heat sink ?

 

[rog8811]

1. I have read the good tutorial form Daedal there is a driver for a red laser and he say that it´s for diodes between 3 and 5 volt, but my diode has a operating voltage about 2,2- 2,6 volt is that a reason to change the resistor or do something else??

Is that red or infra-red? I ask as IR LD's are usually lower voltage, you will need a different resistor value.  I suggest a test load of 3 x 1N4001 diodes as a test load. to get to your desired ma output

2. How important is the heat sink ?  
It depends on ma and duty cycle, I have a 180mw red with no heatsink but it is only turned on for seconds at a time.

Regards rog8811

 

[Sunrise]

no it`s red wavelength is 630-690 nm power 5mW

but thanks for answering...

 

[Krutz]

daedals driver is fine, obviously you have to cet it to the (relatively low) current.
with that low output and input, you wont need any heatsinking at all. even with the diode in thin air, without anything touching it, it wouldnt overheat.
the only point where heat may form is if your battery-voltage is much higher than the ~2.6v + what the driver needs. any extra voltage above that is more or less turned into heat. but in this case, again, this wouldnt be much as there is not much current needed, and therefore not much energy drained from the battery altogether.

manuel