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My Homemade Xbox (Blu-Ray) Laser
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Spoz
Elite Laser
Joined: 14 Apr 2006
Posts: 177
Movie(s): 1
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 Posted: 4/10/08, 12:31 AM Post subject: |
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Picked mine up today for $42AU and harvested the laser assembly from it. I dont have a suitable soldering iron here so I'll have to social engineer my way into the electrical engineering labs at uni next week...
I also read that since each lasers threshold lasing current varies, you can set a safe limit by seeing at what current it initially lases at, and then choosing to run it at this current + 10mA.
A couple more questions though... Where did you get your collimating assembly from? If I can't find one that you just slot the diode into like the one you have, I'll most certainly get sick of trying to align optics manually and give up.
Edit: I see your schematic says 6v input voltage but your post says you used two 12v A23s. I presume you put these in parallel? Also, do you know the approximate voltage drop of the diode? Ive read it is 4.5-5.5v, which would allow me to use a couple of CR123s in series instead. |
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Spoz
Elite Laser
Joined: 14 Apr 2006
Posts: 177
Movie(s): 1
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| Posted: 4/13/08, 4:37 AM Post subject: |
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An update:
I couldn't get the driver to work properly, the resistors were getting too hot and the potentiometers were dying. Instead I just used a resistor and a 3W wirewound potentiometer in series with some batteries. I also put a capacitor in parallel (just as a kind of buffer for the diode) and a 1N4004 in anti parallel in case the batteries get connected the wrong way around. I used 2x CR123A batteries in series giving 6v. I also found laser modules from WickedLasers that fit the laser diode and let you focus it easily.
I found a 40 ohm resistor netted 35mA current in the laser with this configuration. It was hard to tell at what point it started lasing, somewhere around 25-30mA is my guess.
Anyway, it is a simple matter to build it into a pen now, I hope my results are useful to anyone else hoping to build one.
My biggest piece of advice would be to solder a capacitor directly to the diode before you cut the ribbon cable off it, and then solder wires to the capacitor legs. This will cut down on heat transfer to the diode and also protect your diode from static. Make sure you solder a wire across the capacitor leads first (shorting it out) and don't disconnect that until after you have soldered the capacitor to the laser diode.
Happy building  |
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