Dare you to do this to your PGL-III

Shiftlock

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The PGL-III has a 1.2W 808nm C-mount pump diode. I just noticed that there's a 4W 808nm C-mount diode on eBay. Anyone dare?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=7287&item=7518926479

Make the swap and modify the driver board (or replace it with a different one) to supply 6A of current, and you would probably have the world's most powerful portable laser. Perhaps over 1W of 532nm. The PGL-III units that have the 0-9 adjustable power output and the driver board in the end cap have nothing but a matrix of resistors controlling the current that goes to the pump. It should be possible to supply 6A with the right (large) resistor.
 

MechEng3

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Kevin does have new diodes and they are tested. I have a couple from him. You would benefit from employing a LM338 current regulator for this task. It can operate at 5 amps and not push the limits of the diode. Questionable output as to the crystal quality. Should get 50% of input, I would think. Let me know if you or someone can come up with a safe circuit to apply this. Right now I am using the Agilent 6632A power supply. Would love to make power for this diode on NmH cells.
 

SuperBert

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so much money for such a tiny, tiny device. If I had more experience with the schematics of driverboards and how they work and blueprinting I would jump at this... not too great at soldering either, heh.
 

TurtleDude

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[ QUOTE ]
PhotonWrangler said:
I have a really stupid question on those C-Mount lasers. Where does the light come out? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

sdl2360-3.jpg
 

Shiftlock

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Someone give bg2vo a breadboard! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I think the crystals in the PGL-III could handle 4W. I've disassembeled one, and I have the crystals here in front of me. They're very beefy, and mounted on thick aluminum disks that are threaded into the housing on the other side of the external heatsink fins. It's a very good design. I have one that I am overdriving with 4.2V from a Li-Ion battery (instead of 3.0V from the 2 C batteries), and it has an output of nearly 400mW. I know that is pushing the 1.2W pump to its limit (or perhaps over), but even at that power level the heat in the area if the crystals/optics is minimal.
 

Draco_Americanus

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bg2vo, quick question, how feasable is it to scale up the current rateing of your regulator? I need something that can handle upwards of 20amps.
 

bg2vo

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20Amps will be fine if you change the 9012 to another C1983. Then you can stack as many C1983s as you like so long as you modify the 0.02 Ohm resistor accordingly. For 20Amps, you need 12 C1983 and a 0.005 Ohm(instead of 0.02 Ohm) and all the C1983 should be put on a heatsink. Also, be carefore about the wiring for hi-current path especially the 'earth' point should be the same.
[ QUOTE ]
Draco_Americanus said:
bg2vo, quick question, how feasable is it to scale up the current rateing of your regulator? I need something that can handle upwards of 20amps.

[/ QUOTE ]
 

Draco_Americanus

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Great! Thanks for the info, I did run into some problems sourcing out the parts. I could not find a vendor for a 1.2volt zener, but luckly the scarp bin at my place of work happened to have some /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinser2.gif I will let you know how it works
 

Draco_Americanus

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*growls* I had to use a sub for the opamp, an LM33202 The maker claims its a replacemnt for the discontinued LMC6582. The problem is I can't seem to get the opamp to put out more then .7 volts and thats not enough to turn on the switching transistors. I think I may try some positive feedback or try a diffrent op amp.
 

PhotonWrangler

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[ QUOTE ]
TurtleDude said:
[ QUOTE ]
PhotonWrangler said:
I have a really stupid question on those C-Mount lasers. Where does the light come out? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

sdl2360-3.jpg


[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks TurtleDude. So the radiation comes out of both ends... hmm. Does thie mean that a proper design for this style of LD involves some sort of a reflector to concentrate the energy in a single direction?
 

Draco_Americanus

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PhotonWrangler, I belive one beam is mutch more powerfull then the other one, the weaker beam would be used with a photodiode for feedback reasons.
 

Draco_Americanus

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I got the regulator to run!!!! oh I am a happy dragon indeed!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinser2.gif

I had to sub the comparator with an LM10 and used 2SD1277A darlington switching trasistors, they have a current rating of 8 amps so I used 6 instend of 12. I will post pictures of the thing when I am done. The LM10 also has it's own 1.2v referance that I belive can be changed so I may try to use that as well, defently learned a few things with this!
Thanks bg2vo for your help!
 

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