turn a maglite into a powerful laser!

[zerogx2000]

thought i would share with you a hack you can do yourself to turn a maglite into a powerful laser




http://www.metacafe.com/watch/756433/laser_flashlight_hack/

 

[farmall]

Very cool.

 

[kwinchee]

DO NOT DO THIS it will fry your diode, the diode cant handle the current and voltage spikes of the battery's you need to build a regulating circuit

 

[Hemlock Mike]

Oh yes -- It will work -------IF THE CELLS ARE NEAR DEAD !!!
The LD current needs to be limited to about 250 to 300 mA depending on the diode !!! There are "tricks" found all over CPF and LPF about "direct" drive. Do your research ............

Mike

 

[AJ_Dual]

Exactly, half dead cells, even better really cheap ones with a high internal impedance.

Although, part of me likes this inaccurate information. It's leading lots of people to forums like CPF and LPF who will get educated. And many, many more will insta-flash the DVD burner diode, and just move on to other things.:thumbsup:

Imagine if it really worked that well as-is, and we had hundreds, if not thousands of kids and goofballs running around with 200+mW lasers right in time for the school year to start?

You really want to see the kind of laser legislation coming down the pipe from your local state and federal capitals that would get written in response? :green:

 

[Ashton]

I have acctually been working on some plans for doing this --- with about 5 diodes... and then I'm still running into too much power (4x D-cell maglight in my case) so... yeah... if you want 1 blast of light or so, it's a great idea.... :shakehead

 

[dave-gtturbo]

Oh yes -- It will work -------IF THE CELLS ARE NEAR DEAD !!!
The LD current needs to be limited to about 250 to 300 mA depending on the diode !!! There are "tricks" found all over CPF and LPF about "direct" drive. Do your research ............

Mike

Direct Drive - care to elaborate on that mate? Cant see anything immediately useful with that as a search query....

Dave

 

[360freak]

you could just use one dead AA and the other new

 

[Gazoo]

Direct Drive - care to elaborate on that mate? Cant see anything immediately useful with that as a search query....

Dave

By direct drive, he means connecting the diode directly to the batteries.

 

[Gazoo]

you could just use one dead AA and the other new

Would you care to explain how this would possibly work when the diode needs at least 2.5 volts to be useful?

 

[360freak]

well. the same way it would if you used 2 half dead AA batteries.

 

[3rd_shift]

A current regulator seems to be a good way to go.

Otherwise, a well chosen resistor and "near steady" discharge rechargeable batteries ought to work imho.

 

[Gazoo]

A current regulator seems to be a good way to go.

Otherwise, a well chosen resistor and "near steady" discharge rechargeable batteries ought to work imho.

A current regulator using the LM317T is the safest way to go. However for the bare minimum, you can get by with a resistor and an electrolytic capacitor. The capacitor should be rated for a minimum of 47uf and 16 volts.

For the resistor, it depends on how hard you want to push the diode and what type of batteries you use. A 5 ohm 1/2 watt resistor would be a good start. Then try different lower values from there.

I like to push my diodes hard so two batteries is never enough...

 

[dave-gtturbo]

By direct drive, he means connecting the diode directly to the batteries.

sorry, i should have been clearer lol, i understood that it was directly powering them, i just wondered if there was anything special too it, or is it just using 1.2v cheapo/dead batteries?

cheers mate

Dave