Greetings CPF!
This month, I wanted to busy myself with a very interesting project.
Custom made lasers generally fell under two categories: 1. Cheap XXXFire bodies and custom made heatsinks, or 2. Custom made body as well as a custom machined heatsink.
I wanted to break that rule and use the ever so popular premium Thrunite TN30 light among flashaholics. My two goals were to get a very high quality body without paying a premium and to be able to take advantage of the magnetic control ring.
The Supbeam X40, K40, and the Thrunite TN31 were all good candidates but had issues of their own including price, driver voltage, and size, as described in this thread: http://laserpointerforums.com/f51/using-expensive-flashlights-hosts-specifically-tn30-x40-85695.html
The planning took a couple of weeks, including research, driver testing with a scope, and heatsink designing. Ordering laser diodes also took quite a lot of time.
This week, I was finally able to get some time to finish up the project and here it is!
The heatsink alone weighs just under 700 grams, or 25 oz. Gotta love copper!
The weight of the finished laser with 3x Samsung 18650's is 1286 grams, or 45 oz.
That's the polished heatsink and focus adapter.
The laser in action:
All six brightness levels work as well as the standby mode and the strobe mode, so I'm very happy with the results.
The stock driver has been modified to output clean 2.40A at the highest mode.
Beamshots:
Thanks for looking!
This month, I wanted to busy myself with a very interesting project.
Custom made lasers generally fell under two categories: 1. Cheap XXXFire bodies and custom made heatsinks, or 2. Custom made body as well as a custom machined heatsink.
I wanted to break that rule and use the ever so popular premium Thrunite TN30 light among flashaholics. My two goals were to get a very high quality body without paying a premium and to be able to take advantage of the magnetic control ring.
The Supbeam X40, K40, and the Thrunite TN31 were all good candidates but had issues of their own including price, driver voltage, and size, as described in this thread: http://laserpointerforums.com/f51/using-expensive-flashlights-hosts-specifically-tn30-x40-85695.html
The planning took a couple of weeks, including research, driver testing with a scope, and heatsink designing. Ordering laser diodes also took quite a lot of time.
This week, I was finally able to get some time to finish up the project and here it is!
The heatsink alone weighs just under 700 grams, or 25 oz. Gotta love copper!
The weight of the finished laser with 3x Samsung 18650's is 1286 grams, or 45 oz.
That's the polished heatsink and focus adapter.
The laser in action:
All six brightness levels work as well as the standby mode and the strobe mode, so I'm very happy with the results.
The stock driver has been modified to output clean 2.40A at the highest mode.
Beamshots:
Thanks for looking!
a fellow laserist 
