I purchased a dozen blue TO-18 laser diodes:
1pc 405nm 5.6mm 5mw-20mw Violet/Blue Laser Diode TO-18 | eBay
I wired one up directly to a 18460 Lithium battery just for fun when I got it and things worked fine, but I wanted to adjust the output power so I bought a bunch of these drivers:
Adjustable current laser diode driver 80-500mA w/TTL blue board | eBay
I tried to do things the "right" way and busted out my multi meter and tested the output voltage, which was just over 5V with no load which seemed right to me. Then I tried measuring the mA but had a hard time getting it where I wanted it, the adjustment didn't seem to go over 1mA, but I have never measured mA before and so I don't know that I was doing it right.
That being said, I soldered the diode to it and with the potentiometer adjusted down, I could get the diode to glow just a little, but I couldn't get any major beam out of it. I tested the voltage again wondering if I had shorted something out, but still had the 5V I expected.
Should these 2 work together? According to my calculations I should be able to run it at 5V around 4mA, so I went back to look at the driver specs which listed 80mA as the low range, but that didn't seem right for the size, but it made me think maybe I had toasted the diode, so I tested it again on the battery with no driver and it worked great.
Any tips for a beginner?
1pc 405nm 5.6mm 5mw-20mw Violet/Blue Laser Diode TO-18 | eBay
I wired one up directly to a 18460 Lithium battery just for fun when I got it and things worked fine, but I wanted to adjust the output power so I bought a bunch of these drivers:
Adjustable current laser diode driver 80-500mA w/TTL blue board | eBay
I tried to do things the "right" way and busted out my multi meter and tested the output voltage, which was just over 5V with no load which seemed right to me. Then I tried measuring the mA but had a hard time getting it where I wanted it, the adjustment didn't seem to go over 1mA, but I have never measured mA before and so I don't know that I was doing it right.
That being said, I soldered the diode to it and with the potentiometer adjusted down, I could get the diode to glow just a little, but I couldn't get any major beam out of it. I tested the voltage again wondering if I had shorted something out, but still had the 5V I expected.
Should these 2 work together? According to my calculations I should be able to run it at 5V around 4mA, so I went back to look at the driver specs which listed 80mA as the low range, but that didn't seem right for the size, but it made me think maybe I had toasted the diode, so I tested it again on the battery with no driver and it worked great.
Any tips for a beginner?