So ordered a Nichia NDB7875 445nm 9mm Laser Diode from dtr off amazon, have been researching this most of last year and was going to buy a L-cheapo kit but decided once I built my first few pointers to diy.
My first pointer was pht803t out of a hd dvd xbox drive, it shattered extracting or somewhere inbetween, next i did a ps3 diode and its still working (love the violet), then i pulled a red one from a lightscribe dvd burner, fed that with the circuit thats posted everwhere with the 2x 10ohm resistors and was burning tape and stuff.. ended up cranking it up as high as i could and burnt it out after a few hours, was kinda relieved to have it gone tho since i don't have red laser glasses. also made a cd-r diode that worked. got a feel for the driver making and how they work.
Been reading up on drivers and about the diode itself as it will be used on a 3d printer or a cnc once its finished for light cutting/engraving.
was thinking of using the driver from L-cheapo for this diode
here's the circuit : http://robots-everywhere.com/re_wiki....LCheapoSchems
really here looking for any kind of input on a the driver since it will be fed off the 3d printers rumba board from a mosfet
have all kinds of resistors/cap/pots and 1n4001's to test stuff with, just don't want to break this diode right away.
also have blue/green safety stuff!