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Thread: Learn me something electronical...(Flexmod)

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    Bradfo69's Avatar
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    Default Learn me something electronical...(Flexmod)

    I've put on the big boy pants this afternoon and am starting to wire up my first Flexmod driver.

    I've soldered 5" leads to all 6 of the connectors: +, -, interlock, Ground, V+ and M+ , to make life easier and am now moving on to the power supply part of the instructions. Following the manual... under item 1 below. What does it mean by "maintain a closed interlock throughout setup?"


    Setup and operation:
    Preliminary setup:
    1) Locate a 5 to 24V regulated (preferably) power supply. If the power supply is not regulated (typical of wall-warts),
    measure its output voltage to verify that it is at or below 24V. Maintain a closed interlock throughout setup.
    2) Solder lead wires of the appropriate length to the board connection holes, but to not connect the load yet.
    3) Attach the transistor to a heat-sink (necessary for modulation currents over 250mA or power supplies over 5.5V). The
    included heatsink is adequate for currents up to 500mA with a 5V supply. If the heatsink gets too hot to touch during
    operation, switch to a larger one.


    I know too many people that have fried these drivers or worse, trying to set them up so I'm taking it slow.

    I "think" what it means is connect the wire from the interlock terminal to the V+ wire because earlier in the manual it says:

    Interlock connection; connect to V+ via interlock loop So I just want to double check.

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    apply 5v+ to the modulation line and then the - to the -

    then apply what ever input voltage to the input and the - to the same - as the modulation

    connect the interlock to the input voltage
    Eat Sleep Lase Repeat

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    Thanks Andy but, lets get a little clearer.

    So, to set it up, use a typical 5 volt power supply and connect the positive coming from it to the M+ lead. I guess this will eventually be connected to your ILDA connector for the respective color (In this case, blue.)

    Then the negative from the supply get's connected to... what? You said "-" but the only thing marked with a "-" on the board I believe is supposed to go to the diode, right? Do you mean the G (ground?)

    Then... use a 12 volt power supply (in my case) and connect the + from the supply to the V+ lead and the negative from the supply to the same - (ground?) that we hooked up the negative from the 5 volt supply.

    Then simply wire the INT lead to the V+ lead.

    Sound correct? Then the actual + and - leads from the flexmod are supposed to eventually go to the anode and cathode on the diode after going through and setting the current and bias or whatever.

    Your answer didn't necessarily make clear sense to me, as there is no "-" on the board except for out to the diode, not in from the PS.
    Last edited by Bradfo69; 06-26-2014 at 16:55.

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    I always connected the diode outputs to a high powered led from a casio projector to set currents, never straight to a laser diode

    Eat Sleep Lase Repeat

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    Perfect. That's what I thought and had been looking for an illustration like that. Thank you sir!!!

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    Remember to mount the heatsink. The Flexmod gets hot really fast when feeding with enough voltage and current. The black curved line from INT to 12V+ is how i usually use the driver. Solder a short cable across to shorten the interlock. (I use the interlock provided in the I-showcard insted)
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    Also, might get some heat-sink compound and use a razor blade to put a thin layer on the transistor back side before mounting (screwing) it in to the heat-sink or chassis.

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    That much I've got. Now I'm reading about the whole "hook up the multitester to set everything" part. I know some suggest building a dummy load and have seen mixedgas's diagram but kecked also said you can just use a multitester. That seems easier.

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    I was told by Andrew you can set current just by hooking up the output to a current meter and measuring it direct. Works too. Also you can measure the voltage across the big resistor and it tells you the current. I forget the conversion but it is in the manual.

    Here is something else I found. The magic center pot. If you can't get your diode to go dark with no modulation and no bias turn the magic center pot and it will go out. It has something to do with the ripple from the power supply but that seems to work.

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    i never use a dummy load with mine.

    also, i've found it a lot easier to solder the interlock defeat line to the hot side of the current sensing resistor (the big fat black cylinder) instead of sharing the +12v input.

    Quote Originally Posted by Bradfo69 View Post
    That much I've got. Now I'm reading about the whole "hook up the multitester to set everything" part. I know some suggest building a dummy load and have seen mixedgas's diagram but kecked also said you can just use a multitester. That seems easier.
    suppose you're thinkin' about a plate o' shrimp. Suddenly someone'll say, like, plate, or shrimp, or plate o' shrimp out of the blue, no explanation. No point in lookin' for one, either. It's all part of a cosmic unconciousness.

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