Hi people, most of you guys have probably got a ps3 405nm diode already and there is a bit of information on the web sam’s laser faq for instance, I got mine from psxboy I had two units to start off with now there’s only one but hear is what I have found,
The first diode using a aixiz module to mount the diode, an old home built laser driver big bulky old thing my soldering is not to hot and I borrowed my friends laser check to keep an eye on power output after running continuously for just over 5 weeks at 4.2 volts and 24 ma the output was stable and holding at 5 mw the unit stayed at room temperature all the time. While this was going on I purchased a die4 laser driver and a die4 thing power meter, I checked the die4 thing against the laser check and the readings were the same so I then connected up the other diode ran at same output power(5mw) but this diode needed only 23 ma at 4.1 volts there can be many reasons for this, different driver power meter slightly better gain in the chip, optics etc this was 2 weeks ago the one that was running for 3 weeks continuously I thought I would turn it off and connect up the red diode to see what colours I could get I was warned on sam’s laser faq that there could be a heat problem so I took it easy to start of with starting at zero ma and volts on a separate driver for the red as I did not think the red would like the 4 volts plus that was going through the 405nm diode, got it lase without a problem trouble is I should have thought about it a bit more as the optics that had the 405nm nicely focused would not focus the red diode properly due to the vast difference in wavelengths probably around 250 nm if I focused the red the the uv laser would become unfocused and vice versa so I gave up on that idea ( should have known better)anyway I decided to up the power to 12 mw I done this by 1 mw increments over about an hour where it stayed for nearly 2 weeks, yesterday it was running at 5 volt/ 36 ma, the beam profile was still good and the case was still room temp around 22 c, feeling kinda proud of myself as usall I could not let it stay at 12mw so I thought that I would try and push me luck for 15 mw , I took it up at about 1 mw over about 20 minutes it stayed there until about 2 hours ago where the brightness dropped off considerably after checking its 5 mw and the beam profile is not as it was, and there is a lot of scatter in the beam probably the chips laser aperture is damaged ( front face) so it lasted approximately 20 hours at 15mw that’s after optics with a tec on it who knows maybe 48 hours maybe know difference what so ever as the case never got warm at all just room temp all the time, and I know I had good thermal contact with the case as I use arctic silver alumina thermal adhesive for a permanent good thermal bond between diode and case, now I have nearly destroyed one I have taken the power down to 8 mw where it will stay there. Personally I got these to see if I could do it and post the results here on PL , and it was not to hard to do but as a practical laser it does not have the raw power output to be of any real use apart from making thing fluoresce unless you combine them and it wouldn’t work out that expensive to do but even then at around 12 mw if you combine 4 beams giving you nearly 50 mw the wavelength is so low that it is hard to see like at the other end of the spectrum like a 670nm red laser if you know what I mean hope this helps any one who is going to build one of theses, if any one has any questions feel free
All the best Kaz
Nearly forgot iv put some pics in hope they come out ok