# Tofty's 2W Laser Drop-in In Solarforce Host



## Tofty (Jul 31, 2013)

My 2W 445nm Laser drop-in, driven at 1.8A and powered by 2 AW IMR 16340 batteries.









The drop-in is mostly copper to help keep the laser diode as cool as possible.
The bezel ring is titanium to match some other titanium accessories it may have in the future.
The focus adjusting ring in the centre will probably be replaced with a blue anodised aluminium version.






I didn't really spend enough time getting the cutting speeds right and the cutting tool itself wasn't really appropriate so the finish is pretty lousy but it is a really good fit with the host so it doesn't really matter.






The spring-less positive contact puck also looks a bit iffy but it has been threaded into the plastic surround which is why it looks off centre and the threaded hole is meant to be offset due to clearance requirements inside the drop-in.

This one is only my first attempt at a laser P60 style drop-in, my next iteration will hopefully fit completely inside the flashlight's profile and be fairly universal unlike this one, i'll be using a much lower powered laser as this one is just stupidly dangerous.

Looks good though.


----------



## bshanahan14rulz (Aug 1, 2013)

Nicely done! I had a custom heatsink made from alu, but I had mine extended a good few cm past the front of the host, just for some added thermal mass. I do believe there is someone now who makes heatsinks for solarforce L2p hosts at a different forums, but the solarforce drop-in pocket is pretty straight forward, if you have a lathe, might as well keep making your own 

Yours looks very robust and well-made! I like the battery contact end a lot! You consider plating the copper? I don't know if copper tarnish coating is electrically conductive, but it could introduce some resistance into the supply circuit over time.


----------



## samuraishot (Aug 1, 2013)

Great stuff!


----------



## Laser2012 (Aug 3, 2013)

Seems nice. I have 5000mw one but want to sell it out.


----------



## Tofty (Aug 3, 2013)

Thanks guys 

bshanahan14rulz. i looked around before doing the build and saw some of the P60 heatsinks available, they seem nice but as you say simple enough to be easily replicated, not that they were quite right for what i needed anyway.
I hadn't really thought about coatings but it would seem like a good idea. There is an o-ring between the drop-in and bezel ring to help isolate most of the drop-in from the environment outside but a coating such as silver or gold should be an improvement.

Lazer2012, why are you selling your 500mW? because it's too powerful or not powerful enough?



There were three constraints i was working with which defined this laser:

Firstly i ordered a pretty much complete 12mm diameter module with the diode pressed into a copper pill and a rectangular driver board connected to the diode's leads surrounded by an aluminium sleeve with the positive and negative wires protruding from the back. All in all this module was nearly 1 1/4" long, not including the lens and adjuster ring, quite a bit longer than a P60 module. I got this pre-assembled module for simplicity's sake but using a circular flashlight type would have allowed the whole drop-in to be easily the size of a standard p60, with the host's lens still in place, although i appreciate that makes adjustment much harder.

Secondly i wanted the drop-in to be able to be dismantled if need be and another 12mm module to be installed, this is why the positive contact plate looks as it does; the leads from the module have loops soldered onto them and are secured using screws to the drop-in body and the brass positive contact, with the bottom assembly able to be unscrewed to gain access.

Thirdly i don't personally like it when flashlight host's bezel rings or crenelations finish well below the top of the laser module, it looks mismatched so i had to make my own bezel ring to contain the laser drop-in's profile and give the lens adjuster some protection.


----------



## bshanahan14rulz (Aug 8, 2013)

Yeah, the ability to swap out different "modules" into the heatsink is the main reason for using 12mm holes. I originally had mine made for a green module I had acquired, but currently it is doing duty as a heatsink for a direct driven 445nm diode. Funny, I use it more as a test heatsink than I do in the actual host.
Here's mine, beam is messy because at that point I had owned and used the module for several months without cleaning the front lens. I was a bit paranoid at the time about having enough thermal mass, hence the massively protruding nose. I also had the front threaded for "aixiz" style lens so that if I wanted, I could add another adjustable lens on the front.


----------



## scottyhazzard (Aug 8, 2013)

I have often thought of doing a 445 in a solarforce. The ones from O-Like are 12mm dia if I remember correctly. I'll have to check LLF unless Tofty would be willing to sell his services?


----------



## BLUE LED (Aug 9, 2013)

Thank you Tofty for bringing this to the CPF meet. I might try a similar setup with a 1W green laser and P60 host.
 
Great work and it looks even nicer close up.


----------



## Tofty (Aug 11, 2013)

Nice setup bshanahan14rulz, i like the tritium indicator but i can't quite see how you've mounted it to the body tube, do you have a close-up picture of it?
Better to have more thermal mass than not enough, i tried to cram too much stuff into too short a length in the bottom and by doing so made it quite hard to swap things around, not that i have any modules to swap at the moment.

scottyhazard, i can make a P60-2-12mm adapter for you if you'd like, just let me know the laser module's specs, dimensions and desired material and i can price it up for you.

No worries BLUE LED, thanks.
The P60 has proven it's versatility for lights and lasers but what else can be done with it? Perhaps a Taser or portable soldering iron?

One other mod i made to the host which i think is a really good idea was to swap the tail switch from a forward to a reverse clicky. As it has no lock-out apart from removing the batteries a switch that won't turn on until it's fully clicked then fully released and will turn off with the lightest pressure makes a lot of sense.


----------



## scottyhazzard (Aug 11, 2013)

Ooh boy! The laser is a simple run-of-mill O-like 532nm 50mw emitter measuring 11.9mm by 55mm. Aluminum is just fine. The 532 laser I have now was dropped and the lens is damn near impossible to re-focus. Something I'd like in the build is the ability to focus the beam. Yours looks like it has that ability as well, not sure if you need the laser itself to rig that up. In a perfect world I could plop the laser into an L2M and run on a 18350 but I think space would be too tight, fitting into an L2P or L2T would be just fine.


----------



## bshanahan14rulz (Aug 12, 2013)

Tofty,

Thanks for the compliments, is my first "fancy" flashlight. I still use it, too, with a warm white XR-E drop-in. q3 5a, IIRC. 

The tritium at first was mounted in a gouge I "milled" using shaky hands and a hand-held dremel. When I sent the host to the machinist to measure and make a tight-fitting heatsink for it, he graciously filled it in with some grey epoxy and milled a real slot into it. The first trit I put in there broke within a few months. This one's been in there for a few years I think, with duty served in a pocket full of keys, too! I used the Norland Optical adhesive #61 that rockettomato sold in the cpfmp. 

I used Tough as Nails nail polish on another light, and it seems to have held up pretty well too. A little yellowed, though, compared to the still-clear Norland adhesive.


----------



## DBCstm (Sep 6, 2013)

Hey guys, new to lasers and just got a module. A green 200mW at 3V. It's pulling .43A on my DMM run off a CR123 that has 3.06V on tap. I kind of got it as a test to see if it'd actually ship, now I'm not exactly sure what to do with it! I have an old Brinkmann Legend LX that takes CR123 cells, so I dropped it off at the machine shop today to have an aluminum pill milled for it that will fill the head and extend 1 1/2" into the body. I'm not real sure why the laser needs such a heat sink, as the power it pulls is so low. Anyone have anything for me on this? It's this one...http://www.lightscastle.com/product/200mw-532nm-green-laser-module-3v-11.9mm-220007 Can anyone tell me what the adjustable pot on the board is for? Having no idea what's good or bad, it would seem this one is doing a fair job. Here's a pic of it shining at a cellphone tower 2.09 miles away. 


DBC_September 05, 2013_202039-2 by genie in a black box, on Flickr Sorry for improper spacing, I accidentally opened up in Explorer and for some reason I can't shift to a new paragraph here. Exasperating! Thanks for the help, appreciate it!


----------



## DBCstm (Sep 6, 2013)

Blown away by that build Tofty, the sheer power of it amazes me as well! Nice job! Ironically, the post above is missing about half of what I typed, including the compliments on the build. Have no clue what just happened. lol This is a 200mW 3V Green laser module, 11.9mm. Trying to have a "pill" made for it to fit into an old Brinkmann Legend LX. We'll see how that goes.


----------

