I have something on the bench now. If it works on long term test, here is how it is going to be. I have two friends who are Laserists with a hankering for a cottage industry. They are both stay at home Dads who work out of their home. That covers assembly, support, and shipping, as my job has me on the road all the time. So I'll make about two or three dollars per device, they will make some what more. It amazes me that a diode driver with a total of six or seven wires and two potentiometers requires support, but obviously they do. So I need to farm this out, which is un-attractive to me in terms of profitability vs. the work required.
Drivers will ship every Saturday, and the same type of shipping will be used for all orders. If you need one FEDEXed to save a gig at the Whitehouse or Buckingham Palace, expect a un-merciful special services charge or arrange a FEDEX pickup. If some one can get to the shipper sooner, then things will happen faster, but that is kids/wife/work schedule dependent. I would urge you to order a spare.
We might also do a minimum order to keep the costs down. The shipping box and foam costs almost as much, if not more, then the opamp and two power transistors. Not to mention the headaches of constant tracking of multiple packages. Tracking will be mandatory. I know it is expensive, but it will stop the bleating of squeakers on forums.
The device requires a 10 to 15 volt input and will drive two 1 watt blues in series if your rail has enough volts for the diode burden.. It is made to the blue array requirements of a few of my friends. So if you want five volt power input, or you want it customized to drive a 510 nm 70 mA green, this may not be the driver for you. The form factor is not small. I am not using surface mount for the output and pre-regulator transistors. I am using a five amp output device with internal overtemp and overcurrent shutdown. The beam cut-off input, if I decide its worth the " time value of money"* to implement, requires TTL or a pull up resistor, as we all still use the ILDA shutter function. You will need to heatsink it.
If Buffo and Keck's driver makes it to market, it would seem silly to make these.
Why no one stays in the driver business is simple. When the business grows, the cost of the support and time exceeds the profitability. It does not pay well enough to quit the day job.
Steve
Last edited by mixedgas; 07-02-2013 at 14:27.
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dave
Originally Posted by dave
