laser diodes are not voltage devices, they are current devices.
this means that (if making your own) you should go for a constant current driver, not a constant voltage. or you can buy a ready made diode driver.
In general, you supply the diode driver with something close to 6 volts(for a single diode) and set the trim pots so that the desired level of mA (attention, milliamps!) is present at the driver output. If you supply the diode driver with more volts, the excess voltage will be converted to heat by the power fet, so no real gain is to be had.
To put it roughly, the diode driver converts volts to amperes. You should only worry about the correct number of mAmps reaching the diode, forget about voltage.
So, how do you set mAmps? it al depends on what output you expect out of these diodes. They start lasing at around 180 mAmps and have been said to take tremendous levels of abuse (greater than 1500mAmps, even more, i don;t know for how long though). So, how much power are you after?
About heat, these diodes when inside the original projector are said to operate around 60 celcius. They are tough little diodes. So, with a half decent diode mount properly heatsinked, you should not see more than 30-35 degrees, but even if you see more, it is not a real problem. It all depends on the ambient temperature of course (right now it is closer to 35 degrees, so things get hot quickly)
Last edited by LaNeK779; 06-16-2012 at 15:40.
Reason: it is mAmps...
"its called character briggs..."