Analog laser tester

[mixedgas]

Analog laser tester, for people who need it, WITH TYPICAL RADIOSHACK PART NUMBERS

Posted upon request for a beginner, use at own risk as I have no control over what and how you do things.

BUILD IN A BOX LIKE RS 270-1802

Solder all connections and place heat shrink tubing over ANY bare metal in the circuit, ok to bolt 7805 flange to box with 4-40 or possibly 6-32 screw and nut. note 7805 flange is at circuit ground. Note flange will not solder, use leads.

I DO NOT want to hear, I built Mixedgas ^&*_*&*()&^ circuit and pin one shorted to pin 3 on the 7805 and then I hooked it up backwards and dumped minus nine volts into my analog input.....But its all Mixedgas fault even though he;s 750 to 5000 miles away and never saw it...... So PLEASE cover the bare spots in heat shrink tubing or use RTV silicon or similar to insulate the internal connections..... Not that 9V would harm most systems, but there are a few really cheesy lasers out there in PL land.

EDIT: ADDED 1 kilo ohm resistor for protection of laser, use RS part number 271-005 or 271-1321 This will restrict current to 9 mA worse case or 5 mA normal.

Use stranded wire, solid wire breaks when flexing.

WORKS WITH MOST ttl LASERS TOO.

SEE ATTACHED.

TEST WITH VOLTMETER BEFORE USING WITH LASER, HOLD LEADS OF 7805 with pliars to keep cool while soldering, ie hold with pliars close to the case to prevent heating the silicon goodness inside. (Silicon Goodness sounds like something I picked up from Dr Lava)

USE OF RADIOSHACK PART NUMBERS IS A ADMISSION THAT SOMETIMES ITS THE ONLY PLACE YOU CAN GET ELECTRONIC PARTS IN TOWN IF YOUR A BEGINNER, AND THAT RS PART STOCK OFTEN SUCKS AS ITS A NOW CELL PHONE STORE PRETENDING TO BE A PARTS PLACE, AND ITS SALES DROIDS HAVE NOT A CLUE. BUT ITS PARTS LINE IS USUALLY DECENT QUALITY. THIS IS NOT A ENDORSEMENT, BUT What YOU GONNA DO, ITS THERE AND ITS NATIONWIDE.
ONCE UPON A TIME IT WAS GOOD..........

DRAWN IN WALLEYE VISION (note for non USAians, A WALLEYE IS A FRESH WATER FISH WITH BIG SPHERICAL EYES)

FROM THE MOVIE "HOT SHOTS", Pilot Jim 'Wash Out' Pfaffenbach says: "It's my eyes. I've got walleye-vision. ..."


ALTERNATIVE DIGIKEY PARTS NUMBERS (AND THEY NOW WAIVE THE MINIMUM ORDER)

LM7805CT-ND or LM7805ACT-ND
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377-1549-ND or 377-1549-ND
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360-1887-ND or 432-1074-ND or similar spst on/off panel mount
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CT2159-ND or CT2205-ND
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478-3150-1-ND or 490-3811-ND or 445-4802-ND
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HM377-ND or similar
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OD102JE-ND or 1.0KQBK-ND
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stranded wire and solder and heat shrink as needed.

[mccarrot]

THANK YOU.

What I do is I connect my QM2000 to my laser, open abstract generator, resize the circle to zero to get one static beam, click ok, open the color pallete, select manual.

Now you will have R G and B sliders to increase or degrease the power/voltage of your lasers

[Doc]

Thanks Steve,

About an hour ago I was just driving back from visiting one of our construction sites, when boredom set in and my mind wandered.

This is exactly what I was thinking about, saves digging out the laptop and DAC when you just want to do some quick checks or alignment.

[buffo]

Hmmm... Cool idea. I think I need one of these! (Now where is my soldering iron?)

Adam

[sugeek]

Just reposting the design as a JPG so it shows in the thread rather than having to download it.... Thanks Steve I think I may have the stuff laying around to make one today.

-Adam

[mixedgas]

A few comments:

Keep the filter cap close to the 7805 (within 3 inches) in case you have one of the very rare 7805s that oscillate a bit. Its very rare, but considering many PLers will grab used 7805s, its a decent precaution.

OK to add 2-3 more pots in parallel for OUR GEE BEE VEE as needed, If using a lot of pots, 10-100 uf of filter cap on the lm7805 output might be a good idea if driving long (more then 50 foot) cables,more for eliminating the crosstalk noise as the pots move then anything else. . A .01 uf cap with one lead on the wiper and one lead to ground will eliminate any wiper noise as the pots move. Noise of course is not there in the steady state.

You'd only see the noise when scanning anyways.

A few extremists out there might want to wire this as a ILDA passthrough, but I'd suggest grabbing DZ's ILDA board and adding this if you want to do that, but I will make the drawing late tonight.


Many of you who have cheesy lasers may find that changing the 1K to a 470 would work better for some TTL tests, but,,,,,, I don't endorse it.
Steve

[Doc]

A few extremists out there might want to wire this as a ILDA passthrough, but I'd suggest grabbing DZ's ILDA board and adding this if you want to do that, but I will make the drawing late tonight.

Are you hacked in to my webcam?!