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telemonster
Contributor
Okay, it's been forever on this one. So after the first setup burned up in a giant smelly mess (no exploded 18650 battery) I tried again. The 2nd time, I decided to leave the electronics that drive the LED flashlight in place since it was pretty precision with the placement of the hall-effect sensors that read the magnetic mode selection ring. I wired the LED leads to a transistor and tried to drive it that way. I didn't have much luck, I think the LED runs low voltage high current which seems right. Also, the DPSS laser module was so long that it was just an incredibly tight fit in the housing. I think a direct diode emitter like a 450-460nm would work much easier. And if I wasn't lame I would figure out a way to adjust the current of the LED driver that comes in a flashlight to make it just drive the laser diode.
But anyways, progress has to be made. I had an old Canon Elph, SD550. The lens jammed on it, thus the camera was useless. But I had the underwater housing. I played around with google sketchup enough to 3d print a "slug" that is similar in size/shape to the original camera. Contents were a 18650 battery, a Buck-Boost to take 3.7v to 5v, an arduino, an OLED screen, a PCB with a pushbutton, and the green laser module on a transistor.
To kind of mimic the FDA/CDRH standards for laser equipment I managed to cobble together some sloppy Arduino code that uses the pushbbutton and sequence of "when to press it" to avoid accidental emission. Press once, then again -- holding down for count of 5 then let go... emission. The laser module had something on it about not running more than 60 seconds, so I added a counddown.
I took it in the pool Sunday, and it seemed to work. The battery life wasn't insane, it could probably be helped by sleep routine on the arduino. Also, the buck boost convert I'm using is way too big. The laser is running on 3.7v, the arduino and oled screen on 5v.
Just a bit of an update. Now that it's done I Can continue working on the original one which projects patterns
A random video:
NOTE - this laser is not eye safe at close distances, I do not recommend duplicating this unless highly familiar with safety issues related to lasers. Yadda yadda.
But anyways, progress has to be made. I had an old Canon Elph, SD550. The lens jammed on it, thus the camera was useless. But I had the underwater housing. I played around with google sketchup enough to 3d print a "slug" that is similar in size/shape to the original camera. Contents were a 18650 battery, a Buck-Boost to take 3.7v to 5v, an arduino, an OLED screen, a PCB with a pushbutton, and the green laser module on a transistor.
To kind of mimic the FDA/CDRH standards for laser equipment I managed to cobble together some sloppy Arduino code that uses the pushbbutton and sequence of "when to press it" to avoid accidental emission. Press once, then again -- holding down for count of 5 then let go... emission. The laser module had something on it about not running more than 60 seconds, so I added a counddown.
I took it in the pool Sunday, and it seemed to work. The battery life wasn't insane, it could probably be helped by sleep routine on the arduino. Also, the buck boost convert I'm using is way too big. The laser is running on 3.7v, the arduino and oled screen on 5v.
Just a bit of an update. Now that it's done I Can continue working on the original one which projects patterns
A random video:
NOTE - this laser is not eye safe at close distances, I do not recommend duplicating this unless highly familiar with safety issues related to lasers. Yadda yadda.
