Hello
I'm new to all this, can I power a 1000mW laser 5V with my arduino uno a power supply?
Thank you
Hello
I'm new to all this, can I power a 1000mW laser 5V with my arduino uno a power supply?
Thank you
At 100% efficiency, 1 W at 5 V is 200 mA, so no.
So I need to use an external power supply with a relay?
Or a power FET which is a lot faster than any relay.
There's a lot of Chinese "high power" lasers sold that nowhere near meet the advertised specs.
But my 5mW modules do make brighter dots than mt 3mW pointer.
Laser power supplies are usually not simple. See [u]this page[/u].
My cheap modules (bag of 10 for about $4 shipped) came with constant-current circuits which only requires a very small board with tiny parts. Input is 20mA of 4.5V, I find that Arduino 5V works fine, 20 minutes operation and nothing quit or feels hot.
A single led, for ~20mA input only needs the resistor but the laser needs the full CC (constant current) circuit.
A 1W led needs a CC circuit, how much more for a 1W laser? I am sure the CC parts must be stronger and more expensive and the input perhaps a very steady half Amp at 5V?
Thank you for the information but it's not for a laser pointer but for a laser engraver.
it can handle 4.5 to 5V
Point is that my modules and pointer all came with the cc circuits.
Looking at the page you linked I would bet $10 that that unit also has cc built in.
I don't see any questions asked of answered there, maybe since it's your money you should ask?
I can't get to eBay on this computer, but from your description, I'm guessing that you are talking about a 1 Watt (optical output, NOT ELECTRICAL OUTPUT) Blue LASER diode for your engraver (Blue since it runs at 5V, but all following goes for any other wl, including I.R).
You'll need a supply which can output around 1.2 Amps (current regulated) and you can switch it with MOSFET driven by an arduino pin ( you can NOT drive it, the LASER diode, directly from the arduino pin).
You will also need a fairly substantial heatsink/LASER mount for long duration (even pulsed) burns.
I suggest that you go to LaserPointerForum.com and search for info there rather than here on the arduino forum. Once you get the basics of driving your LASER diode, and LASER safety, down, then come back here to learn how to use the UNO to control switching.
You will need, as already said, a constant circuit driver to power the LED if you want to avoid an early diode kill.
If possible take a look at the diode's max current and if you got an adequate driver, stay about 20% lower than the max. current value to give it a long life - especially when you want to do some engraving work (in a CNC?) with that laser diode.
Arduino can be of help to pulse this diode current to reduce the power when you want to engrave shades in wood.
There are a lot of good sources / special forums for laser engraving/cutting. So Aunt Google is your friend.
Here is one example for a laser driver which could be driven by an Arduino (TTL level PWM):