LaserUser.com Forum (formerly RDWorksLab)

Hi everyone, new forum member here. I have a Mouser cart threw together and before I pulled the trigger, I thought I would check and see if there were any members here that might of built a unit based off of Daniel's design from the Instructables link?

If so, anything you would have done differently, etc? Thanks!

I am thinking about ordering one of Russ's black bodies and making one when I ran across the design in one of his videos a while ago.

First things to get rid of is the booster and even the battery. To my way of thinking the device will be a one off or once or twice a year use at most. Pick a random 5V DC wall wart that everyone likely has around and mains power it or in this day and age get your power from a USB port on the attached PC or even an external powerbank.

Also unless you are really set up for it and practiced build it on proto board with through hole components instead of the suggested SMD ones shown. Use some strip headers to plug in and mount the Pro Micro and Oled with to avoid overheating them for the same reasons of unpracticed hands. Ignore this if you are really competent with a soldering iron.

On the Pro Micro look for "Arduino Pro Micro ATmega32U4 5V" in your evilbay searching. The 32U4 has a native USB functionality and windows sees it as a keyboard without needing extra drivers.

Just a few rough thoughts on how I would make it

Hi Tim, thanks for the reply and insights.

Good thoughts on the battery options, personally I didn't mind it being battery powered, just for portability and the cord free design. However, I wasn't planning on using the AA probably either. One of my other hobbies is RC and so I have a plethora of Li-ion batteries of all different shapes and sizes. I was thinking about using a small single cell lipo wired directly inside the case and then incorporating a small charging circuit from Amazon here and then keeping the booster as well, just to boost the 3.3 or 3.7 (depending on what li-ion tech I go with) to 5VDC. I was still going to boost to 5V just for stability in the circuit. I'm thinking also, an additional benefit of the charging circuit/booster combo is the unit could still be powered with a USB cable if for some reason I grab it and its dead.

And yes good advice on the SMD stuff as well, I have just enough experience with them to know they can definitely be a pain to work with, let alone to try and prototype with!

As you share my affliction for R/C LiPo's abound.

If you have or can get 18650's easilly then these work great and have charging 5V boost and 3.3 Buck converters already built in https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3287041 ... 4c4doHsDwY

I would consider the battery power a good thing, unless you can reach the tube output and all the mirrors easily . I would think a cord would be a bother.