Laser addon/driver setup issues

[johnbiehler]

So I finally received the various parts needed to do the $100 laser addon. I ordered a driver from ebay and the diode linked by the tutorial.

I’m trying to set up the driver with the correct voltage/current and am using the test load as specified. I’m currently using a 3A 12V power supply plugged directly into the driver.

Like others have encountered, it appears my driver board has the correct polarity markings but the JST connectors are in backwards.

I’ve got the LED dimming and coming on correctly with voltage turns and it’s now set for 5.5V. When I add in the test load, I’m unable to get above 0.955V when making the current adjustment. I’ve gone slowly and it seems to make a clicking sound indicating that it’s fully turned and no further increase in voltage on the multimeter.

I can’t tell if the driver is the issue or if the test load is. The test load gets very hot when the fan is set to 255 and I turn up the current screw.

Any suggestions? I went back and double checked the voltage and now as I rotate the voltage screw the light comes on and goes out so I’m thinking the driver is toast.

[leo69]

@John: Sorry but I just realized that I missed your post. It’s been a while so I’m hoping you worked this out. You can try running with voltage as high as 6.5 to see if that helps and some people use 5 diodes instead of 4 for the test load. I’ve used 4 on all my drivers and they’ve all worked per the guide so it’s possible you have a bad driver. The quality of the latest versions doesn’t seem to be as good as the original versions. Let me know if you got everything working and also how you did it so others might benefit.