steven Posted July 9, 2005 Report Share Posted July 9, 2005 in these pictures are a simple modified power supply to power a keychain laser with. now the keychain laser takes about 3x button cell batteries and , if i was to power it from just a plain battery the laser will have a short life span so the idea was to measure the 3 buttoin cells battery voltage and try get as close to as i can with the same voltage so to start with i used a simple 5 volts output regulator circuit and with a bit of exsperimenting i was able to get 4.66 volts output of which seemed to work ok at powering the laser with . at the positive output i solderd a 1n4148 diode and after that a ten ohms resister so thats how i got the 4.66 volts output so the diode and resister helped to reduce the voltage and or current output from the regulator circuit now the keychain laser i dident have to dismantle like ive done before as the tiny board at the front has a small flatt peace on it and it has a tiny wire from it thats solderd to the main board so if that tiny wire burns off, if i power it with the wrong voltage , and then that tiny board will fall off. the laser is so tiny you cant see it it must be sandwhiched into the board so you think its not there , now by removeing the battery cap end by screwing it off, inside is a thin circular plastic insulator and the spring which the bottom of the batteries sit on now with a insulated crockadile clip with a wire solder to it i sqeeze it open and insert it into the opened battery end where the batteries normally go in , and i clip it onto the spring so thats one terminal supply and for the other well you cant use the keychain laser body so you strip a wire and wind it around the removable head that has a lense in it that goes into the front of the keychain laser and tape it to it or wind the wire around the inner section where the lense cap is pushed onto so thats the second terminal now the keychain laser has a great long range and i can piont the laser light all the way down the road and through the windows of a block of units and onto the wall and further if i dident have any biuldings in the way, now thats just the laser powerd by the simple modified 5 volts output circuit, from a 9 volts battery and the receaver for the laser is a light activated or vise versa circuit which is in another topic in the forums somewhere called fairchild photo transistor data, which has the circuit to use as a receaver, now this receaver as ill call it responds to laser light more better than sunlight and infrared so i can trigger the light activated relay from a long distance away useing the keychain laser, now the idea of these 2 circuits is to make a long range laser break beam detection circuit that can be triggerd if something or someone walks through the laser and the relay in the light activated relay circuit will be triggerd thus switching on a long range fm transmitter or alarm so this i plan to improve it and would come in handy for detecting the american bigfoot or the australian version, the yowie , ,is why ive been working on this and to compensate for false triggering by smaller animals a second laser is spaced from the first and at a distance a second light activated relay circuit , now to do some long range laser to reaceaver alignment can be done with a peace of white cardboard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven Posted July 9, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 9, 2005 with the on button on the keychain laser taped down the on switch is left on and i used a small on off slide switch at the battery clip to switch it on with Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven Posted July 9, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 9, 2005 hers some more better pictures, in these pictures ive retaped the wireing to the keychain laser and allso ive included the light deactivated relay circuit so when the laser beam to the light deactivated relay is broken the relay switches on and turns on whatever is wired to the relay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven Posted July 9, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 9, 2005 :) heres another view and this time the switch hasent fallen down on its side as i had it held in place with blue tac Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven Posted July 9, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 9, 2005 the last 2 pictures aint comeing up so click on the download link at the bottoms to download them to view them and send them to your documents and open them there if you cannot open them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ante Posted July 9, 2005 Report Share Posted July 9, 2005 Hi Steven,There are no problems viewing your pictures. Nice project, how far can this beam reach? Doesn’t it need any shielding, some kind of tube or alike to protect against other light sources? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven Posted July 9, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 9, 2005 ante the dark activated circuit s relay is kept open by the laser shining into the fairchild photo transister and the transister can be housed in a peace of black tube so no other light can set it off unless it shines into the tube but ive got it set so the laser triggers it only but ill find out for sure next time i do some more testing, the laser keychain shines that red laser spot a really long distance so i just need s ome long distance space to find the maximiun distance the laser can trigger the sensitive realy circuit from and ill add it to this topic first ill need to get a nice size houseing for it all and one long dark street as this one we live in is around 100 meters geussing, long and the laser i can shine down the end and through the windows of a block of flatts so ill keep doing some more testing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ante Posted July 9, 2005 Report Share Posted July 9, 2005 Ok Steven, Ill await the test results then. ;D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven Posted July 9, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 9, 2005 ok ante hey you can light up the rear reflector of a car from a long distance way to Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven Posted July 11, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2005 :) here are some more pictures in this one is a redraw of the siutable circuit with the adition of the relay which is different the relay here is wired up with a separate 9 volts dc input , so when the keychain laser is aligned with the photo transiter, the led turns off. and ive yet to make some more modification so as to include other circuit aditions so that the circuit can transmitt warnings or alerts ,when the laser is broken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven Posted July 11, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2005 here is a closup of the circuit and allso the whole setup of the prototype Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven Posted July 11, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2005 :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audioguru Posted July 11, 2005 Report Share Posted July 11, 2005 Hi Steven,How far is its range? I got a laser pointer in a pen and it can light-up a car's reflective licence plate at night very far away. The reflection is nearly blinding.If your 9V batteries are new, and the forward voltage drop of your red LED is 1.8V, then you are feeding 41.5mA through it and it might melt with such a high current. Most red LEDs are recommended to use only 20mA.Your 390 ohm resistor is dissipating 673mW, but looks like its max rating is only 1/2W. Isn't it smoking? I dare you to touch it. ;DWhy use 18V to light a 1.8V LED? You are throwing away 16.2V to heat the resistor with your expensive batteries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audioguru Posted July 11, 2005 Report Share Posted July 11, 2005 Hi again,I use http://maps.google.com to measure the range of my stuff. It's too bad it its fine detail is only for North and South America and England right now. I can see the map or switch it to a satellite picture. I was excited to spot my house with my car in the driveway and my son spotted a jetliner flying over a neighbourhood.Most of the rest of the world is shown including Australia, but the detail isn't fine yet. ;D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven Posted July 11, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2005 audio guru the circuit that drivers the keychain laser is a regulater with its output reduced to afe level enougth to power the laser, froma 9 volts battery which isent at full 9 volts and the regulater wont allow any more than 5 volts if i had more than 9 volts input, and even if it was fed 12 volts from my lead acid cell batteries it puts out exactly 5 volts and with just the 9 volts battery with under 9 volts left in it i get just the power i need to power the keychain laser without burning it out. as for the receaver circuit or light deactivated realy it tuns off a 9 volts battery to that has less than 9 volts left in it and as for the led thats not runing off the circuit as its only run through the relay contacts from a sepparate 9 volts battery that hasent the full charge and is under it and for the led 390 oms at 1/2 watts is sufficient to power led from a 9 volts battery that hasent got 9 volts in it and theres no heat generated whats so ever , even if the battery had the full nine volts theres no heat i did try another circuit before to get 4.35 volts for the laser but dispte what the circuit said, when i biult it it did not put out what the circuit said it would so i ended up modfying a simple regulater to do it right and it worked from biulding it not from theory or circuit that was probabaly drawn but not tested, as for the 21 volts i think you mentioned where did you get that from im useing 9 volts battery with well under there rateings and the light deactivated relay circuit uses 2 x9 volts batteries and the yellow coloured relay voltage rateing is much higher than what the 9 volts batteries have in them and even the current rateing to and ac rateing to and dispite useing such low voltage the relay is working ok so ill asume the voltage rateings are minimim to operate the relay with the low voltage of well under its stated voltage rateing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven Posted July 11, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2005 :)corection you say 18 volts not 21 well the 2 batteries aint runing in parralell or sieries and dont have full charge in them ive got them sitting in parralell or sieries but they aint wired the same remember one battery powers the laser in the laser circuit and one powers the relay circuit and the last battery is just wired in through the relay contacts in such a way that when the laser shines into senser the light goes out so that is my indication of perfect laser alignment into senser and when the beam is broken the relay turns on and the led comes on and whatever other circuit i add to it latter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven Posted July 11, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2005 :)i forgot to mention the keychain laser dose shine a very long distant in the dark and untill i can find a street long enougth in the dark without any inturuptions i can get a better idea but ive had a keychain laser years ago and the best i can geuss from shineing it down a long road was a quarter of a kilometer or over , no tape measure long enougth to measure that and i think with the keychain laser i have the voltage of the 3 button cell batteries is closer to what ive managed to get with the output from the circuit to power it and somehow i think if there is a max voltage input before the laser burns out then i must be under it and the laser is brighter to Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audioguru Posted July 11, 2005 Report Share Posted July 11, 2005 Hi Steven,Your schematic shows four 9V batteries. 2 in series for 18V for the photodtector/transistor, and 2 more in series for the 390 0hm resistor in series with the LED.It is very confusing when it shows "-9V" instead of ground. ;D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven Posted July 12, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2005 and yet it all works perfect with no over heating, my friend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audioguru Posted July 12, 2005 Report Share Posted July 12, 2005 and yet it all works perfect with no over heating, my friend.Yes, with only 9V. But your schematic shows two 18V batteries.+9V and -9V is an 18V battery.You should draw the single 9V battery or call its terminals +9V and GND. ;D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven Posted July 12, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2005 :)ante with the positive input from one battery and the negative input from the same battery to the led via resistor which runs through the open or closed relay contacts is just my indication that the laser is lined up with the senser so i never botherd to put any ground as the neg is normally in respect to the ground anyhow, hey it works great uncle ante ha ha ha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audioguru Posted July 12, 2005 Report Share Posted July 12, 2005 Hi Steven,I am Uncle Audioguru, you know, the guy with a big skunk that tries to get under my porch.Ante is the other bad guy! ;DMy neighbour got back from a vacation yesterday. A whole new family of skunks was found under their porch. I have concrete blocks now to keep them out and it works! My poor neighbour. :(I tried http://maps.google.com again to try out its "find" function. When I enter my address, it points to my neighbour's house. He, he.Its satellite photo doesn't get close enough for me to see the hot teen girls across the street in their bikinis. I can see them fine from my bedroom window. Oh, oh. My wifey is saying again, "What are you looking at!" He, he. ;D ;D (We haven't gone to the beach yet) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven Posted July 12, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2005 audio guru what is this google maps thing you can use the keychain laser circuit to relay to get rid of those skunks by rigging a trap door on end of pipe through the relay so when skunk breaks beam its history, or use big lond pipe filled with oil make sure its all oiled up the insides ,the skunk goes in to smell and taste the chip fryer oil or used cooking oil for its smell then it cant get out so it slips into oil at bottom then drowns Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audioguru Posted July 12, 2005 Report Share Posted July 12, 2005 what is this google maps thingClick on my link:http://maps.google.comThen use the zoom on the left to zoom out to see the whole world. Double-click on a spot to center it then zoom in. Click "satellite" and it shows a photograph. Do an address search. It gets very close for North America and England but Australia and other places don't have fine detail yet.Here's the jetplane my son spotted: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ante Posted July 12, 2005 Report Share Posted July 12, 2005 Hi Dirty Old Man (audioguru),Have I just been compared with a skunk, or am I just a bad guy? ;D If you fit a high energy light pointing upwards on your lawn mover and give us your coordinates, we can all see when you are moving your lawn. I bet you will run back and forth on the street edge most of the time! BTW: you better stay in the bathtub, no beach for you! ;D ;D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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