Connecting a few hundred wired laser diodes in parallel

Thread Starter

mtartist

Joined Aug 3, 2018
2
Hi, I need to connect a lot of laser diodes in parallel. The components are similar to these on Amazon (link).

How should I physically connect them together if I'm not using a PCB? Are there any compact connectors that are up to the task? I'm expecting the solution would involve creating hierarchies of clusters but I might be wrong.

Thank you in advance.
 

ericgibbs

Joined Jan 29, 2010
18,766
hi mt,
Welcome to AAC.
I bought 10 of these sometime ago.
The wires are only 3 inches long and bare end stripped is 1/20th of an inch, trying to use screw terminal blocks on so short a bared end is close to impossible.
I ran one Laser diode at 5v, it lasted about a week.!
To get a longer life I would run them at approx 4v.
I would use 0.1inch copper strip PCB and solder the ends.
E
Example of PCB.
 

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danadak

Joined Mar 10, 2018
4,057

DickCappels

Joined Aug 21, 2008
10,153
If they are like the ones I bought there is a surface mount resistor on the small circuit board in the laser module. If the diode is there then you can just wire them all in parallel by soldering all of the read leads together and all of the black leads together, using extra hookup wire as needed.

Being curious, why are you going to wire up hundreds of these?
 

ericgibbs

Joined Jan 29, 2010
18,766
hi,
Confirming the point Dick made about the PCB resistor, its an SMD coded 910, measures 90R on a meter.
E
Update:
At 5v supply the Laser diode drop is 2.3v and the 90R drop is 2.7v, so thats 2.7v/90R= 30mA.

Additional Info:
The Brass body of the Laser diode is connected to to the +5Vin wire
 
Last edited:

shteii01

Joined Feb 19, 2010
4,644
hi mt,
Welcome to AAC.
I bought 10 of these sometime ago.
The wires are only 3 inches long and bare end stripped is 1/20th of an inch, trying to use screw terminal blocks on so short a bared end is close to impossible.
I ran one Laser diode at 5v, it lasted about a week.!
To get a longer life I would run them at approx 4v.
I would use 0.1inch copper strip PCB and solder the ends.
E
Example of PCB.
Could u put ferrule on the wire ends?
 

ericgibbs

Joined Jan 29, 2010
18,766
hi 01,
Its a PVC covered really fine stranded wire which appears to be dip tinned at the bared end, I would say the OD of the tinned section is only 0.5mm.

E
 
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