Do different diodes need different drivers?!

[LaserLURNING]

Half of this is just a story that made me get into this lasery stuff


Hello, I got into lasers ages ago when I was really small like 8 and I bought these
20mW lasers off ebay and I had alot of fun and just recently I got into lasers again and I found that old laser I used too play with and started playing around with it then I thought there's for sure some powerful ones so I looked around on the internet and I found this website selling these arctic laser things so I thought okay I will buy one of those so then before spending likw $600 on a laser i looked around on the internet a bit more and I found out that you can make your own lasers out of basically scratch so then I looked around a bit more
and I saw you need these drivers so

Question: I was wondering if I need a different driver for each different type of diode....

 

[oahu99]

Yes you need different drivers for each diode. All the different diodes have different forward voltages. For example a red diode is like 2.5 volts and a 445nm is like 5.5 volts.
The forward voltage and the voltage of your batteries dictates whether you will buy a buck or boost driver.
If battery voltage < diode voltage you need a boost driver.
If battery voltage > diode voltage you need a buck driver
Welcome to the forum!

 

[hakzaw1]

wth?? is this your welcome intro?? wrong section
PM coming

 

[KRNAZNBOY]

Ummmm.... No not really. You just need to be aware of the VF of your diode

Blue/Purple ~ 5.5v
Red ~ 2.5v
Green ~ 7v
IR ~ 2v

Never use a boost driver for Reds or IR

Try to avoid using a buck for a green diode

Other than that it doesn't matter what you use as long as the battery config is right

(buck - 2 li-ion cells in SERIES)
(boost - 1 li-ion or more in PARALLEL)

Basically driver choice is dictated by battery configuration and not the diode.

Hope this helps
-Matt