Thread: Green laser vortex wiring question

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I'm going to make a green laser vortex. I already have a pen type green laser that I would like to use. How do I go about hard wiring it so it will plug in? It takes two triple A batteries that are held in by a screw on back.

Tekcor1,

The neg. lead should be soldered to the spring inside and the pos. lead to the body of the pen.

i made a vortex too, i just popped in some new batteries right before we turned it on and it lasted the full night

Okay that makes sense. Thanks. Can I cut the body of the laser shorter so that I can get to the spring on the inside? I guess I'm asking if it matters where on the body of the pen I solder the positive?

you may be able to unscrew the emitter side of the laser. then you'd be able to get at both the pos and neg side.

you could cut it right behind the guts of the laser and hook it up that way. might have to put a different on/off switch on it though

Tekcor1,

On mine, I just removed the part that held the batteries. I then soldered the neg. lead to the spring and the pos. lead to the threaded part of the body. I than put a rubber cap over the end. Here are a couple pictures.

and since it uses 2x 1.5 volt batteries in series,find a 3 volt power supply on ebay for a few bucks and wire it up

Make sure your power supply is regulated. Those "universal" ones with selectable voltage are usually well regulated, but always test with a multimeter before connecting!

Whytheneon's first post got me thinking. Why do I even need to connect it to a wall wart? I'm goin to be running it for four hours one night a year. Fresh batteries on Halloween night should do the trick, and then if I want to use the laser for anything else the rest of the year (like playing while we're camping) I haven't modified it. Plus that one less outlet I have to occupy on Halloween, leaving room for something else. Sometimes the best answer is to just do nothing! I'll test it out over the weekend and make sure that it is still reasonably bright after four or five hours running.

Thanks for all the replies!

It depends on how long your night is. I have gone through two sets of batteries in one night. I have considered using a computer power supply. I would like to add something use a front sided mirror. The arc depends on the angle of the mirror not the distance to the laser.