(emphasis mine)
This is why I've resisted the lure of high powered lasers. As much as I want to set things on fire from a distance...
For me, it’s just that I don’t have money to spend on lasers, nor the electronics expertise to scrap one out of old Blu-Ray drives that I have around. I’m not very worried about eyes, because laser protection eyewear does exist, and should always be used. 
7w set fire to the space station lol.
Ive never seen a 7w lasrer diode for sale any where. If you take a blueray laser they are around 1+ watt i think.
Another awesome project loneoceans!
Great work resulting in a nice compact device! 
I own a 3W blue laser with a driver for it, it was a deal at the time. It is way bigger than your beautiful build. I have tried it only once (with safety goggles on) to check the working, but never again because there is simply no other use for me than playing and that is exactly what is a bad idea with powerful lasers.
So me I stick to low power fun lasers and to flashlights, but still: very nice project! 
Nice but scary.
$100 laser diode that’s used with wood engraving? i’m out 
loneoceans this is another beautiful project!! I have no experience with laser but I like your idea of putting everything on one board.
I see great possibility that you use the same idea to build a buck driver for flashlight! This seem like a 12A buck driver to me, if you can make 12A 2S buck driver in 17mm, i think a lot of people will want to buy it! Maybe it exist already but I do not know.
7w? wow. This is a 1.5w with a G2 lens, and is very powerful. 2x18350, or 2x16340’s.
Not sure how you handle the heat with 7w though. This 1.5w gets hot pretty fast.
Wait, you are going to build a driver for a 7W laser.
If it’s around 20% efficient, then you’ll need to provide 35W of power.
That’s on the level of an XHP70.2 with the die size of an 1mm2 White LED.
I can foresee something like this in the near future…
loneoceans say for 7w light output he driving with about 21w power in! it seem like this driver can do 50w power, so this is why i suggest to make a very powerful buck driver for flashlight using same design!
Flashlight driver doesn’t sit on a thick piece of copper though and it wont fit on 17mm. I’m sure there is some that can be adapted to flashlights though
I wish it were harder to imagine this kind of high powered blue or violet laser getting into the hands of a nutcase.
Exactly my thoughts.
Could just as easily be used to disable a nutcase, though. And from a nice safe distance.
:smiling_imp: “Ballz-eye!”
+1 … :+1:
The only defense against a bad guy/nutcase with a high powered blue or violet laser is a good guy with a high powered blue or violet laser.
Hopefully the ‘good guy’ will have proper eye protection and the ‘bad guy’ will not.
If the bad guy does have eye protection, go immediately to Plan B……
………… the Pb & Cu solution.
I was thinking about situations like the nutjob in Nebada Las Begas during that concert that used the dreaded bump-stock to do his nasties. Okay, so everyone’s pinned down, you can’t shoot back even if you were packing (at risk of peppering a bunch of innocently-occupied rooms in the process), but one good look at where the bozo’s shooting from, whip out Ol’ Blue, and give him a few multi-watt flashes to sear his retinas, and he won’t be shooting anyone except purely at random. And then won’t be able to escape without feeling his way out with a white cane.
Yeah… that was bad. Amazing it disappeared from the news so fast too.
“The dreaded bump-stock”…. I’ll have to assume that is sarcasm. 
A bump-stock is good for nothing but to play with for the most part. If your trying to really hit anything specific after the second shot…. good luck unless you are highly trained & lucky. It’s more of a ‘pray & spray’ device.
Heck, you can do the same thing with a rubber band or a belt if you know what you are doing. 
That could possibly work well…. :+1:
But, on the other hand, if you have located where the “bozo” is; Pb & Cu could work well also.
Hope we never have to find out about either….
Just to repeat, then I’m out (don’t want it to get too “political”).