The Laser Messiah is superior to the construction hardhat idea -by Bjegunac

I was hesitant to post the DIY instructions for the construction helmet until I had given it a chance to see how it performs. It failed. After 3+ months of use I did not notice any positive results. However, having bought $1,200 worth of diodes I thought it wouldn’t hurt to build the “Laser Messiah” by OMG and see if differences in design could attribute to lack of effectiveness of my own construction helmet. Although I have built the “Laser Messiah” I have not used it enough times (only 3x thus far) to be able to characterize its effectiveness. I can say that after my second treatment with this design I think I am getting that soreness feeling. Hopefully, this is an indication that good hair days are ahead.

The differences in design between the construction helmet and the “Laser Messiah” are many. For one, the construction helmet does not contour to my head whatsoever. Initially I was lazy to think about the design itself and just took a construction helmet lying in my garage and drilled holes in it. This was a mistake; you really have to give it more thought then I did. The concavity of the construction helmet did not allow for the laser light to disperse uniformly across the scalp, in fact there was a lot of overlapping regions that were concentrated on a very small area. Additionally, some diodes were closer to the scalp and some where further from the scalp, there was no uniformity in spacing (very bad). The Laser Messiah does not have this problem, because the foam conforms to the scalp and the bristles ensure uniform spacing between the diodes and the target area. The lack of these characteristics in my own design could attribute to poor results (no positive results). In about 3 months time we should have an answer to this question…

I’ll also take the opportunity to point out a wiring difference between my Laser Messiah and what is documented in OMG’s tutorials. With my construction helmet I connected the diodes in parallel and used the 3.x Volts @ HUGE AMPERAGE power supply. As a result of this, the diodes i took apart to fit on the new Messiah have been significantly weakened. In fact a number of them just seem to have _burned out_. I compared them to the new batch I had ordered from AiXiZ in order to add more “oomph"… Out of the 300 diodes I had in all (including new ones) I ended up using around 200+ because so many were weakened and I didn’t want to waste space on the helmet with inferior diodes. Now, in hopes of avoiding the same problem I have rewired the diodes in a series/parallel combination rather then having them all in parallel. I strung about 14 diodes in series (red wire connected to black etc...) which yields a voltage drop across that string equal to 14*3.2V(diode rating) = 44.8V (I am using a 48V @ 3.X AMPS). So I could have actually connected another diode for a total of 15 in one string to yield a voltage drop across the string equal to 44.8V+3.2V = 48V (now that I write this I dont know why i didn’t)… The current requirement is just as easily calculated, since 14 diodes are connected in series (a string) then only 30mA is necessary to drive all of them (same current through each). So if you have 15 strings of 14 diodes on each string then 15*30mA = 450mA. Now its unlikely that you will find a power supply that has a rating of 44.8V @ 450mA so if you get something like I did 48V @ 3.xA then it would be a safe practice to use resistors and dissipate any extra power that could leak as a result of some phenomenon I have no idea about (diodes are highly nonlinear devices). I actually did not end up using resistors. When I went to get them at radio shack they did not have everything I needed and so I got lazy once again. Now even with this design I noticed that the diodes get hot, but not as nearly as hot as before. Most importantly, at least for now, they seem to have equal brightness. I wonder if anyone has any comments in regards to this? I am probably using much less amperage then a similar design with all diodes connected in parallel although at a trade off of a larger voltage requirement. Usually this trade off is welcomed but… If anyone has something to add regarding the high diode temperature when in use, please feel free to share the information. Hopefully my $1,200 diode set will last longer then before, I don’t think I would shell that much money again on new ones if these burned out.

Oh and.. a HUGE thanks to OMG. Your effort in documenting the DIY instructions is appreciated. Thanks!

-Bjegunac