FS: 1.8-2W 445nm Maglite 2C Laser!

jakeGT said:

Slp um and anyone else who bought one, I would advise not turning it on until you
Get it fixed by somebody besides sparkles, or else you'll be out $270 I'n blown diodes and drivefs

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Agreed. The diode doesnt even look like its heatsinked.

That doesn't look pretty at all... I kinda wish he wasn't banned you know how much he would defend him self... How far would he of gone? That would of been hilarious..... AHHHH I want to know what he would say! Priceless...and we missed out on it :cryyy:

Well I think everyone who bought these "lasers", and any prospective buyers owe FP a big thank you for sniffy this guy out early. Who knows how many people would of bought those. I'd rep you but it tells me I have to spread it around.

It's a commendable that you and anselm offered to help out. :beer:

It was heatsink'd with an Aixiz module front end you just couldn't see that cuz in the pic's I had allready pushed it out of the Aixiz.

weidmark said:

Agreed. The diode doesnt even look like its heatsinked.

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I can't believe I paid $270 for this POS! :yabbmad:

All of a sudden I feel so proud of my amateur soldering work....

-Dave

Just got this PM from Flaminpyro...

Ok here's what I have found it looks like your diode is fine it is putting out 670mW @ 700ma input with no lens, that is great !

The driver was rewired and still dose not work so I'm afrade the bare wires must have cooked your driver by causing a short circuit, I will have to replace it so I will be ordering a new one right now.

romogracie said:

Just got this PM from Flaminpyro...

Ok here's what I have found it looks like your diode is fine it is putting out 670mW @ 700ma input with no lens, that is great !

The driver was rewired and still dose not work so I'm afrade the bare wires must have cooked your driver by causing a short circuit, I will have to replace it so I will be ordering a new one right now.

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Better the driver than the diode... a little less expensive that way. But that diode you got is incredibly efficient. I guess that is the one good thing you can take from this mess.

OK, so I'm definitely a noob at this. I just received my sparkles sparkler (named for the light show his twist-tied wires will give off), and I decided to take a peek at this hack job. I tried removing the heat sink without unscrewing the head because I didn't want to do my own twist tie jobs on the wiring. That didn't work, so I took my chances unscrewing the head. Like an idiot, I ended up braiding the wires coming off of the switch. So, I'm asking for some help. How do I get the heatsink, diode, drive assembly out safely & how do I get the switch out of the case? I'm comfortable with solder and shrink wrap, so I think I can fix it, but I want to make sure I don't eff it up more than I already have. FP, can u help me with a diy fix-it for the sparkler?

Bradpr said:

OK, so I'm definitely a noob at this. I just received my sparkles sparkler (named for the light show his twist-tied wires will give off), and I decided to take a peek at this hack job. I tried removing the heat sink without unscrewing the head because I didn't want to do my own twist tie jobs on the wiring. That didn't work, so I took my chances unscrewing the head. Like an idiot, I ended up braiding the wires coming off of the switch. So, I'm asking for some help. How do I get the heatsink, diode, drive assembly out safely & how do I get the switch out of the case? I'm comfortable with solder and shrink wrap, so I think I can fix it, but I want to make sure I don't eff it up more than I already have. FP, can u help me with a diy fix-it for the sparkler?

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On the front of the reflector "bell" is a retaining ring. This screws down on top of the heat sink. Loosen this retaining ring and then hold the heat sink in place with a finger while you unscrew the retaining ring. Then you just lift the heat sink out the front

You can see the threading for this retaining ring in the last few pictures from FP.



Peace,
dave

I got the ring off the front of the head, but the heatsink seems to be cemented in the assembly. I don't think its screwed into the assembly because, to my knowledge, maglites don't have threads in there. I've tried twisting, prying, and tapping it out, but its stuck in there. FP, did you note any cement or glue holding the heatsink in?

Wonder if he started cementing after all this happened? :thinking:

-Trevor

I don't think so, because he shipped mine a week ago, like a day before the sh*t hit the fan. But the heatsink is definitely not just sitting in the head. I think I'm going to have to get the Aixiz, diode, and driver out and then just bang the heatsink until it comes out. My last hope is that FP has some advice after his disassembly. From his pics it looks like there may have been a drop of some type of cement on the heatsink. I can confirm that the diode wires are twist jobs. I'd dispute this with paypal if I thought I had a legitimate claim...

twhite828 said:

Wonder if he started cementing after all this happened? :thinking:

-Trevor

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Mohrenberg said:

some people pretend like there is some sort of higher purpose to this? It's all about the money. I certainly don't do it for fun. I don't particularly enjoy spending 10 hours non-stop on the lathe, but it's easy money that I can earn on my own terms.

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I'm the opposite. I DO enjoy spending time in front of the lathe. It's much more enjoyable than sitting in front of a computer, which is how most of my other non-sleeping time is spent.. due to a combination of work, and having no life. Plus I enjoy actually making something tangible that I can hold in my hand at the end of it as well.

On the other hand, I do agree that blatantly copying someone elses work should be frowned upon. Business may be business, but there are usually different ways of doing things other than direct copies.. even if it's just adding more flair. This isn't china here. We don't have hundreds of people with lathes competing to do the same thing. Even using the same host, there are always options. FP's tank007's and my version i'm about to start selling are good examples. Same host (for the most part, mine are clones of the tank007 flashlight, but are the same physically) but two entirely different styles to accomplish the same thing.

Now, I'm less of a noob at this stuff.

The heatsink assembly was cemented into the head. Fortunately, sparkie's half-ass twist tie job made it easy to remove the driver from the diode. Once I got the driver out, I went to town on getting the heatsink & diode assembly out. I first tried prying, but resorted to a hammer and screwdriver. I guess that diodes aren't sensitive to shock (not the electrical kind) because I beat the crap out of it to separate the heatsink from the cap. Finally, I got them separated and 1) replaced all of the wires, 2)properly soldered & shrink wrapped the connections to and from the driver, 3) ground all of the epoxy out of the head and polished down all of the nicks from my beating the hell out of the heatsink, 4) included enough wire to easily remove the head from the body without having to disconnect the power leads in case I want to replace the diode in the future. I polished up the lens, popped my batts in and now I have a laser that I kind of did build.

Also, sparkie's foam tape rigging to make the 18650 batts fit in the light really annoyed me, so I cut a segment of 3/4" PVC conduit and removed a few mm of diameter with some sandpaper, and now I have a battery compartment that holds my batts without having to ghetto-rig them with that foam tape.

I should charge sparkle for completing his design.

Bradpr said:

OK, so I'm definitely a noob at this. I just received my sparkles sparkler (named for the light show his twist-tied wires will give off), and I decided to take a peek at this hack job. I tried removing the heat sink without unscrewing the head because I didn't want to do my own twist tie jobs on the wiring. That didn't work, so I took my chances unscrewing the head. Like an idiot, I ended up braiding the wires coming off of the switch. So, I'm asking for some help. How do I get the heatsink, diode, drive assembly out safely & how do I get the switch out of the case? I'm comfortable with solder and shrink wrap, so I think I can fix it, but I want to make sure I don't eff it up more than I already have. FP, can u help me with a diy fix-it for the sparkler?

Click to expand...

Bradpr said:

Now, I'm less of a noob at this stuff.

The heatsink assembly was cemented into the head. Fortunately, sparkie's half-ass twist tie job made it easy to remove the driver from the diode. Once I got the driver out, I went to town on getting the heatsink & diode assembly out. I first tried prying, but resorted to a hammer and screwdriver. I guess that diodes aren't sensitive to shock (not the electrical kind) because I beat the crap out of it to separate the heatsink from the cap. Finally, I got them separated and 1) replaced all of the wires, 2)properly soldered & shrink wrapped the connections to and from the driver, 3) ground all of the epoxy out of the head and polished down all of the nicks from my beating the hell out of the heatsink, 4) included enough wire to easily remove the head from the body without having to disconnect the power leads in case I want to replace the diode in the future. I polished up the lens, popped my batts in and now I have a laser that I kind of did build.

Also, sparkie's foam tape rigging to make the 18650 batts fit in the light really annoyed me, so I cut a segment of 3/4" PVC conduit and removed a few mm of diameter with some sandpaper, and now I have a battery compartment that holds my batts without having to ghetto-rig them with that foam tape.

I should charge sparkle for completing his design.

Click to expand...

Good to hear you got it taken care of, though I'm sorry you had to pay so much for what was effectively a kit. Maybe you can work something out with Sparkles.

+1

-Trevor