Laserglow Vega->Severe divergence problem.

Justin said:

Razako,

Sorry to hear about your troubles with the Vega. I tested this one myself before shipping, so I know it wasn't like this when we shipped it. It is possible that the lens plate on the collimator has come loose during shipping and the lens is now misaligned. It is possible to fix this on your own by removing the heat sink portion of the laser and threading the lens plate in until it is properly focused, or if you like you can get an RA and send it back to us so we can do the repair.

Either way, please contact me at work so we can correspond over email rather than the forum: jhosaki@laserglow.com

And, to everyone else: The price on yellow lasers and components has increased quite a bit recently,
and we didn't want to do this but it is unavoidable. CNI has had serious problems with the manufacturing process and as a result they have raised their prices significantly, so there's not much else we can do.

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Thanks for the answers.
I'm good with small tools and electronics so I would probably be able to do the fix If I had some detailed instructions on the procedure. I'm assuming it would void the warranty on it if I attempt this?
I'll email this to you since you might not check back on this thread soon.

If anyone else has recommendations or suggestions feel free to help out.

only if your certain u know what ur doing, try to attempt it yourself if u want to save shipping costs.
i would probably send it back to LG so they can deal with it professionally and keep the warranty intact too.

darklandz said:

only if your certain u know what ur doing, try to attempt it yourself if u want to save shipping costs.
i would probably send it back to LG so they can deal with it professionally and keep the warranty intact too.

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I'm asking because it sounds like it would be a relatively easy problem to fix if I could just get to it. Still, I would like to know about the potential problems and overall difficulty first. If it seems too risky and difficult I'll definitely just send the laser to be repaired.

[highlight]Sorry to hear about your troubles with the Vega. I tested this one myself before shipping, so I know it wasn't like this when we shipped it. It is possible that the lens plate on the collimator has come loose during shipping and the lens is now misaligned. It is possible to fix this on your own by removing the heat sink portion of the laser and threading the lens plate in until it is properly focused, or if you like you can get an RA and send it back to us so we can do the repair.[/highlight] -Justin of LG
So I would not try unless the job is quite straight forward, and Justin reafirms, the warranty will stay in effect.  It would seem he would have said if he made this comment, and the warranty would be voided, but I would ask to be more safe.  I have pics, with a tighter dot too, so if shipping caused it, it was between California and Salt Lake, UT  I sure want to see this laser fixed as Razako deserves the product in spec.

scopeguy20 said:

[highlight]Sorry to hear about your troubles with the Vega. I tested this one myself before shipping, so I know it wasn't like this when we shipped it. It is possible that the lens plate on the collimator has come loose during shipping and the lens is now misaligned. It is possible to fix this on your own by removing the heat sink portion of the laser and threading the lens plate in until it is properly focused, or if you like you can get an RA and send it back to us so we can do the repair.[/highlight] -Justin of LG
So I would not try unless the job is quite straight forward, and Justin reafirms, the warranty will stay in effect. It would seem he would have said if he made this comment, and the warranty would be voided, but I would ask to be more safe. I have pics, with a tighter dot too, so if shipping caused it, it was between California and Salt Lake, UT I sure want to see this laser fixed as Razako deserves the product in spec.

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I emailed him last Thursday asking about it and haven't got a response yet. I'm thinking he must be incredibly busy or my email got blocked by the spam filter. I don't plan on trying to repair it unless I get some detailed instructions on the procedure and a confirmation that it wouldn't void the warranty. The "it is possible" part also concerns me. I don't want to risk taking it apart only to find out that it has an entirely different problem.

Curiously_Coherent said:

Man you do have a nice dot there. Below is a shot of my Vega5 at 25' with my hand as a size reference. I've always had those "wings" on mine since day one. This Vega replaced the first one I bought so I'm hesitant to bring this one back as well. I'm thinking that these are hard to make perfect, so if you've got a nice round dot like that, at least you can fix it with some lenses. (Check the Optics section)

I wouldn't return it myself. You've got a good one.

CC

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CC, such dot from my experience is sometimes caused when beam converges about half way to where it projects as such shape. Have you checked for that? It is also displaying rings arround as if there is problem on the lens. maybe too much smoke went inside and stuck on the lens?

Here is what my Vega-10 looks like. It has slight scatter far from the dot but the dit is very round with clean edges. It shifts modes only if battery drops to below certain point. I'll take more shots if needed.

Hey like in cc's pic, does anybody know for sure what causes the "wings"? My Aquarius -10 has faint ones, and I have a greenie that does this very noticably.

Thanks for the pic Milos, I'm thinking of cleaning the lens with my mini Lenspen (very carefully of course) to see if that has any effect. I also have to buy a fresh set of Duracell Cs to see whether the lower voltage of my rNiMh batteries might be playing a part as well.

I'll post if I find a solution.

Razako, Justin's doing a lot of scrambling lately to counteract all the negative PR lasers have been getting in Toronto lately, so I'm sure he'll respond soon.

Cheers, CC

Ok I got some instructions from Justin about fixing this laser:

1. Carefully try to unscrew the head sink/head section of the laser. It should separate right where the ridged section of the heat sink meets the actual body of the laser. It may take some force to get it moving, but try not to damage the housing!
2. Once you get the head unscrewed, be careful not to touch the lens on the laser module. Fingerprints or dust on this lens will really mess up the laser beam profile.
3. Inside the head section which you removed, you will see a round metal plate with the collimating lens attached. This is the part which has likely come loose and is causing the poor focus.
4. This step requires some trial and error: The round plate with the lens attached is treaded into the head, and it has two tiny holes where you can fit a small spanner or even tweezers. Be very careful not to scratch the collimating lens with your tools! Turn the plate to move the lens back and forth. With each small adjustment of the plate, screw the head back on to the body and turn the laser on to check it the spot is getting better or worse. Within a few trials you should be able to determine the best position for the lens.
5. Once you know where the lens should be mounted, use some epoxy or glue to secure the lens plate in place against the threads in the head. (Don’t get any on the lens!) You will probably see some leftover epoxy already in there from the manufacturing process. It is probable that they just didn’t use enough glue when assembling this laser and this is why it was able to come loose during shipping.

I'm thinking I'll try this. Wish me luck. If it is a success I'll have some nice pictures to post.

Geez Razako, good luck! Avoid coffee for 6 hours before surgery!

CC

Good luck, don't use superglue.. it vents 'glue fumes' that can cloud the lens.

drlava said:

Good luck, don't use superglue.. it vents 'glue fumes' that can cloud the lens.

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would J-B weld epoxy be ok?

Yeah it's true you know :exclamation
I use some nailpolish. Works fine.

update: The collimator plate WAS the problem. It had almost come entirely lose and was rattling around inside of the laser. I have screwed it back into place where the remaining glue was and I have the laser putting a much smaller dot on the wall.

I do have a question about how the beam should come out before I re-glue the plate in.
Should the Beam converge on itself at any place or should it be constantly expanding from the point it leaves the laser? Does it matter as long as you have the same size dot as a result?

for the collimation, find the farthest point away from you (30 ft +) and adjust for minimum dot size. You may find that this causes a beam waist, and if it does, back off just slightly for optimal infinity divergence, or keep the waist if you prefer.

Let the beam hit a mirror across the room and then back on the wall (15+15 meters or so). Then focus it to the same diameter as at the aperture.