sooooo... apparently you can pot mod a Rigel...

I was bored at work today, so I pulled out my trusty Rigel and in true nerd fashion, proceeded to pull it apart. When I had the diode assembly out, I was very pleasantly surprised to find that the driver had a pot. So, again in true nerd fashion, I decide to mess with it. After some playing and very, very gradual turning, I found that a quarter turn to the right nearly doubled my output. It went from spiking almost as bright as a 5mw green and normally being about as bright as a good 5mw 635nm red, that it's now brighter than my 5mw Lyra with spikes that nearly double the Lyra's output. So, since 593.5 is 7/8 ths the output of 532, I figure this laser is averaging about 8mw and spiking to about 13 now. I left it on for four minutes straight, and it was juuuuust starting to get warm. I killed a set of Energizer Lithiums today (which isn't really easy in this laser, it gets good battery life, it took about 14 hours of regular but not constant use), and the laser is still working like a champ.

I'm assuming if you're here you know how to crack open a CNI case and that you know how to turn a pot, so I won't insult anyone's intelligence.

Just figured ya'll would be interested to know this.

Re: sooooo... apparently you can pot mod a Rigel..

Hmm, if you're willing to do that then you might as well swap out the pump for something a little more badass and see how that goes

Re: sooooo... apparently you can pot mod a Rigel..

HumanSymphony said:

Hmm, if you're willing to do that then you might as well swap out the pump for something a little more badass and see how that goes

Click to expand...

That's a little beyond my capacity at the moment lol

My main intent for taking it apart is because I want to stuff it into a keychain host.......

Re: sooooo... apparently you can pot mod a Rigel..

If you take out the pump and swap it, have fun aligning the crystals :

Hopefully this won't die on you either.

Re: sooooo... apparently you can pot mod a Rigel..

It will be absolutely fine

Cni runs their pumps at around half of their rated output, meaning you can almost always get some more power out of them without sacrificing lifetime. If you REALLY want some power you should put it in a lab host and TE cool it, that way you can stabilize the Temps to get peak power all the time

Re: sooooo... apparently you can pot mod a Rigel..

Back when I was pot modding, I stopped at about 320 mA. What current are you putting to the pump ??

Mike

Re: sooooo... apparently you can pot mod a Rigel..

I want a yellow pointer

Re: sooooo... apparently you can pot mod a Rigel..

Chris ---

Yah -- you and everyone else ;D

Mike

Re: sooooo... apparently you can pot mod a Rigel..

I pot modded my infinity 95 (CNI unit ) almost a year ago it was about 80 mw now its still in the 102-108 range i like it i like it

Re: sooooo... apparently you can pot mod a Rigel..

I have a heatsinked pen running about 700mA pump current. It does over 200mW green

Also, CNI uses identical components regardless of power level from I think 50mW and higher. These are set to the ordered power level. This is not like the mass manufacturers that build them all with the current t maxed out and then sell them based on how much power they make.

Re: sooooo... apparently you can pot mod a Rigel..

Does Nova fall under that category?

Re: sooooo... apparently you can pot mod a Rigel..

[highlight]That's a little beyond my capacity at the moment lol

My main intent for taking it apart is because I want to stuff it into a keychain host....... [/highlight]

This might make for a good host for your yellow laser, but it's a bit bulky for a keychain.
I plan on using one of these for a high power blue ray(Probably in about a year).  It's built pretty solid and is 12mm inside so it fits an axiz fairly tight(green modules too). It takes 1 cr2 battery. Easy to dissassemble too.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.2511

Re: sooooo... apparently you can pot mod a Rigel..

It's good to know that you can actually get that much power for a Rigel-2, but I am concerned about the impact on overall lifespan. You may have significantly shortened the life of your laser by overdriving it. Even if you can't feel heat on the outside it is possible that you are cooking a tiny spot on the crystal. If not, then I guess it's your win but it seems like a gamble to me!

PICS!!!! plz