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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

Broken laser or dead battery help:

Joined
Dec 14, 2010
Messages
315
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Hey folks!

Sorry, I *KNOW* this is going to seem noobish of me, but I need a little assistance.

I am in the process of trying to do a review for a laser, and it's not working. I've GOTTEN it working temporairly, but as of right now it's basically dead... My problem is that I'm not familiar with the behavior of these 3.7v batteries. I'm used to older laser pens where you just plug in AAA's and go. This is a slightly newer territory for me.

So here are the symptoms:

When the battery is inserted, the red LED above the switch comes on indicating that I've depressed the button. (So there's power to the driver anyway)

There is IR but only for a very split second. When I use my cellphone camera to watch for IR, what happens is when I press the button on the laser, for a VERY brief flicker there's a flash of bright-purple light and then nothing.

Normally on a burnt-out diode, you'd see a steady stream of IR as you press the button which makes me guess about what's going on here.

It WAS working - when I first got the laser, it didn't work. I tried charging the battery, but the light on the charger was green so I figured it was charged. I put the battery back in, and boom - laser worked.

Then after 3 minutes it stopped again and the symptoms listed above continued.

I suspect that the battery is just low on juice, however I have no way of confirming right now. I'm not even sure if this is a protected battery though I suspect it is (UltraFire LC 18650 2400mAh in blue)

I was really hoping for a general concensus as to what the problem might be. I don't want to over-charge the battery if it's full (When I charge it, the green light comes on the charger, so I figure that means it's full), but I really just hope the laser isn't dead.

I don't have another battery to test with and my multimeter is at home.

So with all of that being said, given the behavior listed above, what do you think might be the problem?
 





Joined
Dec 14, 2010
Messages
315
Points
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Thanks Anselm,

That's seriously what I'm hoping the case is, because the laser itself, for the 3 minutes it DID work, was quite a bit brighter than any other laser I've owned before and I've had ones that were at least 50mw... So I'm hopeful about this one.

I do suspect it's just the battery, but since I don't have a lot of experience with the battery itself I was curious what other symptoms users have experienced that I haven't that would help.
 
Joined
Dec 14, 2010
Messages
315
Points
0
Okay, got home last night and discovered that it's actually a bad driver. When I unsoldered the diode from the driver it was originally coupled to, and put it on a different driverboard, it worked perfectly fine. What a tick-off. What makes it even more interesting is that when powered by a 18650 battery, it refuses to work, but with a 3.0v CR123 it works perfectly happily.

Needless to say, I've filed a dispute with paypal to see if I can return it and get some money back or at least get another one but it'll be another two weeks until I see anything at least... *sigh*

I'm not ordering from them again though.
 




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