Is my laser boned?

G'day everyone

I've come to obtain a laser module/power supply and i'm not entirely sure on its specs/where it came from exactly. I know its an ebay job. Its green. And today i had it running and it just stopped working.

edit: now attatched

Thats the module ^^

Anyway, basically i've disconnected the laser and checked the output voltage. It reads 2.8V

Can anyone point me in the right direction to diagnose whats broken, the laser or the power supply or both?

Sounds like if the p/s is putting out 2.8v then it is doing it's job correctly - depending on the module in question - is it a DPSS green, or a red, what are the specs of the laser totally ?

SenKat said:

Sounds like if the p/s is putting out 2.8v then it is doing it's job correctly - depending on the module in question - is it a DPSS green, or a red, what are the specs of the laser totally ?

Click to expand...

The Laser is green but unfortunately I don't have any specs........ I was kind of hoping someone here might be able to point me in the right direction..

Any suggestions on how to identify the laser?

The only marking is the warning sticker and a label on the rear part of the heatsink which has
131444 809.2
340 D

or something??

Hmmm - no ideas

Where did you get it from ? I would take it, sight unseen if you were selling it I could use the housing for another project

SenKat said:

Hmmm - no ideas

Where did you get it from ? I would take it, sight unseen if you were selling it I could use the housing for another project

Click to expand...

hehe
Its off a friend of my dads so i dont know exactly where it came from/what it is. All i know is it was working 100% until today when it cut out. Is there anything i can measure on the laser module like resistance or something?

I wont be selling it until i've chased up all possible leads on finding specs/info for it.

Could i possibly measure what current the modules drawing?

Honestly... once they go bad... if you don't have the experience to build one, you most likely can't fix it. IT could be a dead diode, or the crystal could have fallen out of place or broke, or the alignment got off... or that the diode just got to the end of it's time... they do do that after much use... Unfortunately... :-/

What I can tell you is that I could take a look at it for you, test it, and send it back, or buy it if you don't mind... I like the housing on these babies. If you pay shipping both ways, I'll test it for you, and if it gets here and it can't be fixed (trust me... I'll do my best) I'll buy the housing from you and refund you the shipping.

Let me know if that sounds like a good deal to you.

Thanx;
DDL

Boy look at all the vultures circling getting ready to descend on the dead laser housing. LOL I love it. Can I buy it too? :

LOL yeah Kenom I was about to mention how this simple question of help brought in all the vets here trying to snag the housing =)

But DDL is right, unless you or someone you know has experience fix/repair/building lasers it's prolly a lost cause. You might be able to talk some of these fine men into looking at it for you if your willing to pay the shipping.
They love a challenge hehe.

Hey everyone i just had a thought and took a photo into the laser while its powered with my phone (nokia n90)

It seems as though theres IR coming out of it?

What does this mean?

edit: sorry about that pic its not very helpful is it I have to get the camera directly in front of the module to see it.

Show us the picture and I'm sure we could help you out a bit more.

Okay - weither it is not getting enough power to lase completely, or your crystals may be out of alignment - if you are stateside, and wish to pay shipping, there are quite a few of us willing to take a further peek into it for you. I won't even try to buy it off of you any more Free help - who can refuse that ? LOL

woudl measuring the voltage going to the laser module while its on indicate anything? ie if the power supply voltage is dropping when loaded up by the laser, could that affect it?

i meaure 2.8v when unloadeed
and 1.85v when loaded by the laser

edit also as advised by Daedal in PM i used the diode function on my fluke dmm and it told me the diode forward voltage was 1.239v

edit2: also guys im in australian so makes posting this kind of thing backwards and forwards expensive and a pain..

Well... how about it... It could possibly be the bad power supply (fried?)

Ok... let's see... try adding a reasonable high-wattage resistance of 1-ohm in the path of the power and measure the voltage and resistance across it, that will give you the current draw. Adding your DMM in there is not very helpful

Also... I assumed that when you measured the voltage, the DMM was out of the current path :

I would suggest leaving the head out of the equation for right now until you rule out any problem with the PSU. Are you good with electronics? Try building a regulated current supply and power it at around 500mA and see if you get ANY green at all! If you're getting some IR in the camera... I would say either thins thing has NO IR filtering whatsoever (HORRIBLE!), or, as SenKat said, the crystals are out of alignment. If they are... then you are possibly getting all the IR onto your IR filter causing potential damage to it.

The N90 is a good phone and I would assume it has some IR filtering on there... I know my phone has it and it's not as fancy (I have the K750i and K800). So don't be fooled into looking into the beam because of the faint IR image EVER!

Shipping international is a pain... I know... and so, I would suggest trying to rule out problems one by one, starting with the power source... Hook the DMM across the terminals and check the current reading (use the highest current setting available... for example the 10A setting... and keep the DMM on there for a VERY short time... 15 seconds or so max at a time). Then try adding a 5-8 Ohm resistance as a load (high watts based on the current you get) and test the voltage across that. If the voltage is low still, then you just might have a bad supply... otherwise, it could just be a bad diode...

Another way to test the supply is to grab a few of the 3V LEDs from DX (www.dealextreme.com) and hook them up in parallel to distribute the massive current supply amongst them... and if they do light up then you have a good supply... measure the voltage across the supply pins and use a current sense resistor (1-ohm explained above) and measure the voltage across it. That should give you the best idea of how the PSU is doing.

Good luck;
DDL

glenneaux said:

edit2: also guys im in australian so makes posting this kind of thing backwards and forwards expensive and a pain..

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hehehe i'm in australia! send it to me!! well the warning sticker looks awefully like the one in my RGY, so i think it is made by shinp? well actually that one is black, mine is silver, so maybe not?? can you see ANYTHING? well i can tell you, that module must have a very good ir filter, or your camera has a good ir filter, or the ir diode in the laser is screwed or underpowered, either one? ;D

It looks like one of the 50mW modules I see on ebay from time to time.

I'd guess the diode's burnt out, but on the other hand 1.8V is pretty low for any low powered diode I've heard of.

The LED idea is a good one, or you might try using two AAs (or anything 3V) in series with the head and a 100 Ohm pot and turning it up slowly to see if anything happens.

Hello Glenn . The driver board is quite similar to Lanlings drivers I see on your photo, you have a nice adjust Potentiometer on the board (the blue cube with a slot for a posidrive screwdriver) . 2.8V is not enough to get these units to lase, the fact that you see the red glow, means.

1 your pump diode is working fine

2. IR filtering is non existant or not very effective.

Power up your unit and use a small posidrive screwdriver and turn the pot (the blue cube) to adjust the power to the pump diode. You may be just below the lasing threshold of the crystal set. If this does not work I guess your crystal set has been knocked out of place.

Hope this helps.

Jase