Hi everyone,
This is Athoul from Laser Community.
In the last month I have had 7 green laser units sent to me for repairs, which is much more then usual. Upon inspection, three of them were damaged due to over voltage being used to try and crank out more power from the laser. In these cases the diodes needed to be replaced and in one case the crystals were chared from the diode literally frying. The diodes are in very close proximity to the ND:YVO4 crystal.
If you are going to tamper with your laser in order to get more mW output, leave it to cheap 5mW pointers. The voltage rating listed upon purchase for higher powered units is the maximum you should be using. In one case the person admitted to placing 2 rechargable cr123's in place of a single 18650 battery. This is double the voltage! Even going 0.5V higher can sometimes cause damage to a unit and if it doesn't die instantly then the MTTF rating of the diode has just been reduced by upwards of 80%.
Most high powered lasers are already optimally set for maximum output and stability. If you want to experiment it is better to build a small DPSS rig from scratch.
This is not a rant, I'm just asking those that thinking about doing these things please read through the forum and dig up as much info as you can before proceeding. Over time unfortunately many of the most informative posts do get lost as new ones get created, but there is plenty of informtation available to avoid these kinds of disasters. 7 of 7 of these lasers could have avoided any repair if all that the owners did was read up on some information before poping the hood and digging in.
cheers,
Sean.
This is Athoul from Laser Community.
In the last month I have had 7 green laser units sent to me for repairs, which is much more then usual. Upon inspection, three of them were damaged due to over voltage being used to try and crank out more power from the laser. In these cases the diodes needed to be replaced and in one case the crystals were chared from the diode literally frying. The diodes are in very close proximity to the ND:YVO4 crystal.
If you are going to tamper with your laser in order to get more mW output, leave it to cheap 5mW pointers. The voltage rating listed upon purchase for higher powered units is the maximum you should be using. In one case the person admitted to placing 2 rechargable cr123's in place of a single 18650 battery. This is double the voltage! Even going 0.5V higher can sometimes cause damage to a unit and if it doesn't die instantly then the MTTF rating of the diode has just been reduced by upwards of 80%.
Most high powered lasers are already optimally set for maximum output and stability. If you want to experiment it is better to build a small DPSS rig from scratch.
This is not a rant, I'm just asking those that thinking about doing these things please read through the forum and dig up as much info as you can before proceeding. Over time unfortunately many of the most informative posts do get lost as new ones get created, but there is plenty of informtation available to avoid these kinds of disasters. 7 of 7 of these lasers could have avoided any repair if all that the owners did was read up on some information before poping the hood and digging in.
cheers,
Sean.
