My poor laser... PLEASE HELP!

My first green laser ever was the Galileo from Laserglow... It had alignment problems and it would only work if it was rotated in the correct position, but I had it replaced and got a new one that worked perfectly and had a nicer flat black anodized casing, rather than the semi-glossy one I received first. After the warranty was up I pot-modded it and (since i have no power meter I estimated) it was probably somewhere in the 50mW range. I could cut electrical tape, pop balloons at seven to eight feet, it stung my skin after about 1.5 seconds and i could even sometimes light a match. there was almost no IR ( I checked with a digital camera) and i was very impressed with the power. Since I live in Southern California it gets really hot during the daytime.... One day when it was about 107 degrees Fahrenheit in my house (AC broke) I decided to put fresh, newly purchased batteries in my laser and burn ants that managed to get into my room. I did. then my laser started flickering after about 30 seconds. At that time it didnt occur to me that it was above the operating temp. so I didnt know what was wrong. after a few minutes i turned it back on and it was fine. But the same thing happened again but worse... my 90 sec duty cycle turned into 30 and it was only stable at about 15 mW. no fun. no burning, popping, or cutting... :'(... I was very sad. now it is stable at less than 5mW.

is the diode dying or is the mca cooked? im probably just going to turn it into a burning red... and if I do would i need to disable the APC? It uses cr123's... is that okay?

Re: My poor laser... =[ long story...

You could probably turn it into a red or contact Laserglow about getting it repaired (at your cost since it it out of warranty).

You could also try removing the module from a DX 100 or equivalent and creating a "franken-laser" with the Galileo body.

Re: My poor laser... =[ long story...

Aww that sucks man. Could you post some pictures of it.

Re: My poor laser... =[ long story...

I'm planning on getting a Nova x-105 to replace it...

I like the body and the constant on/off so I think I'm gonna turn it into a red. Anyone know if I would need to disable the APC? How would I do that?

Also, I'm not sure if the optics would work for a red diode because it seems that a red diode diverges too much to work for the way this laser is set up... I'll try to get a picture of the guts so you can see what I mean...

And are CR123's okay for reds? Because if they're not then I'd have to figure out a different way to power it or I can't use the laser's casing.

Re: My poor laser... =[ long story...

I can't open the part of the housing that contains the MCA without pliers or a lot of force so I'm waiting until I get the opinion of someone who knows more than me... So, before I begin the surgery...

This is my question about switching the IR diode with a red one:
Will the red diode diverge too much to make the collimating lens of any use?
There is a lens (The light green highlighted one in the picture) that comes before the externally visible one (blue) but I'm not sure what it does... I'm assuming it somewhat collimates the 532nm light directly from the MCA and has an IR filter so that when it is refracted by the final lens it will not be too divergent.
Does that make any sense? It's difficult for me to explain what I mean.

So if I removed the MCA can the rest of the optics be used? It is the ONLY thing that will fit properly.

Next question:
Do I need to disable the APC if I use a red diode?
How?


Final question:
Will CR123A batteries have too much voltage for a red diode?


Any help would be VERY APPRECIATED!