New Here - Question About a DX5 'Warming Up'

Hi all,
I stumbled across the forums last week and read up on a number of things. My first laser was a 50mw LED shoppe green, and I just got a 5mx DX green in the other day. The DX I bought mainly to mess around/dissect/break. What strikes me as odd about the DX is that it seems to have to 'warm up' before working. Is this a matter of it being defective? The first second or two after no use, it doesn't hardly work. Over the next few seconds it goes from pitiful to surprisingly bright (though I have no frame of reference for a 5mw green actually).
Reading past discussions about this unit, it seems that some have found it to contain the same 'innards' at the DX30 and others, but some have found nothing of the sort. Is this perhaps an indication that it is loading a large cap at startup? Indicative of a higher cap module? I was contemplating drilling by the button but without a press, drilling a cylinder seems rough. Additionally, without opening it it would be hard to measure consumption with a meter, and I don't have any other way to gauge where I am at.

Any thought?

Thanks,
BH

The DX "True" Series Pens 5mw-50mw do indeed use the same module. The driver does contain a cap, but not a "huge" one like you think.

Due to the way they work, green DPSS lasers are by their very nature temp.-sensitive. In some cases, the pump LD and/or crystals need to "warm-up" in order to reach full power, producing the effect you describe. Not all green lasers do this, but this is not uncommon either.

I would NOT try to drill a hole in the side - you will likely destroy the module! You can disassemble your DX True 5 as follows - Position it horizontal, and rotate the case so the ON button is facing/hanging down, then grab the tip of the laser in a vise or similar (wrapping-it in leather or using a wood block if you want to prevent scratching it), then rock the laser left & right while pulling back, in order to leverage/extract the pressed-in tip from the case! This can sometimes take a lot of time & effort, until you get the hang of it, particularly if you are trying to use something like pliers instead of a vise! Once the tip is loose, you can then extract the entire module out the nose of the laser.

It is also possible to measure the current consumption without taking this laser apart! Using alligator-clip leads, simply screw the laser apart (leaving the batteries in place), connect the case of the two halves together, then connect the meter between the negative connection on the battery sticking-out of one half, and the "spring" inside the other half, making sure not to short-out either one with the case, and then carefully press the ON button on the laser while reading the meter!

The typical current draw from batteries on a DX5 is 220mA to 240mA.

Your question about the warm up period can be answered with a little searching.
Check the DPSS green laser FAQ written by ElektroFreak stickied in this section.

I'm a bit perplexed as to measuring the power. See, I'd figure that you would have to measure the current at the pump. In this case the drain on the DX5 is about 170ma @ the batt. The batts are running at 3.03V at the moment. Thats 51mw, so I guess the way to measure the actual output would be to calculate the inherent loss of the module(s).

johnatthebar said:

I'm a bit perplexed as to measuring the power. See, I'd figure that you would have to measure the current at the pump. In this case the drain on the DX5 is about 170ma @ the batt. The batts are running at 3.03V at the moment. Thats 51mw, so I guess the way to measure the actual output would be to calculate the inherent loss of the module(s).

Click to expand...

To get a measure of output power, you will need a laser power meter.
Measuring current at the pump won't give you an accurate value for output power for the green. More like an estimate for the IR. To measure green only, you will also need an IR filter since the DX greenies do not have them installed.