SDLaser 301 broken?

aryntha said:

Ok, look.

You guys REALLY need to stop "seeing the red glow".
Whatever you're doing to "see it", it's dangerous, bad, and you need to stop.

-If you have "IR goggles" on and can "see the red glow" through them, then your "IR goggles" are not blocking the right IR. If you can see the glow, even if it looks dim, you are possibly **blasting 50-200mW of IR into your eyes**.

-If you are looking down the barrel of the laser and the "red glow" seems dim, harmless, barely there, it's because it's outside of your visible spectrum -- it is IR. Half a watt of 808nm looks like NOTHING, but it can etch wood.

If you are seeing it, then you are not blocking or filtering the 'red glow'.

If you are seeing it then you are exposing yourself to hazardous laser radiation. Hell, you can't see the IR from a CO2 laser at ALL, and if you look down the barrel of that, you'll likely have your eyeball running down your face.

Catch my drift?

Sorry to be too "strong" about this, but this has got to be the 10th or so post I've seen on LPF in my time of people with a broken DPSS laser "seeing a dim red glow".

For the uninitiated:

-Green 532nm lasers use an infrared "pump" laser diode to create a second lasing action in a crystal to create green. It's only maybe 20-30% efficient, so if you have, say, a 100mW 532nm green laser, the IR diode 'behind' it is easily in the neighborhood of 300mW.

-300mW of IR "looks" really dim, but can damage your eyes JUST AS EASILY and JUST AS PERMANENTLY and JUST AS QUICKLY as 300mW of green, blue, red, or periwinkle.

-Just because the crystal "532nm green section" of your laser has gone out, it does NOT mean that your 300mW pump diode isn't chugging away happily (and nearly invisibly) behind that crystal set and shinin' on right into your retina, registering to you as a "dim red glow". But that 'dim looking' 300mW can cook whatever meat you wish to put in front of it just the same.

I know Jeffreythe00 warned that "it's dangerous"; and good on him, but I don't think this is fully registering with people.

If you see the 'dim red glow', you are doing it wrong, and you must IMMEDIATELY discontinue whatever you are doing, until the 'dim red glow' is no longer seen.

No "But I was wearing wayfarers!" or "I squinted at it!" or "I'm so sciency I sleep in a lab coat!". No. DPSS? IF YES, then RED? IF YES, then STOP.

Sorry to soapbox on it. I can only read it so many times without trying to drive the point home. Sometimes saying "it's dangerous" isn't enough, the reason why has to be explained or people will continue to fail to understand. Yes, the rant probably annoyed some people but if it can keep one person from staring down the barrel of a ""dead"" DPSS laser, well...

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aryntha said:

Some simple troubleshooting, if you can, shadowk96.

Did you put the 18650 in with the wrong polarity? If so, that could have fried the driver.

However, try looking at the laser's output with a cel phone camera or digital camera (not your eyes!) -- it can likely pick up IR rather easily.

If you DON'T see any output (it'll appear pinkish on a camera) then your driver might be blown. If you DO see output then it's probably the crystal set. Replacing the driver is likely more 'possible to be repaired' than realigning crystals yourself. But the diode could be blown, too.

Test both batteries, too, I've seen situations where chargers weren't doing their job, as well. So test the voltage output on them; they should be a bit ABOVE 3.7v if working correctly after charge.

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