How to center beam on laser pointer?

Hello all First post here..

I have a (Cheapo I know) 50mw New Wish green laser pointer. I have opened it up to modify it(ended up completely removing the adjustment pot and soldering the contacts, and disabled the APC. I do not have a meter to check the output, but it is noticeably brighter... Now I hope of course I don't overpower the diode and burn it up..

The problem I have now that I have opened it up, even though I did not un-glue any lenses or adjust the focus, is that the beam exits way off center, almost touching the adjusting ring for the last lens.

What is the proper way to fix this?

Thanks in advance

Where did you get this "wish" brand laser from?

What is the proper way to fix this?

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How sure are you that the beam is in a different position compared to before the modification,?
I ask as I have had any number of new wish greenies and more often than not the beam emits from somewhere other than the middle of the lens, it may be more noticable because you have made it brighter....just a thought :-/

Regards rog8811

I got the laser from a Chinese seller on Ebay.. Found out it was a New Wish when i opened it up, then searched Google for it..

I never noticed it being off center before.. maybe it was..lol.

In any event, is there a way to try to correct it, and possibly get rid of some of the wasted light that shines around the beam, or will i just screw it up more by trying.. I had thought of ungluing the center lens and seeing if it was seated properly.

Also, have I risked burning out the diode with my mods?(I have read elsewhere that Newwish uses a 500mw diode.. although that seems far-fetched..)

Glaserfan said:

I got the laser from a Chinese seller on Ebay.. Found out it was a New Wish when i opened it up, then searched Google for it..

I never noticed it being off center before.. maybe it was..lol.

In any event, is there a way to try to correct it, and possibly get rid of some of the wasted light that shines around the beam, or will i just screw it up more by trying.. I had thought of ungluing the center lens and seeing if it was seated properly.

Also, have I risked burning out the diode with my mods?(I have read elsewhere that Newwish uses a 500mw diode.. although that seems far-fetched..)

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500mW 808nm pump diode MIGHT be possible with a 50mW 532nm green. It is more of a limitation of the crystals than the diode with greens. So you can turn it up and you might get a little more green but hell of a lot more dangerous infra-red radiation as the crystals can only "pump" out so much green due to their small size.

I would leave well alone, I have had two or three of these in pieces....The various elements are stuck at all sorts of crazy angles, they must need to do this to make the light path work I would guess.

Rejoice in the fact that, against the odds, you seem to have improved your one
....then pray every time you press the button that the improvement is not terminaly reversed

Regards rog8811

I kindof wondered about the IR problem.. the only I filtering these seem to have is a small coating on the splitter prism for the APC. I am always careful not to shine it in my or other's eyes(reflections, now that's another thing...). Hopefully the diode will be ok. It can't be pumping out too much power since it still won't manipulate black plastic which i hear somewhere around 80MW is the threshold for.

Although, with just the diode and its glued on prism, the tiny beam that comes from there will burn right through black plastic, and FAST. It even seemed like it would have burned my skin. That tells me maybe I am wrong about the IR filter's location.

I wonder if the pieces at all angles porblem is due to cheap mass production, or if this is actually the only way to make the light path work.. either way I probably won't mess with it too much other than to make sure everything is clean to try to fix the stray light problem. It may be a cheapo, but until I can get a decent one, I'd like this one to keep operating.

Any recommendations on a decent green 100-125MW in the $100-$150US price range?

Hmm... I think thats my next buy... It is constructed quite a bit differently then mine I notice, even though it's by the same company.

Found the problem by the way.. the center lens is glued off center. I may try to correct this.. seems easy enough.

Will adjusting the focus on the collimating lens help get rid of the corona? It has been there since new.

can you post a picture picture of the APC i think i want to deactivate mine

No picture needed. It's really simple. There are two wires coming from the driver board to the photosensor, on the other end of the brass piece surrounding the diode. smply snip one of these wires and the APC will no longer function. On my laser, the wires are on each side of the driver board where it glues to the brass, and follow an inset channel to the other side where the prism is.

Actually in newwish pen lasers like the link you were shown... the photosensor is inside the diode.
So its a lot harder.
And I do recommend the 200mw for a stable 115mw... just hope like hell it doesn't mode hop. I have one stable at 115mw until it heats up.

Well so much for my 50mw Newwish... the diode blew up!! Smoke and all.. I put a freshly charged set of batteries in it and lit it up for maybe 3 seconds, then it went dim for about a half second, I heard a hiss, and then smoke came out of it.. yay.

Well.. looks like a 200mw for me.. now if only they have them in stock so I don't have to wait 6 weeks...

Thing is, my reason for modding it was that it lost brightness even before I opened it up......

....then pray every time you press the button that the improvement is not terminaly reversed

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It seems I can predict the future

Regards rog8811

LOL.. Seems it was going to die anyhow, even without modding. At least I learned a few things in the process.