O'like 50mw green module

hello,
i am a novice to building lasers and soldering. i have had this module for about a year.
i was wanting to mount this module in a small metal box as a host.
so i wanted to remove the tiny pushbutton switch on the circuit board and replace it with jumpers so i could use an external switch. i succeeded in doing this, although my soldering needs alot of improvment.

the problem is the module quit working. the diode has very little burntime on it, <2min, , i never had it on for more than 15 seconds. it is out of warranty.

my guess is it is a component in the cb gave out, or possibly a loose connection on the cb, i think this because the laser didnt go dim, it would just work sometime and quit, so i would monkey with it and then it would work.

in the one pic attached, it shows a large (resistor?) with colors, brown, gold, orange, red, black on it, that had a broken solder connection which i fixed, but i noticed that when i powered up the unit, that piece got hot rather quickly. so could it be bad.


at one point, i thought it was my ground wire because it was coming loose and i have it off now, it mounts on the end of the cb, where the glob of solder is. when it had good contact then the laser would work, but i removed the wire, and touch the battery directly to the ground.

also, i was careful with the heat from the solder iron, but is it possible, i fried a component?
is it possible to troubleshoot it and replace a blown component?

i checked my jump wires with a meter, and they seem to have good connection.
i am wondering about testing the opposite end of the cb to see if the diode is getting power. if i did that, would sort of voltage is used to power a green diode?
when i did power this unit up, i was using an ultrafire 14500.

so i think this explains my situation,
any thoughts on how to test it and see what the problem is?

the solder connections look really dirty.
but the problem actually sounds like the laser has been pot modded.

have you pot modded it at all?

no, i havent touched the pot at all. i did have an instance where i hooked the battery up backwards. but it did work after that.
what would happen is, i would connect it up, wouldnt work, then i would look at it, chek connections, hook itup again and it would work. but maybe by hooking it up reverse that time, it blew the pot out.

You most likely killed it when putting the battery in backwards.

Have you tried another battery to see if thats it.?

lazeerer said:

You most likely killed it when putting the battery in backwards.

Have you tried another battery to see if thats it.?

Click to expand...

i agree. i guess the module isn't polarity safe. =[

I have this exact same module. The way you solder it to be constent on i think its wrong.

Look at how my driver looks. This is how it should have been done.



The blue wire should have not be there or bridged and connected to the negitive point. I did not hook the drive up the way you did and mine works fine. Notice on mine there is no bridge where you have the blue wire and notice how mine is not connected to the negitive spring.

This might also be your problem.

ok, this is an older version of the module. mine never came with the spring like yours.
it had a blue wire attached where your spring is, and the red wire is where it has always been. and it worked fine as long as you had an extra couple fingers to push the switch.
now what happened with the switch is this, when i desoldered it i thought it looked to me like the current came in and went to left and right of where the spring is on yours, then thru the switch to the far left and far right side of the switch with the button depressed.

on mine it looks like there are three posts that come off the cb and go to the diode. if i hooked up to a battery and tested two of the posts , but now which two of the posts should i check?
i can rule out the likelihood that it is the diode.

it worked after i put the battery in backwards, maybe the red wire on mine goes to the case, or two ground, in this case would be a positive ground. and yours grounds directly to the case from the module?