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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

Odd Blue Ray

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Got my blue ray built a few days ago which is running at 100mA. Something odd has happened to it though... It was working fine for the first 2 days with a very bright dot, easily visible beam in a dark room and stings the skin a bit.

I got home from work one day and put the batteries in and its gone somewhat dim... Not to the point where its no visible, it must have gone to about the brightness of a 10 - 15mW 635nm red. I have tried different batteries, rechargeable and everything and it doesn't seam to want to go back to the power it was. I even tested the batteries and they are putting out 4.5V which is the same as what they were doing before when it was working fine.

Not only has it gone dim but it now has a strange halo, well its actually a rectangle. It never used to be like that, it used to have a normal dot instead of the rectangle. See picture.

Any ideas whats gone wrong? I didn't leave any batteries in it or anything, I just put it down for the night and next time I used it this happened.
 

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Mohrenberg said:
never seen that before......just replace the diode....

Ahh, would rather not.

I don't have any more diodes or empty aixiz modules.

I just took it apart and it all seams fine to me, the flexdrive appears to be ok and everything. If I turn it on and leave it for about 1 min it does seam brighter but it still has the effect.
 
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Your diode is probably dead...

If you are lucky, it may be the window.
Unscrew the lens and look at the diode window. I have had this happen if it is dirty...
Clean it with windex and a q-tip. Do not use the same spot on the q-tip twice.
 
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Ok, I took a look at the diode and it seamed to have some rubbish on the can so I cleaned that up but it still hasn't fixed it. Not sure how the little lens is meant to be adjusted so I just left that.

I can't see how it could have died, I left it standing without batteries in it and then when I went to use it this happened.
 
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PHRs are famously unpredictable. If I were you I'd just buy another diode and move on.. your diode could have been killed by overcurrent, ESD, or just bad luck..
 
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I've killed plenty of diodes and seen them go all the from no light to a nice 8mW. Sometimes they die all the way and sometimes they keep a little bit of life to them. The last one that I killed had a similar effect to yours. It was hard to decide to keep it as a 8mW or to just replace the diode. I ended up replacing the diode. You should probably do the same, or sell it to someone who might want a lower powered laser. I am not a big fan of violet lasers <20mW but there are plenty of people who would be interested.
 
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yobresal said:
I've killed plenty of diodes and seen them go all the from no light to a nice 8mW. Sometimes they die all the way and sometimes they keep a little bit of life to them. The last one that I killed had a similar effect to yours. It was hard to decide to keep it as a 8mW or to just replace the diode. I ended up replacing the diode. You should probably do the same, or sell it to someone who might want a lower powered laser. I am not a big fan of violet lasers <20mW but there are plenty of people who would be interested.

Arghh, thing is I need to buy another diode and another aixiz then. In which case I may as well fork out the extra and get a 4x or 6x.

Adding to this though, from a certain angle it has an incredibly tight beam. Just the rectangle around it ruins it a bit.
 
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lamborgini8 said:
I got home from work one day and put the batteries in and its gone somewhat dim... Not to the point where its no visible, it must have gone to about the brightness of a 10 - 15mW 635nm red.

If that's right, keep the goggles on. 15mW of red is about the same brightness of 60mW of BR.
 
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You have nothing to lose.
Clean the diode window with some q-tips and windex.
Rubbing alcohol will just cause more streaks...

The cost of a diode outweighs the cost of a few q-tips.
 
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Spyderz20x6 said:
You have nothing to lose.
Clean the diode window with some q-tips and windex.
Rubbing alcohol will just cause more streaks...

The cost of a diode outweighs the cost of a few q-tips.
Doesnt Windex leaves scratch/weird thing on the glass?

How about water?
 
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Rangedunits said:
[quote author=Spyderz20x6 link=1237762105/0#11 date=1237845477]You have nothing to lose.
Clean the diode window with some q-tips and windex.
Rubbing alcohol will just cause more streaks...

The cost of a diode outweighs the cost of a few q-tips.
Doesnt Windex leaves scratch/weird thing on the glass?

How about water?[/quote]
No :-?
It cleans it up...
 

JLSE

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Spyderz20x6 said:
[quote author=Rangedunits link=1237762105/0#12 date=1237845647][quote author=Spyderz20x6 link=1237762105/0#11 date=1237845477]You have nothing to lose.
Clean the diode window with some q-tips and windex.
Rubbing alcohol will just cause more streaks...

The cost of a diode outweighs the cost of a few q-tips.
Doesnt Windex leaves scratch/weird thing on the glass?

How about water?[/quote]
No :-?
It cleans it up...[/quote]


"Clean the diode window with some q-tips and windex.
Rubbing alcohol will just cause more streaks...

The cost of a diode outweighs the cost of a few q-tips."

Why does that sound so strangely familiar? ::) :D
 
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WannaBurn said:
[quote author=Spyderz20x6 link=1237762105/0#13 date=1237845771][quote author=Rangedunits link=1237762105/0#12 date=1237845647][quote author=Spyderz20x6 link=1237762105/0#11 date=1237845477]You have nothing to lose.
Clean the diode window with some q-tips and windex.
Rubbing alcohol will just cause more streaks...

The cost of a diode outweighs the cost of a few q-tips.
Doesnt Windex leaves scratch/weird thing on the glass?

How about water?[/quote]
No :-?
It cleans it up...[/quote]


"Clean the diode window with some q-tips and windex.
Rubbing alcohol will just cause more streaks...

The cost of a diode outweighs the cost of a few q-tips."

Why does that sound so strangely familiar? ::) :D
[/quote]
I sure don't know ::)
 




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