Pot modding FAQ's

I think you'd generate more interest if you sold pot, instead of Viagra. As Eddie Murphy so eloquently put it "ain't nuthin' wrong with MY yang".....................rob

There are excellent reasons to pot mod a laser pointer:

- Reduce power of a green to use as a star pointer. Adjust from 50 mW to 30 mW depending on conditions. Brighter can interfere with dark adaptation of eye.

- Increase power to original level when substituting lower voltage batteries (1.2 v NiMh vs 1.5 v alkaline).

- Reduce power to original level when substituting higher voltage batteries (3.7 v lithium vs two alkalines).

- Increase power to bring an under-performing laser up to spec.

- Reduce power to bring a "hot" laser down to legal or safe limits.

Also, if the driver doesn't have a pot you can still usually adjust the power. If you know which resistor to change on the driver, that usually works.

Feldspar5 said:

There are excellent reasons to pot mod a laser pointer:

- Reduce power of a green to use as a star pointer. Adjust from 50 mW to 30 mW depending on conditions. Brighter can interfere with dark adaptation of eye.

- Increase power to original level when substituting lower voltage batteries (1.2 v NiMh vs 1.5 v alkaline).

- Reduce power to original level when substituting higher voltage batteries (3.7 v lithium vs two alkalines).

- Increase power to bring an under-performing laser up to spec.

- Reduce power to bring a "hot" laser down to legal or safe limits.

Also, if the driver doesn't have a pot you can still usually adjust the power. If you know which resistor to change on the driver, that usually works.

Click to expand...

Ignore this guy. there's something left there. Increase the power to kill your laser oh yeah

Neg rep'd for pointing out there are legit reasons for adjusting laser power? Wow.

chipdouglas said:

Q. Will I ever be able to get my <5mw to burn matches by pot modding it?
A. NO!!!!!:tsk:

Click to expand...

You might want to review the above part

Next step, I set the drivers on all three true 5mW laser pens to 299mA to exactly match the true 50mW laser pen current draw;
Laser pen #1 measured at 85mW of combined green/IR, 36mW of green.
Laser pen #2 measured at 110mW of combined green/IR, 77mW of green.
Laser pen #3 measured at 102mW of combined green/IR, 72mW of green.

Click to expand...

http://laserpointerforums.com/f52/dx-true-5mw-green-review-43006.html

also:
http://laserpointerforums.com/f45/dx-true-5-a-42294.html



IMHO Feldspar5 made at least a couple of good points (in principal, although some ideas might need a little re-thinking ). There are times when it may not be a bad thing to pot-mod a laser, but I don't think it's a good idea when you are talking more expensive/higher-end lasers, unless you are turning the power down on an already "over-clocked" laser to save diode lifespan, and you know what you are doing.

What's so bad about doing that?

Feldspar5 said:

There are excellent reasons to pot mod a laser pointer:

- Reduce power of a green to use as a star pointer. Adjust from 50 mW to 30 mW depending on conditions. Brighter can interfere with dark adaptation of eye.

Also, if the driver doesn't have a pot you can still usually adjust the power. If you know which resistor to change on the driver, that usually works.

Click to expand...

Oh yeah, it's a much better idea to buy a 50mW laser and mod it down to 30mW than it is just to buy a 30mW laser in the first place. /sarcasm

I seriously don't see anything wrong with pot modding a laser on the grounds that it is a "your risk, your loss" scenario. And from the responses I read here it kinda strikes me as odd that none of the users on this forum (as geeky as this hobby is, admit it) seem to be computer overclockers? meaning ?NONE? of you have ever overclocked a cpu? video card? this is obviously a risky thing to do, but the consequences can be minimalized with proper cooling and foreknowledge. Look at the high end lab style lasers, they use TEC coolers to keep the diodes temps down under use to avoid burning out.
Plus as saw mentioned above some laser diodes are most certainly "clocked down" from a more powerful max rated diode to assure stability. Just like major cpu manufacturers like INTEL and AMD do.
Again I'm not trying to point fingers or be an ass. This is a risk that should probably not be taken. And if a laser is truly sold at its max, then no adjustment is likely to make any gain.
Just save up for a higher powered unit from a respectable retailer.
And why not avoid the conflict of telling a noob he's a noob? Rather like Kenom said teach them the risks and show them a better path if they choose to take it
"You can lead a n00b to water, but you cant liek make a n00b drink" -the Pwner-

My first ever green module, a 50mw replacement for a show unit was turned way down upon purchase, I assume to reduce the sellers liability.

Had I not turned it up, I would never have seen the full potential of this rather expensive unit.

Granted, not everyone should just start tweaking on adjustments without knowing what they are doing...

BUT - The only stupid question is the one you never ask.

I plan on turning the pot on my green module down when i get it to color balance my white fusion kit, am i a stupid?

Someone correct me if I am wrong, But I would assume that this would lower the current to the pump diode and actually be good, or does it make things work harder?

I ordered a cheap 5mw green laser online from a site(I forget which) that I later heard(by reading here) sucked. And I heard right the laser was super weak when it arrived. Like hard to see the dot in the dark weak.

Well I figured it was a loose solder joint or something so I ripped it open and the first thing I did after inspecting everything was turn the little phillips head thingy. Just 1/8th of a turn and it did nothing so I went the other way and WOW. It now works.

And this without really knowing much about electronics or lasers. And that was a few weeks ago and it still works.

Of course I wouldn't have messed with it if it had worked correctly to start with.

You MAY have just significantly shortened the life of your laser diode, meaning the whole laser...............rob

Yeah but a cheap Chinese greenie 5mw, who cares?

photonaholic said:

Yeah but a cheap Chinese greenie 5mw, who cares?

Click to expand...

Exactly. Not to mention it didn't work right to start with.

Oh yea and they wanted me to pay spipping to RMA it which wasn't worth it considering it's price.

The True 5 from DX is the only laser that should be reliably pot-modded. The diodes limit is 300mA, and 299mA can give some very good results. Bob_Boyce made a thread on this, I'll look for it.

Edit: Found it: http://laserpointerforums.com/f52/dx-true-5mw-green-review-43006.html

Pot mod all muh lasers, pot modding is awesome just dont bypass the res and you will be fine.