I have a 50mw green laser diode. When i connect it to 3v there is a faint red glow from the diode which quickly dimms. Is it broken, or am i not feeding it enough volts?
That faint red glow is actually high power Infrared light... DO NOT LOOK INTO IT!!
Your module could have a crystal misalignment causing no green to be produce hence letting the IR to leak, or you have pot modded it past the crystals threshold and not being able to produce green light anymore. 3V is the correct voltage for a green module.
s**t. That red was pretty close to my eyes.
Theres no real 'setup' but ill tell you this... the laser may indeed have been given too much voltage, it was part of a 5v laser show unit that recieved 26v via a broken power supply. The controllers on the chipboard fried but the green seemed to still be working. Are there some controllers on the chip giving the laser a special signal to work or has the 26v managed to get to it and blow it lol.
The board that is soldered to the pump diode of the module is there to regulate current to the diode. There is a chance that if the board was given too much voltage you could of damaged the driver board. But because the diode is outputting IR... I have a feeling the pump diode at least is still receiving power. It could how ever be LED'd where it will only output <5mw of light even though you are giving it the correct voltage/current.
My suggestion is, grab a $27 dollar replacement from o-like.
Well like I said before, it seems like the laser is still getting power, are you be able to test for current and voltage output from the board? If they are within acceptable range, all you would have to do is replace the laser, and desolder the board that it comes with and then connect the new laser to the control board (confusing.. but you get the idea).
I noticed in your other thread you said you connected the laser to a power source and tried to apply power in both polarities.... is this correct? In which case you have defiantly LED'd your laser unless it has a reverse polarity protection, which I doubt in such a cheap device.