Wire to diode broke- what to do?

Hello,

I'm new with lasers and electronics, so go easy on me. I bought a Survival Laser off Gary and it came today. I put it together in ten minutes, making sure everything was correct (and taking notice of instructions to be careful with diode wires/assembly).

Brief review of the fun
The laser was excellent. For a second I thought it was broke when I turned the laser on with my EaglePair glasses on, and only saw a small orange dot. First time with glasses like these, very high quality. I had about 5 minutes of laser usage over ten minutes, going outside and shining in the woods;

dismantled a .22lr shell and lit the gun powder instantly, attempted to light the primer over a few seconds.

Unfocused and spotlit around, very visible even 200 yards away in a ~10 foot rectangle.

Focused and nearly instantly killed a menacing spider, with a crackle and small puff of smoke at my doorway in a web (my brother is allergic to them and he is supposed to visit soon, for any insect lovers)

Shined at small wasp nest 5 feet away, the single resident fled.

*I hit the switch to turn it back on and it didn't activate. I unscrewed near the switch (battery compartment) some and it continued to function.

Burned through an egg carton where the black printing was.

Lit matches instantly and burned some sticks.

...

Then it wouldn't work no matter how the battery was aligned.


The Trouble
After taking it apart, saw the red wire from diode to power collection disk (yeah my terminology isn't good) was cut. Not pulled from the diode, but broke about 1/4th length, closer to the diode.

I attempted to cut some of the insulation and tie the wires together but no, I can't even do this right.

It was very sad for me, more than I'd ever expect it to be, to see this awesome piece of equipment die. Maybe its partly because my brother is coming in to visit and I expected to surprise him with the awesome power of modern lasers, but just because it was mine and now its broke. I have felt similar when guns have broke but I can easily fix them.

What is the best course of action for me? I did send Gary a PM, and I'm sure he'll be helpful, just wondering if there is any advice in the mean time.

You will have to re-solder the wires and hope that the break didn't result in a blown diode.

Peace,
dave

sorry to hear your wire broke, it could have been from the amount of current going through it heating it up and causing it to explode but im not 100% sure

if you have a soldering iron and some solder try and fuse the wires back togethere and then wrap them in some tape but if you dont have a soldering iron pretty much all you can do is super glue it but id reccomend you dont since the glue and fumes can get everywhere

good luck fixing it before your brother comes to visit

EDIT: Dave beat me to it..... Damn your fast

I think I can find someone to solder, although wouldn't the extra metal cause less current to get to the laser? May have to send it to Gary to fix.

I don't think the wire exploded; maybe it started out with a bad connection somewhere and when taking it apart too much force was on the delicate wire, although I was very careful and didn't feel it break.

Yeah, it's a really easy fix, as long as the driver didn't blow by running loadless.

All you have to do is solder them together. And actually, you may want a bit less current going through it It wouldn't be that much less, but it may mean the difference between a long life and dying in a couple of days. We wouldn't want that, now would we?

Solder, you need to get a fine point solder iron and some good solder and flux and some good wire and heatshrink, isn't lasers fun

I have a members laser here which this happened to as well. I opened it up and the wiring inside is pretty dodgy. Plus the solder he uses is some special high temp solder, which makes taking the pill apart very difficult. I could not melt the solder even with my iron set to 480C.

I think we will see soon enough, the quality shine through after more reviews of this kit.

-Adrian

bobhaha said:

I have a members laser here which this happened to as well. I opened it up and the wiring inside is pretty dodgy. Plus the solder he uses is some special high temp solder, which makes taking the pill apart very difficult. I could not melt the solder even with my iron set to 480C.

I think we will see soon enough, the quality shine through after more reviews of this kit.

-Adrian

Click to expand...

Are you trying to desolder the driver from the pill in the SL aurora? It always takes alot of heat to get that solder to melt due to the pill pulling the heat away (as a heatsink should ) I usuallly heat the pill with a iron, if not, gently heat with a small butane torch (be very careful, this can burn the driver or melt the wires fast if they are not FP wire). Once the driver is out of the pill, pry out the brass ring and the driver solders easily to it. Then it just presses back in

Yeah, I have tried this with no luck. I have taken apart many Aurora hosts, but this seems like very different solder than the ones they normal use on their hosts. I literally could not do it with any of the techniques you have mentioned.

Hmm, I've never run into that problem before...:thinking: interesting...

Well I don't have a fine enough solder iron available for this; besides I don't want to push it with the warranty this SL has.

However, I do have some liquid Gallium... but it melts at 86F and isn't the best conductor. But... if wrapped good in electrical tape... meh.

I use a crappy, $9 RadioShack soldering iron and I do fine with even SMD soldering

Wolfman29 said:

I use a crappy, $9 RadioShack soldering iron and I do fine with even SMD soldering

Click to expand...

Yup...I bought mine on ebay. $8. I can solder 0603 resistors with it just fine. :na:

The original problem was likely caused by a defective tailcap switch. Even though I test them 100% before shipment, a small number (like 1%) fail after repeated use by the customer.

To our customers: Please DO NOT take apart your lasers once they are assembled! They are not designed to be assembled, taken apart and reassembled. If you have a problem, please contact me immediately so that we can determine the cause of the issue and offer a solution.

Thanks!!

This thread isn't any criticism against SL. There was a slight connection issue which only became apparent after a few minutes use, and Gary has offered to fix it up for me. The split wire was due to disassembly.

I'll do a full review once this is sorted out. Very much looking forward to having the blue guy back up and running. Around oct/nov, a summary on my study, on its microbe sterilization ability will be up.

Garoq said:

The original problem was likely caused by a defective tailcap switch. Even though I test them 100% before shipment, a small number (like 1%) fail after repeated use by the customer.

To our customers: Please DO NOT take apart your lasers once they are assembled! They are not designed to be assembled, taken apart and reassembled. If you have a problem, please contact me immediately so that we can determine the cause of the issue and offer a solution.

Thanks!!

Click to expand...

Hey mate,

Would you be able to tell me what type of solder you use on the PCB, to secure it to the pill? I need to be able to desolder it so I can fix faulty wiring. Do you have any tips for desoldering it with a standard iron?