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445nm casualty (terrible divergence and idiotic splash); revival help?

Sta

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Okay, around December 2013 I bought a 445 "2W" which seems to be around 1W based on the price of $99. This laser was bought from the website LaserPointerPro; I would not recommend buying it. Eventually for unknown reasons the divergence became ridiculously bad. Also, the raw output of the laser has substantially changed over a few months. The lens appears to be very clouded and such the laser has a ridiculous amount of splash. I don't have any idea how to fix it, but here are some pictures:

Raw output 3 months ago:
r10zn5X.jpg


Raw output now:
5vuxz0R.jpg


Laser itself:
JlAGOtB.jpg


Spot, compared to my hand, at around 8-10m distance:
tQIfp19.jpg


The laser is still capable of close range burning, but other than that it has few uses due to the idiotic divergence. Please give me suggestions on how I could possibly fix it. Would cleaning the lens using alcohol solution help?
 





DTR

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Looks like something is burned on the diode window. Did this happen sometime after taking the lens out of the unit? If so some contaminate may have landed on the diode window and got burned on there. You can attempt to clean it but if run too long it could have damaged the glass.
 

Sta

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Looks like something is burned on the diode window. Did this happen sometime after taking the lens out of the unit? If so some contaminate may have landed on the diode window and got burned on there. You can attempt to clean it but if run too long it could have damaged the glass.

I've never run it for more than 30-40 seconds at a time. Should I attempt to clean the lens as well? It looks severely clouded.
 

Sta

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Okay, I have cleaned the lens. The splash has been mostly fixed, but the divergence is still horrendous. Any help?
 

upaa27

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screw the lens in/out. That will adjust the focus. Maybe you accidentally bumped it and it moved or something.
 

Sta

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You sure you were screwing the lens and not the window?

Yes, it is indeed the lens. Notably, the laser spot appears to have 2 "layers" so I think it is something wrong with the diode window.
 
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if its a lower powered rectangle along with the dot, that is the normal output
 

Sta

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if its a lower powered rectangle along with the dot, that is the normal output

No, not a low power rectangle - it is like a "phantom" version of the dot that has slightly worse divergence, it gets more apparent with distance.
 

Wallyl

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I wish you had purchased a Laserbtb HL445-1000....it was $82 on the last Group Buy. I have one and it is excellent and a bargain @ $82. IMHO the 445 Blue Laser has a beautiful colored beam, however its dot, at a distance is not round and tight as are my Green & Red Lasers.
 

Sta

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Can you take a picture down the aperture?

I don't have a good enough camera lens to get a good enough picture of that; however there does seem to be something wrong with the diode window; I will attempt to clean it later today and post the results.
 

Podo

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you should be extremely careful when you are cleaning the diode window, Don't add too much force on it otherwise it falls off so easily that you can't even imagine.

I won't suggest you to clean the diode window in fact the focus lens should be the one to be wiped. still, be gentle when you do it.
 
Last edited:

Sta

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you should be extremely careful when you are cleaning the diode window, Don't add too much force on it otherwise it falls off so easily that you can't even imagine.

I won't suggest you to clean the diode window in fact the focus lens should be the one to be wiped. still, be gentle when you do it.

I've cleaned the focusing lens. At this point I would estimate 75 percent of the problem is fixed. The splash is greatly diminished and the divergence has improved (but not to its proper state.)
 
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Hi ask DTR if it would help if you take the can off. He would know the best. If so it will be a open can diode and if you get anything on it well it's fried, toast, dead... If he does and you get it back in the host once you put the lens in do not take it out. One sure way of a dirt free open can diode. Jordan's the diode guru around here second to none.
Good luck
 




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