tweaking a 400mW green laser

Confucious say: He who lases woman, loses balls.

Thanks Krutz, maybe I will just send it someone who can play with it. Any volunteers?

mess with a laser for higher output I'm in muh ha ha ha ha as long as it isn't mine lol

I decided I want a handheld laser that can blow up mountains. So which batteries do I put in my pointer for that? ;D

lowell said:

I decided I want a handheld laser that can blow up mountains. So which batteries do I put in my pointer for that? ;D

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Anybody got one of those Ghostbusters weapons? I want to test it on my Laserbee

So, John, does that mean you want to "play" with my laser :-?

Yea, they are often underpowered.

What exactly are you hoping to accomplish with "playing with it"?  Do you want to increase the power?  Throw in a IR filter?

I've torn apart my Aries 15mw and increased the power to 300mw.  It was short lived though.  Only lasted about 2 weeks before the diode died.  Now I'm going to replace that diode with a higher rated diode (I think it was only capable of 1Watt.) and be back in the lasing business again.

I've searched for boblaser and havn't found any sites at all. Did they go out of business? Which laser specifically did you buy? How about some pictures of it?

Boblaser's website is http://boblaser.com/main.asp
The model I got is the BGP-0018. On the website they show 500-600mW options. However, if you call, or check some of their retail partners they "claim" to have a 700mW version, which is the one I bought. However, It's usually peaking around 550mW, and will hold steady around 525mW for twenty seconds or so, but then starts to drop off rather quickly.

Today, I just received two higher quality 18650 batteris, hopefully, maybe they'll provide better results

Well I'm more than happy to "look into it" to see if there's anything we can do to better it.

So, the new batteries didn't help. I figured maybe the ones that came with it, along with the rather inexpensive 18650's I bought (around $5 each) were not a sufficent power source for any duration. So I went and found some 3.7v 18650 batteries for $18 each, hoping that might make for a more consistant power output. But, not really. :-/

Once the thing heats up, after about a minute of use, the power drops dramatically, you can actually see the beam dim. Is this a problem due to insufficient cooling maybe? I don't know. Because once I leave it off for a while, it goes back to full power. Any ideas? I'll try to get some pictures of it up soon.

lowell said:

So, the new batteries didn't help. I figured maybe the ones that came with it, along with the rather inexpensive 18650's I bought (around $5 each) were not a sufficent power source for any duration. So I went and found some 3.7v 18650 batteries for $18 each, hoping that might make for a more consistant power output. But, not really. :-/

Once the thing heats up, after about a minute of use, the power drops dramatically, you can actually see the beam dim. Is this a problem due to insufficient cooling maybe? I don't know. Because once I leave it off for a while, it goes back to full power. Any ideas? I'll try to get some pictures of it up soon.

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Greenies depend a lot on the temperature. A slight temperature change CAN make them drop in power...

Is there any way to increase, or modify it's cooling system? That really seems to be the issue, the power drop is significant once it heats up.

pseudolobster said:

I just spent $400000 on a brand new Ferrari. I was wondering if there was a way to tweak it to go faster. :

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I know that this was a joke, but yes you can mod a Ferrari, in many ways. exhaust, turbo, internals, and mess with aerodynamics and so on.

lowell said:

Is there any way to increase, or modify it's cooling system? That really seems to be the issue, the power drop is significant once it heats up.

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hey so what does it matter if the power drops a little bit? you can still see the beam and it will still burn. If you want a high power laser that will stay on for a period of time, buy a laser with a heat sink. Putting higher power batteries in a laser that is not designed for it is a bad idea. yea sure it will be good for about a week or two then you will kill it. It happened to me in a Novalaser 65mW. expensive mistake. So Ive heard some bad things about boblaser, which is why its so important to do research on the company or the person you are going to be doing business with. there are a few people on this forum that have amazing builds, Likeitbright being one. If you really wanted to "tweak" maybe you should consider building your own lasers and see what you come up with. I wouldn't dare, trying to "tweak" anything with any of my lasers since I don't want a decorative paper weight. Especially since I have a HeNe laser from 1982. I would feel such a fool if I tried to increase its power from 6.5mW to 100mW (since its so old and still works) and broke it. take your time, figure out what you want and do some research, just like buying a car, except you will be able to burn stuff.

not to start crap but that company pulls this stuff all the time i have yet to hear of a satisfied customer this is like the 6th time i have heard of bob laser burning people instead of bob lasers that burn  get a rpl 425 that will stay on full power till the battery goes dead i know my  375 stays over 370 mw for 5 minutes+, Iv'e done this several times I really dont keep it on more than that its so bright i get scared and run in the house