Umm, yep... New face here looking for all kinds of advice

Ok, a couple things to start off:

1) First post here. WOOOOO!!!!

2) Yeah, I can only think of that first one, actually..... This is mostly a "by way of introduction" type post. Bear with me....

3) I have a habit of writing long posts on forums...

Ok, about two years ago I discovered the cheap green lasers on eBay and decided it might be fun to have one.

Well, I permanently that one so I ordered another. This time I experimented with it a little; I found that wiring up a cell phone battery let me burn my own skin and pop balloons :eg: I also tried a 200mAh lipo cell and ended up puffing it by my own stupidity. It seemed to work about the same.

I wrecked that one and got another, and then I wrecked that one and got my latest one. After carefully and daintily ripping apart the other two I discovered the pot, and I subsequently drilled a hole in my newest one even after vowing never to modify it, ever. :angel:

Yeah, right :eg:

My AAAs have felt a little weak the past couple days so I once again wired up my old cell phone li-ion cell and started playing with the pot a little more. I've found that different voltages seem to require different potentiometer positions for max output, but that might be wrong. That's one thing I aim to learn.

Well, of course the power has gone up nicely (beam is visible in a well-lit room and I can feel it on my upper lip) but it's not even close to what that other one was.

I guess my first question would be..... exactly how much do the actual power outputs vary by? I understand many of the "5mw" lasers from eBay are way over-spec, but what's the highest anyone's found? I get the feeling my balloon-popper was right up there......

And then another question: My lens seems to get junk all over it pretty fast; I get a big haze surrounding my pretty little dot. I can clean it off with a Q-tip stuck through the aperture (I figure that's a bad idea, but it IS a simple way of doing it and I have two spare lens parts on hand) but it's back within a couple hours of sitting in my pocket :undecided: Am I missing something, or do I need to get an air filter for my house?

Uhhh, I'll be back in a little while. I like this site already :eg:

Forgot to mention: On my current one, it doesn't seem to have much power fluctuation at all from a cold start. It cranks up to full brightness and just ... stays there... My last one took a good 5 seconds to get off its arse, which was no good for quick blinks.

Is this a 100% random, luck-of-the-draw thing or is there some way to mess with it a little? I obviously don't want to; right now I couldn't ask for anything more. In the future, though..... :thinking:

And another thing: I often find it hard to hit the "edit" button

Hello and welcome to the LPF! :wave:

...but it's back within a couple hours of sitting in my pocket

Click to expand...

wash your trousers.


And, very important:

welcome to LPF.

it is wrong to pot-mod lasers.
pot-mod = wiring external higher voltage source to drive (battery from a cellphone) or turning 'the pot' found on green lasers. this will degrade your laser surely if you put it more than 10% the original value (turning 5mW to 10mW isn't a good idea, but making it into a burner.. 100mW? it is just stupid).
all the money you wasted at the lasers, you could surely buy a 100mW one and focus it, would burn as well and maybe last 4000 hours.

well, you are learn so don't feel sorry, just don't do it again.

Most lasers from ebay are already "pot modded". Turning the put just reduces your lasers lifespan.

Also its the luck of the draw with ebaysers - some come up overspec, most are underspec, and some dont even have IR filters (dangerous)

Welcome to LPF.