What determines the laser's power?

I would like to know what the main determining factor is in determining the output of a green laser. The reason I ask is that I now have 2 NewWish brand lasers, a broken 50mw and a working 5mw(pot-modded and brighter, no way to check actual output). Is it the diode that determines the power, or the driver? The driver to my 50mw works perfectly, except that the pot got ruined and is removed, and the terminals soldered(full power only).

Now the only difference between these two drivers is the diode in the upper right of the attached pictures. Can I simply swap this diode and turn my 5mw driver into a 50mw? Or will I kill the diode in the 5mw trying this?

Attached to this post is the pic of the 50mw driver.

Here is the 5mw driver. If this will work, without killing the laser diode, I'd prefer doing this to changing the whole driver(lots more to desolder and re-solder).

Thanks in advance,
Heath

The laser diode determines the power along with the crystal assembly. The parts look the same but they are not. You will kill it.

If you take a 5mw diode and attach it to say a 30mw driver board it will fry. If you are going to mod the power going to the diode you should try and research the diode the best you can so you don't damage it

did the diode on the new wish fry before or after the pot was removed,

You "can" use the 50mw driver on the 5, but you have to change the SMD resistors

Bummer, I was so hoping the different diode on the driver was the key...

The 50mw started to lose brightness even before I modded it.. it was on its way out anyhow.

What I was hoping is that both pointers used that same laser diode, and the driver made the difference. Rats..

Which resistors are you referring to? The only component that is different between the two drivers is the above- mentioned diode. On the other side of the boards, all of the numbers on the components match, only difference is there is no more pot on the 50mw driver, just solder connecting the terminals for the pot. I was surprised to see all the components match except that one diode. If that would have been the only difference, and they used the same laser diode, then NewWish could have made a killing on the price difference between the two pointers.

So far the ONLY thing I have done to the 5mw is turn the pot slighltly counterclockwise to the laser's brightest point. I am not going to take my chances disabling the APC or removing the pot.. which is why I was hoping that changing that one diode on the upper right of the photos would do the trick.... Although, I do notice they both have the number 106 on them, but they are still not the same exact thing.

Anyone have any 50mw-capable laser diodes for sale?

Actually even if you replaced the original laser diode in the true 5 with a true 50 capable one it would still break it, what your not taking in to effect is the crystals, they can not handle more power or it will oversaturate them and basically ruin them if you put that much power into them.

...lazer... ;D ;D ;D

Hmm. I have the crystal and all from the 50mw.. just no laser diode..

Anyone have one to sell, or know where to get one? 5mw, even boosted, sux LOL.

Aren't the diodes and drivers supposed to be the same, the only difference being the crystals?? So you only need one diode, one driver and the 50mW set of crystals to make a laser. :-/

That'd be awesome... I have the 50mw crystal..

Is this true?

it is very hard to make a green laser, you need a very powerful ir diode to make a powerful green, the crystalls from the dx lasers are supposedly very small and innefficient, i think that it would be easier to fork out $100 than go searching everywhere for a powerful ir diode(but wheres the fun in that), tho some ppl on this forum sell them, lining up te crystal properly would probably be very hard

Glaserfan said:

That'd be awesome... I have the 50mw crystal..

Is this true?

Click to expand...

I'm not sure about the 5mW and the 50mW.But the 20mW, 30mW and 50mW most likely have the same diode and the same driver.You could just measure current draw to be sure.
And the alignment doesn't look that hard eighter with DX lasers.As far as I see the crystals are glued to pieces of metal making up the crystal assembly and they have an allignment pin that goes in the hole for alignment with the diode.

I still have the 50mw crystal, still glued into the brass housing. I *could* carefully unglue the driver board and remove the diode/apc sensor assembly from the 5mw housing, and install them to the 50mw housing, without ungluing the 50mw crystal, then reasemble the rest of the optics.

So, in theory, these two pointers may just use the same diode and driver? Interesting.. If someone can verify this, I'll give it a try and post the results..

i have heard that nova has the same diode in the x series, but im not sure about dx....

2 cents from me: try it! The worst that could happen is it won't work and you will have a little box of broke laser stuff...just the same as the one you have now. Who knows? You might wind up with a new favorite laser- made wit ya own hands!

Hmmm... No one's picked this up yet...

They are not diodes. They are capacitors and they are the same value: 10uF.