WickedLasers 35mW Laser - What am I doing wrong?

I am a newbie when it comes to lasers in general, but anyways, I just received my Wicked Lasers Executive 35mW in the mail today. Trying it out, I put in 2 1.5v AAA Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries, and hit the power button. After about 5 seconds, the laser went out, and refused to power back on. The same thing happened with two other Ultimate Lithiums, as well as with any other batteries I had on hand. Before I submit a ticket to wicked lasers, I was just wondering if I am missing something as far as what batteries I should be using, or if something else might be wrong?

Thanks

Re: WickedLasers 35mW Laser - What am I doing wron

Have you the means to check the current being drawn from the batteries? It sounds as though the driver is sucking the batteries dry.... Measure the voltage of some new batteries before using them, then measure again after the laser has done its stuff.

I feel an RMA coming on though.

Regards rog8811

Re: WickedLasers 35mW Laser - What am I doing wron

Read the label well, you'll see :


5V AC

batteries are DC...

try building an AC/DC converter...

Re: WickedLasers 35mW Laser - What am I doing wron

5V AC

Click to expand...

Never seen that one before :-/ This is a laser pen we are talking about isn't it?

Regards rog8811

Re: WickedLasers 35mW Laser - What am I doing wron

BuildAbluraylaser said:

Read the label well, you'll see :


5V AC

batteries are DC...

try building an AC/DC converter...

Click to expand...

Where do you see that label marked 5V AC... :-? :-?

Jerry

Re: WickedLasers 35mW Laser - What am I doing wron

Unfortunately I currently lack the means to test the voltage, so maybe someone could suggest a good voltmeter that a newbie could use? And yea, this is a 35mW laser pen from Wicked Lasers, and should only need 2 1.5V AAA batteries. Thanks so far for the help.

Re: WickedLasers 35mW Laser - What am I doing wron

+1 on the RMA suggestion.  Sounds like a bad pointer.

Wicked lasers' quality seems to have gone down a bit in my experience - my brother bought a green laser from them last year, and you have to screw the cap in at precisely the right amount for it to turn on when you hit the button.  Plus sometimes it won't work anyways (most be a loose electrical connection in there).

Your case sounds like either a bad electrical connection/solder joint, bad driver circuitry, or possibly even a bad/overloaded diode (as to the latter, are you getting a weak, unfocused light out of it now?  If so, it's probably a bad diode).

Maybe someone forgot to test the laser before shipping?  (Or, more likely, it was damaged in the mail?)

A commercial 'pointer' designed to work on 2 AAA batteries really should work okay on 2 AAA batteries - I doubt its your power source that's the problem.  (I have a really old WL pen-type pointer that also uses 2 AAAs - it's still going strong)

Finally, did you try calling them?  (They'll probably also tell you to just RMA it)

Good luck!
Zithras

Note: If you decide to test the voltage on the batteries, make sure you put a small load on them when you test - a small lightbulb or LED should do the trick.

Re: WickedLasers 35mW Laser - What am I doing wron

Oups! I thought it was a module from DX...

I miss-read the subject

Re: WickedLasers 35mW Laser - What am I doing wron

I think I speak for a quite a few people here that the answer your going to get is Wicked Lasers is your problem. They are known here for selling dodgey, under spec lasers and from what I have seen they sell them for rediculous prices.

Does the laser work at all? I mean any light emited from the aperature at all? Word of warning if you check, DO NOT look directly into the aperature, if the laser still has any life left in it at all then it could be emiting IR light.

Only other thing I can suggest is try some fresh batteries if you don't have the means to test them yourself. If that fails get your money back!

Re: WickedLasers 35mW Laser - What am I doing wron

You may want to swing by Radio Shack (or pretty much any other place that sells consumer electronics) and pick up a simple battery tester. It's a good, generally useful thing to have, anyway. (that is, if you're dead-set against getting a multi-meter, which everyone here will tell you is almost as useful as a Swiss Army knife -- and you can also pick one up at RS for less than $20)

As rog8811 suggested, test the pair of batteries on your brand new tester before putting them in.

Regardless of what's actually causing the problem, if you can be 100% sure it's not the batteries then it's no longer your problem. Send it back and let them take care of it.

Yeah, it sucks to have to wait a while to get a fully functional unit back, but you don't want to void your warranty by futzing around with it too much :'(

Re: WickedLasers 35mW Laser - What am I doing wron

BuildAbluraylaser said:

Oups! I thought it was a module from DX...

I miss-read the subject

Click to expand...

That module runs just fine on DC.

Re: WickedLasers 35mW Laser - What am I doing wron

FireMyLaser said:

[quote author=BuildAbluraylaser link=1240517670/0#7 date=1240530420]Oups! I thought it was a module from DX...

I miss-read the subject

Click to expand...

That module runs just fine on DC.[/quote]


Agreed, I ran mines at 6-7VDC