Dropped laser. Now not working. Help?

[aryntha]

It looks like the crystal was glued on. If you can get the remnants of the glue 'lined up', you might be okay.

I'd be interested to see if it'll generate any green light if you do that. Be careful with the 808nm IR though; thats going to be a LOT higher power than the 50mw that laser was originally rated at.

Do not look into it. Even a very dim dot of 808 may be 200mW. You can get IR blocking goggles for around $25, -- especially with IR, don't mess with that, since you don't even know if you're getting a specular reflection at the time, and there is no blink reflex.

 

[JaiNobeZ]

Yeah, it was definitely glued. Peice of crap.


Does that mean it's unsafe to look at the dot it produces on matte surfaces?

Because it's... maybe a little late for that

Alright, i confess! I've been trying to make it burn. I set up a small cardboard radiation sheild out of a cardboard box which i cut a hole in the size of my cellphone screen. I set my phone on camera then celotape it to the hole so i can see the screen. I've lined up a match on a little stand and wrapped a cabletie around the laser button to hold it down. It's on as i type this, and doesn't seem to want to burn... guess it's not that powerful. Or really divergeant. Or, most likely, both. Mehh...

Any other fun uses for an IR laser? I will try to get green from it as soon as i have the time and energy.

 

[aryntha]

It's not unsafe to look at the dot. Just don't stare into it to 'see if it's working' (something i've seen people do with broken greens ... ) But be careful of specular reflections. You won't see them happening.

Unless something else was knocked out of alignment, it's probably not that divergent. You can check it by looking at it via a cel phone camera or a digital camera with 'night shot' mode, if you have one. While the output from a pump diode for 532 should be enough to burn, it still may have to be focused somewhat more for that to happen.

Depending on what crystals were removed, you're probably getting 1064nm, not 808nm. If you can see a dim red dot, that's 808. If you can only see it on a camera, that's likely 1064, but the ability of CCD sensors to 'see' stops at about 1100, so it'll still be fairly dim.

You can also get an indicator card which will respond to IR. But unfortunately, as far as I know, beyond burning, and beyond 808nm, IR gets pretty dangerous and boring at the same time.

 

[Bluefan]

CCD's already quit after about 1100nm. If you want to burn, remove the crystals if they aren't aligned anyway and directly focus the 808nm pump diode. Even a 1mW pointer pump diode can burn.

 

[JaiNobeZ]

I tried re-aligning the crystal assembly. It works, but is a lot less powerful and the point it produces is now a lot more... smudgy. Not sure about more divergent but the point it produces is bigger and messier. I used the residue glue from the joint that was present before, which there wasn't much of, meaning it's very fragile. What's the best way to stick it back (that's easy to do)? Tape? ...lol...

 

[charliebruce]

my Physics teacher said glass has a really high IR absorbancy so (my reasoning is) a magnifying glass wouldn't work.

Glass is actually quite transparent up to and beyond 1200nm, it's only when you start reaching much deeper into the IR spectrum that it is absorbed by glass. A CO2 laser operating at 10,600nm will melt glass, but to all diode wavelengths I know of, glass is pretty transparent.

 

[JaiNobeZ]

CCD's already quit after about 1100nm. If you want to burn, remove the crystals if they aren't aligned anyway and directly focus the 808nm pump diode. Even a 1mW pointer pump diode can burn.

I did. What should i use to focus it? As it is i can't get it to burn.

 

[Bluefan]

Add a lens. You can remove everything after the diode and use a strong positive lens. Be carefull with the open can diode, it's fragile.

 

[JaiNobeZ]

Tried that. My problem wasn't (necessarily) that it didn't work, but that i couldn't tell whether it was more focussed, less focussed, where the focal point was, etc. I did it when i was using my afformentioned cardboard radiation shield.

And thanks for telling me it's fragile. I'd probably have broken it permanently sooner or later if you hadn't told me.

 

[JaiNobeZ]

Alright, my current question is, what's the best way to reattach the crystal assembly to the diode? I'm tempted to use tape temporarily (like i did for the infrared filter & the button that fell out) but it seems like it might do something bad that's beyond my understanding. My dad suggested Epoxy resin, but he's a carpenter so he would. Atm that's my choice.

Any better suggestions?

 

[DiggerDoug]

Try foil BETWEEN the head & casing. rob

Thank You very much the foil worked

 

[diachi]

Thank You very much the foil worked

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