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Not necessarily. If the rattling is coming from the driver, like Sowee7 says, there may still be hope. Even if the crystals have come loose, realignment is possible.

Can you provide any more info that might help diagnose the problem? First thing to check is always the battery. I'm not sure what the rattling could be... I've taken one of these apart before and there isn't much that could come loose. Has this pointer been modified or subjected to physical...

I do have a battery cap. It's a bit scratched up and I can't guarantee it's the right fit for your laser since there have been several versions of the black and gold CNI laser pens over the years. I bought mine more than 12 years ago and the battery cap is all I have left of it (parts ended up...

I might have a spare cap. I'll check in the morning. Another option is to have a new one made from scratch by a machinist.

Great work. I have 3 633 nm 100 mW diodes. One is new (I'm keeping this one) and two are used surplus. I have tested only one of these, so I can't be sure about the functionality of the other. The one that I did test works just fine. I verified the wavelength with a home-made spectrometer...

A more powerful diode will have a larger emitting area and so a wider beam. The beam may not fit in a small set of crystals. Heat dissipation will become more important. As the diode warms up, the center wavelength will shift which will reduce the conversion efficiency and make the output unstable.

Really great work! Looks like all that effort is paying off. Is the seal for the diode chamber good enough to hold vacuum for a while?

I also have a 570 nm module set up with a Groove V2 linear driver. This module is temperature sensitive and only performs well in a narrow temperature range. I guess I didn't get as lucky as you. I may try dropping the power to the diode and seeing if this helps stabilize it a bit but eventually...

Output power? Stability? I really like these yellow-green modules. I have a <5mW pulsed 561 nm module from an early batch - It's surprising how bright it is! The vintage host looks pretty cool. You could use a cheap driver made for 808 nm pump diodes. They're not the greatest but they work well...

Cool diode. Thanks for sharing! I wonder if there is any difference in the strength of fluorescence effects with this versus a typical 405-410nm diode... Also, I'd imagine that in this part of the spectrum the brightness will drop off rapidly. Notice any differences?

My assessment is that there's less building and more collecting going on these days. The forum started as a community of DIY enthusiasts that would build what they could from whatever was on hand or at the hardware store. We built stuff, shared our projects, collected data, and even had a...

Sometimes service can be VERY slow. After enough emails and calls, you'll eventually get what you purchased...

Cool! It's nice that you were able to get one of those Dragonlasers 473 before they became so difficult to find. How long have you had that laser? Depending on what you want to do with your education, these kinds of connections with professors can be useful. If you are looking for experience in...

There is no practical use for this kind of laser. Building lasers is a hobby and we like them because they are cool and interesting. There is no difference between spending your money on your laser or a new fancy smart phone or tablet (the phone may be more expensive than the laser, actually)...

The cylindrical lenses don't need to be mounted to metal, so if 3D printing is something you can do at home, why not print the optic mounts in a way that you can attach it to a laser module with sufficient heatsinking? The tolerances might not be quite as precise as with machined aluminum but...

That sucks. Since the prism is already ruined, it may be worth trying beams with lower power density for a longer duration to find the damage threshold. Do the projectors use bonded optics? If so, they've figured out a way to avoid this kind of damage and so it may be worth studying. I think the...

Because, as you said, there are lots of variables, "ifs," "buts," caveats, etc. Contrary to what sci-fi movies indicate, lasers are almost never the most practical solution for a problem, including use as an incendiary device. Instead of complaining about the content of the forum, maybe do more...

A wedge prism with the right wedge angle can do this but finding one that is just right for your laser will not be easy and likely not cheap. I've done this with a yellow laser. To do this, you will need to precisely measure the angle of the beam relative to the module and find a wedge prism...

@Light superglue What is the beam width at ~5 cm from the lens array? I wonder if knife edging could be done with a "mirror array" that is slotted to pass the beams from the other diode array. Perhaps complicated to manufacture in one piece. See my crude sketch.

Beam centering, deflection, deviation, misalignment, etc. It's not necessarily fault in the diode. This can also be caused by decentered or tilted optics. If the manufacturing process is not precise, there are many points where misalignment can be introduced. There are solutions for this. You...