100mw green laser? + Battery seems to die fast...

[Edi]

Ok, so I put together a green laser using
532nm 100mw Green Laser Diode Module DIY/Lab/Industrial | eBay
and 1 14500 lithum ion battery to power it up.

it says 100mw with 10% tolerance so that means it's ganna be lower, but it's unable to burn anything at all. I can kinda see the beam inside with the lights on and it's really clear at night. is it just to low of power to burn anything?
I saw youtube vids of people popping balloons and lighting matches with 50mw green lasers so I'm a bit disappointed with this laser.
It runs on about 400mA at 4V.

It says it runs at 300mA at 3V but my laser dims even with high voltage. It takes about 10sec till it starts to dim.

Please help.

 

[Edi]

I might have figured it out. Can the laser dim because of overheating? cuz if I take it out and cool it really fast and put it back in it becomes bright again. so it's not a battery problem.

 

[Tech_Junkie]

Over heating can make the laser dimmer, and eventually kill it.

Also noticed you maybe putting to much current to it, and may cause the over heating. On the add is says 2 AAA batteries, thats 3v. That lithium could be putting out 3.6-4.2v.

 

[X FLY]

I might have figured it out. Can the laser dim because of overheating? cuz if I take it out and cool it really fast and put it back in it becomes bright again. so it's not a battery problem.

I hope you didn't mean putting it in the fridge or something with "cooling it fast" because that can and will destroy the laser very quickly.

 

[Edi]

Hmm..that's a bit of a problem. :thinking:
Do you think draining the battery to a lower voltage is a good idea? It says on the package that a fully dead battery is 2.4V so I think I should be ok.

Since the diode is already running at full power, I guess the diode is just too weak for burning stuff. But no worries, I got a 250mw 405nm diode next in line.

 

[X FLY]

The easiest way to lower the voltage is just not using the batteries for a couple of days after charging them, that will make the voltage drop without really affecting the capacity of the batteries. Or you could just half charge them etc.

 

[anselm]

not using the batteries for a couple of days after charging them, that will make the voltage drop

If that happpens, then the batteries are crap.
LiIons hold voltage/charge much better han NiMH.

If you're worried about feeding too much voltage to your driver, try adding a
silicon rectifier diode in series between battery and driver, it will lower voltage by about 0.7V.
Otherwise the driver might get too hot too fast...