264mW 650nm went "Dim"= Bad??

[ThatOneDude]

Well baisicly Im almost sure its a bad thing because It was working great one day. The next day or two I used it again but it was REALLY dim as soon as I turned it on... compared to how it was before. It went from really bright red dot to a dim 5mW-ish looking dot. I have two 18650 batteries and my laser is the same with the two when i switch them. And before you ask no I didnt always follow the Duty-cycle... Which is kindave ironic because I was just reading on how important it is to follow it the day before, even when ur laser does not feel warm... So... Any fix to this? Or is the only fix switching the diode? (Which I do not know how to do but would love to get into knowing how to do so). Any suggestions is highly appreciated :thanks:

 

[Sigurthr]

Well, what driver are you using? It is possible the extended on times overheated the driver which may not be heatsinked, since the diode is still lasing. It IS lasing right, not LEDing?

 

[ThatOneDude]

Sorry for the late reply... It is still lasing if by that you mean that I can still see a clear visible dot even from a distance. As for the Driver... I did not build this laser so idk how to answer your question, its a lazerer 200mW red laser.

 

[Sigurthr]

Yeah, I don't know what driver they use, but if it is similar to the Laserlands 200mW red then it isn't likely the driver over heated (it's an unlimited duty driver).

If you have a digital multimerer you can check a few parameters:

What is the voltage of your fully charged 18650s. It is possible they are no good. Fully charged they should be 4.19 volts.

Turn the laser on and unscrew the tailcap. Measure the current going TO the driver by inserting the multimeter (set to 10A range or similar) IN SERIES with where the tail cap screws in to the host. Example: if the negative end of the battery faces the tail cap then put the positive lead from the meter to the battery's negative end and the negative lead from the meter to the host where the tailcap screws on. [If the battery's positive end faces the tailcap then put the negative lead to it and the positive lead to the host.] What does it say the current draw is? It should be in mA (milliamps).

If the batteries are OK and the current draw is OK then the diode is damaged most likely. If the batteries are ok and the current draw is not, then the driver is likely damaged.

 

[ChristopherM]

Very interesting.....

We both got the same laser from lazerer the same week.

Now it seems that both lasers have failed in the same week.
How odd is that?