303 damaged or not

[gabytro]

Hey guys!

I m new to this and I hope my question isn t that stupid to annoy anyone )
I bought a 303 laser from someone and I ve noticed that it worked at full brigthness for only few minutes, so I decided to buy a better batter (liitoakala). After using the new battery the laser is not bright anymore (like it was when the battery was fully charged). I also noticed that if I remove the cap, instead of making a big "dot" like a flashlight (as it did in the first day of use), it does 2 dots very close to eachother.
I want to ask you if it is possible that the new battery broke it, or the laser wasn t really new.

From the beginning the dot wasn t perfect. It was like in the photo I ve attached.

Sorry for my bad english

 

[diachi]

There's a bunch of different things that can cause that, really it's impossible to say with any certainty. First image looks like dirt on the lens, second image looks like it's outputting in TEM01. Your new battery could be sitting at a slightly higher voltage, resulting in a higher power output that while not damaging, results in this. But there's a pile of other things that could cause that. See if it goes away as you run the battery down, or if temperature has any effect.

It's not worth spending much time on these 303 lasers seeing as you can pick them up for about $5 these days.

 

[joeybab3]

I have one that does this too, it appears to start off as a circle and then like mitosis into 2 dots...

 

[diachi]

I have one that does this too, it appears to start off as a circle and then like mitosis into 2 dots...

It's fairly common with DPSS lasers, at least the cheaper ones anyway. Not as common as it used to be mind you.

 

[gabytro]

I don t really care about the two dots. The problem is the dimming
Ok so it is not good to upgrade the batterys. The ultrafire seems very cheap and light, I thought the upgrade it is a good ideea.
Any recomandation for a better laser (not very expensive)?

Thank you all for your answers

 

[GSS]

What is not expensive to you?
How much or did you pay for that 303 by the way? They are all over ebay for $5 or even $8 with star caps, charger and battery's. They also aren't a bad starter laser and can last very long..At that price you can get a couple and some are bound to be brighter.
It's good to upgrade from cheaper battery's but the Trustfires are ok with 301's, 303's.
Gabytro, this isn't directed at you but lately it seems we all have been posting about these 303's and there are so so many posts about it..
Don't try to clean the lens as it's plastic and you will regret it if you don't know how

Edit: Also what do you mean by dimming after 2 minutes? Continued lasing or in total?
These DPSS 303's mod hop at times "the brightness fluxuates" and you need to watch the duty cycle as no more than 1 minute on a few seconds off.

 

[gabytro]

It's good to upgrade from cheaper battery's but the Trustfires are ok with 301's, 303's.
off.

Thanks for the answer. I ve searched for Trustfires but there are so many models. Can you please be so kind and give me a link or a photo?
Thank u so much!

 

[GSS]

Just look on ebay.
Any of the Trustfire, Ultrafires, 18650's at 3.7V to 4.2V will do..You could also upgrade and get a AW, Efest etc, as long as its a 3.7V...
Button tops, flat tops, unprotected or protected should fit the 303 host..

 

[gabytro]

Just look on ebay.
Any of the Trustfire, Ultrafires, 18650's at 3.7V to 4.2V will do..You could also upgrade and get a AW, Efest etc, as long as its a 3.7V...
Button tops, flat tops, unprotected or protected should fit the 303 host..

The laser already comes with ultrafire 3.7 - 4200mah. It wouldn t be an upgrade

 

[GSS]

The laser already comes with ultrafire 3.7 - 4200mah. It wouldn t be an upgrade

The claim of 4200mah is no where near it's true rating.
It's probably 700mah or less. Not even the top notch 18650's will do that, maby 2500mah max on top notch ones.
You have to be a bit confused as why the cheaper ones claim more I would think?
A little more info would be helpful on why you think you need a new battery? Are you sure it's charged and how are you checking?
Is the laser still working with the first Ultrafire?

 

[paul1598419]

Like many members here, I have several 532nm DPSS lasers. I have one that emits 4 lines and another that emits 6 lines. But these can only be seen with a spectrometer or diffraction grating. Some of these tend to mode hop depending on the temperature they are at. This can look like the laser is getting brighter and darker. With the ubiquity and cheap price of these lasers, it is not worth much time to try to repair this problem.

 

[gabytro]

The claim of 4200mah is no where near it's true rating.
It's probably 700mah or less. Not even the top notch 18650's will do that, maby 2500mah max on top notch ones.
You have to be a bit confused as why the cheaper ones claim more I would think?
A little more info would be helpful on why you think you need a new battery? Are you sure it's charged and how are you checking?
Is the laser still working with the first Ultrafire?

You said to upgrade to ultrafire witch I already have. I don t get it, are the ultrafire batterys from ebay better then the ultrafire that came with the laser?

I want to upgrade cause the beam is more visible in the first 5-10 minutes (when the batt is fully charged), after that the beam it is barely visibe. Also the dot becomes less bright of course.

 

[paul1598419]

You said to upgrade to ultrafire witch I already have. I don t get it, are the ultrafire batterys from ebay better then the ultrafire that came with the laser?

I want to upgrade cause the beam is more visible in the first 5-10 minutes (when the batt is fully charged), after that the beam it is barely visibe. Also the dot becomes less bright of course.

I seriously doubt the dimming of your 532nm laser is caused by the battery voltage getting low. After 5 to 10 minutes, these cheap pointers don't have any way to keep the crystals at optimum temperature and they will decrease in power for that reason. There is nothing you can do to prevent that from happening in a 301 or a 303. Use it for shorter duty cycles.

 

[gabytro]

I seriously doubt the dimming of your 532nm laser is caused by the battery voltage getting low. After 5 to 10 minutes, these cheap pointers don't have any way to keep the crystals at optimum temperature and they will decrease in power for that reason. There is nothing you can do to prevent that from happening in a 301 or a 303. Use it for shorter duty cycles.

Thanks. That is a good explanation! Can you recomand the cheapest pointer that is able to keep the optimum tempreture?
Thank again for ur help.

 

[GSS]

You said to upgrade to ultrafire witch I already have. I don t get it, are the ultrafire batterys from ebay better then the ultrafire that came with the laser?

I want to upgrade cause the beam is more visible in the first 5-10 minutes (when the batt is fully charged), after that the beam it is barely visibe. Also the dot becomes less bright of course.

Really some confusion going on..as you seemed to think I said to upgrade to the Ultrafires.
Trustfires, Ultrafires etc...are usually re raps of older laptop batterys..So there's a chance you can get a real good one or a bad one and everything in between.
The ebay ones are the ones that came with your laser.
Thats why they border to the cheaper. For your 303 laser needs they are fine, but an upgrade would be AW's, Efest, Panasonic..
You really need to give a price in your budget, plus do some more research on the forum.
Your laser might be fine. You need to know it's likes and dislikes..
For again as posted before, for $8 each with battery's, a charger and the fun star caps you can get 2 303's and a very good chance of a brighter one..
Or go to "Jet Laser" and for $200 to $500 you will find what you want.

 

[gabytro]

As you can see in the photos I ve attached, first time I turn it on the dot is ok (round and much brighter), if I turn it off and on again it is less bright and it has a strange shape.
This happened first time after I replace its battery with the liitokala battery witch is much havier and it has 3.6 nominal and 4.2 operating voltage (hope I got this right). I will post a photo with it when I get home.
The thing is ..I m using it for pointing at the stars at night, and when it has that unregular shape it also becomes less bright and most important, the beam becomes invisible
So I don t really care about its shape but its beam visibility