Well, I received my Aixis 50 lab module today in the mail...it must have been shipped Priority (as was my 15mw) since I ordered it late last Saturday (or early Sunday morning perhaps). Assuming it shipped out Monday or Tuesday, that's right on the 2-3 day window. That's a good thing when you only pay 5 dollars for shipping.
I soldered some male spade terminals onto the prongs on the A.C. mains terminal on the PCB. I probably could have found a plug like that in some of my stored junk, but I didn't feel like hunting one down. Then I plugged it in. What hit me like a ton of bricks is that the beam and spot were not as bright as my AixiZ 15mw module running from a 4.5v wall wart. Then, after it had been on for around 3 minutes it became markedly dimmer than it had been before and even looked like it was mode hopping...no longer tem00 (I really need to get me hands on an LPM -- first priority). This scared me at first, but then I started thinking about all the posts I've read from you guys.
Now I've never touched the potentiometer on the 15mw, because its output seemed so high already, why would I want more for 41 dollars? But this was worth the risk. When I inserted a screwdriver into the pot and torqued it, it didn't move very much at all, in the clockwise direction. Not even a couple of degrees. Apparently someone at AixiZ had already ramped up the pot all the way! So I turned it all the way down. The spot was barely visible in a mostly darkened room. Then as I went back clockwise, it began to brighten, it became comparable to my 15, and I could see the beam again. It seems there is a sweet spot on the pot with these power supplies a considerable bit before full clockwise. This is old hat to a lot of you I know, but I just thought I'd try to at least qualitatively replicate some of your findings and explain how I salvaged (mostly) what looked to be a sub par labby. It still isn't quite up to the standard of my supposed 15mw AixiZ. Makes me want to grab another one of those and test it out, but I need to save for my LPM. I'm going to try to get this thing into an enclosure as soon as I finish testing and find one suitable, it's sketchy having a PCB with 120v points on it sitting out in the open when you are playing with a laser in the dark. And yes, the enclosure might benefit from a fan as the FET's heatsink gets noticably warm after just a few minutes.
This diode is a C-mount, correct? I haven't taken the actual module apart yet, but some people have suggested that this power supply design could be better. It would be a fun project for me or somebody to design a superior supply for the AixiZ 50mw labby since so many of us have ordered one.
Here come the pics:
-Brett
I soldered some male spade terminals onto the prongs on the A.C. mains terminal on the PCB. I probably could have found a plug like that in some of my stored junk, but I didn't feel like hunting one down. Then I plugged it in. What hit me like a ton of bricks is that the beam and spot were not as bright as my AixiZ 15mw module running from a 4.5v wall wart. Then, after it had been on for around 3 minutes it became markedly dimmer than it had been before and even looked like it was mode hopping...no longer tem00 (I really need to get me hands on an LPM -- first priority). This scared me at first, but then I started thinking about all the posts I've read from you guys.
Now I've never touched the potentiometer on the 15mw, because its output seemed so high already, why would I want more for 41 dollars? But this was worth the risk. When I inserted a screwdriver into the pot and torqued it, it didn't move very much at all, in the clockwise direction. Not even a couple of degrees. Apparently someone at AixiZ had already ramped up the pot all the way! So I turned it all the way down. The spot was barely visible in a mostly darkened room. Then as I went back clockwise, it began to brighten, it became comparable to my 15, and I could see the beam again. It seems there is a sweet spot on the pot with these power supplies a considerable bit before full clockwise. This is old hat to a lot of you I know, but I just thought I'd try to at least qualitatively replicate some of your findings and explain how I salvaged (mostly) what looked to be a sub par labby. It still isn't quite up to the standard of my supposed 15mw AixiZ. Makes me want to grab another one of those and test it out, but I need to save for my LPM. I'm going to try to get this thing into an enclosure as soon as I finish testing and find one suitable, it's sketchy having a PCB with 120v points on it sitting out in the open when you are playing with a laser in the dark. And yes, the enclosure might benefit from a fan as the FET's heatsink gets noticably warm after just a few minutes.
This diode is a C-mount, correct? I haven't taken the actual module apart yet, but some people have suggested that this power supply design could be better. It would be a fun project for me or somebody to design a superior supply for the AixiZ 50mw labby since so many of us have ordered one.
Here come the pics:
-Brett