Arctic Battery Container messed up?

[Goldsun1715]

Hey,

So I bought an Arctic G1 off of someone on the forums, and after a few days of careful use, I all of a sudden after taking the battery out to charge, then putting it back in, the battery sunk it a lot more then usual (see pic below)

This is a big problem because there is a contact issue now where the laser will sometimes switch off on it's own.
Is there anything I can do to fix it?

 

[oic0]

Maybe the spring was cheap crap and got crushed? look down there with a flashlight, maybe stretch it back out with something.

 

[Goldsun1715]

Maybe the spring was cheap crap and got crushed? look down there with a flashlight, maybe stretch it back out with something.

Yeah, after looking in there, the spring looks burnt to hell, and when I stretch it out, after putting the cap back on, it compresses again, and the laser won't turn on at all.

 

[Tech_Junkie]

If it was burnt, dont put the battery back in. It might be a short, and the battery can blow. Making the host a pipe bomb literally.

Ask one of the Vets to take a look at it for you. Hopefully you didnt fry the whole thing.

 

[Goldsun1715]

If it was burnt, dont put the battery back in. It might be a short, and the battery can blow. Making the host a pipe bomb literally.

Ask one of the Vets to take a look at it for you. Hopefully you didnt fry the whole thing.

Hmm... Any vets you would know that would take a look at it for me?

 

[Tech_Junkie]

daguin

 

[daguin]

Twice now, I've seen a short between the battery connections on the back of the driver. There is a positive solder point within a couple of millimeters of the negative spring attachment. An oversize solder blob can easily cause a direct short between these two contacts.

If yours has the same issue, it could have easily overheated the spring and destroyed the temper in it. As TJ has alluded to, be grateful that it wasn't the battery that overheated instead of the spring.

The "collapsing" spring may have just saved you from a VERY nasty occurrence.

Peace,
dave

 

[aryntha]

Yeah, after looking in there, the spring looks burnt to hell, and when I stretch it out, after putting the cap back on, it compresses again, and the laser won't turn on at all.

can you somehow get a pic of what the spring looks like in there? Mine looks like there's some kind of plastic plate between the spring and the driver. I wonder if this is something they 'forgot' on yours...

I wouldn't say it's beyond repair, but personally I'm not sure how to take apart the Arctic. The spring could be replaced, and some sort of barrier could be put in to keep this from happening.

 

[daguin]

can you somehow get a pic of what the spring looks like in there? Mine looks like there's some kind of plastic plate between the spring and the driver. I wonder if this is something they 'forgot' on yours...

I wouldn't say it's beyond repair, but personally I'm not sure how to take apart the Arctic. The spring could be replaced, and some sort of barrier could be put in to keep this from happening.

At the bottom of the driver is a thick "disc" of hard rubber. The negative contact on the driver is on one side of the disc. The battery contact spring is on the other side. The end of the spring goes through the center of the disc and is soldered to the bottom of the driver. That disc is "friction" fitted into the host. What you are seeing is the "bottom" of that disc.

I have to take another one apart tonight or tomorrow. I'll try to remember to take some pics.

Peace,
dave

 

[HaloBlu]

Holy hell :crackup: :crackup:
You made a freaking Daguin smiley!? :bowdown: :bowdown:

Looks like you gave him some Major laser teeth whitening there. Either that or had extra teeth implanted... :undecided:

Anyways, Arctic disassembly pics are coming? op:

 

[Tech_Junkie]

Holy hell :crackup: :crackup:
You made a freaking Daguin smiley!? :bowdown: :bowdown:

Looks like you gave him some Major laser teeth whitening there. Either that or had extra teeth implanted... :undecided:

http://laserpointerforums.com/f57/fail-thread-34457-70.html#post796135

 

[daguin]

Here is the "disc" at the bottom of the driver in the Arctic that holds and supports the battery contact spring

There is actually a "lip" on the disc that fits into a groove in the host body. I do not know if they heat the rubber/plastic before insertion or if it hardens with age. In any event if you "smack" or press it out, the lip breaks off.

Here is the place where I have found the short. You can see how close the negative solder pad is to the positive solder point. The spring has a "vertical" extension that comes up through the disc and is soldered to that pad. You can see that if it shorted out here, the heat would be rapidly transferred to the spring.

Under that glue is also a small sm resistor that was burned in the others. This positive wire actually comes from (and through) the LED battery indicator board. Maybe that is why more of them have not overheated their batteries or contact spring.

This one was not shorted there. However, you can see the component, under and adjacent to the "jumper wire," has overheated and blown out. You can see that the shrink tubing has reacted to the higher heat from that component

This particular laser had both this blown component and a cold solder joint on a diode pin that caused the pin-to-wire connection to break. Maybe the pin connection broke intermittently first, causing the diode to blow which caused this to be without a load and it overheated the component. A blown diode AND blown driver, sheesh! (The lens was pretty screwed up as well.) Another QC triumph for WL, eh?

Peace,
dave

 

[Prototype]

Your photography skills have vastly improved, it seems, Dave.

 

[daguin]

Your photography skills have vastly improved, it seems, Dave.

Even a blind sow finds an acorn every once in a while

Peace,
dave