Broke my DX True 30mW, anything I can do with it?

[FreeBee]

Hi there, I'm new here.

Couple of days ago I recieved my DX True Green 30mW.
I had some fun with it for a few days. I already noticed some mode hopping, but after a few checks here I knew that was just because lasers need to have a warm up time. When I turned on the laser for a longer time it indeed got stronger, until it reached it's full strenght.

Yesterday the laser beam itself was less strong, even when I warmed it up a bit. My guess is that it are just the batteries, wich where alkaline. A few checks here, and I knew that alkaline batteries are very strong at the beginning, but lose their strenght very fast.

Ok, no problem, I just hooked it up to a DC converter. I wanted to check if I could get the voltage a little higher then 3v, day 3,5 or maybe 4. Just to check how strong the laser could get.  ;D

I checked the polarities, (In DX lasers the (-) goes to the spring at the back of the part of the pen where the laser itself is located. right?) and I held the (+) in place on the side of the pen. I set my DC converter at 2,5V for safety check first, (I was not intending to break it right away) and I turned the converter on.

The laser flashed very bright for a moment and went out. I can't get it on. :'( My only guess is that I used the wrong contacts on the converter. (It has 4)

Anyway the laser is dead now. I noticed a tiny little red light in the laser itself. (Yes, I looked into it, I know never to do it in a working laser, it can seriously damage your eyes) This little red light also worked when the laser was still working, and I did some other AAA's in it. Guess that it lights up when 1) the laserdiode isn't working. 2)the batteries are low.

Is there anyway to fix this, or can I now disassemble the pen and get out the laser housing for experiments?
(the laser housing is usefull because it has the lenses right?)

Thanks in advance for helping me out with this.

 

[Switch]

Re: Broke my DX True 30mW, anything I can do with

Maybe you put to much current into it, even though it was only 2.5 V ,it still got fried
Oh and don't look into it anymore.Never look into a working or non-working laser of any power or wavelength.Especially IR or DPSS, that little red light was probably alot more powerfull than you think.You never now if it's gonna start working again anyway.

 

[FreeBee]

Re: Broke my DX True 30mW, anything I can do with

Yeah, I guess I fried it with too much current. It still wasn't smart from me that I didnt even measured the power of the converter before trying.

But, it's still dead, is it possible to take out the laser housing and replace the laserdiode?

Anyway, I ordered a 50mW True Green yesterday. Hope that one is going to leave some burn marks somewhere.

 

[Tallaxo]

Re: Broke my DX True 30mW, anything I can do with

My guess is that you fried your crystal set and not the laser diode, if you can still see a little pinprick of red light, that means there is a good chance that the pump diode is actually working . Please dont look into it again, you are seriously risking your eyesight by doing so.

I believe the true DX lasers have a good IR filter in them, so instead of throwing it away, you could always take it apart and look for a small piece of cyan coloured glass somewhere in the beam path (this is the IR filter). You could remove this and make yourself a fairly powerful (150mw or so) IR laser. this will probably need refocusing , as the optics are all set up for green, but something to try anyway.

Jase

 

[FreeBee]

Re: Broke my DX True 30mW, anything I can do with

Yeah, I read that red lasers use only one lens, and green lasers have more lenses.

How to I take the laser housing out? I also read something about this, and they said something about gently tikking it out of the pen.
Also I'd like to know something about refocusing. Can't find that here.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Switch]

Re: Broke my DX True 30mW, anything I can do with

Unless you want good divergence (which is pretty much pointless in an IR laser in most cases as you can't see the beam, and you can't see the dot...) refocusing isn't gonna be that hard.If burning is all you want then you can probably take one of the convex lenses already in there and use that to focus the IR beam into a tiny spot a few inches away and start burning stuff.Goggles would be a very good idea as you would probably tend to stare at the object you are burning, and difuse and specular reflections from a 150mW are pretty dangerous if you stare with your pupils dilated :-/

 

[wooooooolazer]

Re: Broke my DX True 30mW, anything I can do with

Hm.. idk if the diode is dead or the crystals.. if i had to guess more than likely it would probably the diode since it probably got blasted with so much current.. if thats the case it would be possible to buy another diode and with careful work replace it. If its the crystals then theres not reallly much you can do to fix it but like said you can turn it into an ir laser. To get it open drill a hole in wooden blockS the size of the cap on it then put it in a vice inside of the blocks. Slowly twist and pull to get it off then after that im not sure but more than likely you would be able to push or pull it out (BE GENTLE).

...lazer... ;D ;D ;D