Can you mod a true 5 to less power?

[wooooooolazer]

Im buying the true 5 but i have seen that it can peak at 15mw which is not eye safe. I wonder if theres a way to reduce the power, i could drain the battereies but then they would only last like 20min then id have to drain another pair, is there anywhay i can fix this by modding it some way, i heard the pot does nothing so i guess thats out of the question.

I know its weird modding to get less power ;D :-?

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

 

[Switch]

How about not sticking it into your eye? 5mW is not all that eyesafe as it's cracked up to be.I think you would agree that 5mW in the wrong hands is more dangerous that 15mW in responsible hands

But anyway you could add another resistor or even glue a shard of sunglass lens to the aperture

 

[Chris.]

I'd also go with a small SMT resistor between one of the diode pins and the PCB.

 

[scopeguy20]

Hey I have an easy solution, I have a greenie from ebay that I will sell for $35 and it outputs 1.6 to 2.5 mW could still harm eyes if you were intent on that, but it's a green that the cat here chases a lot and she still sees just fine. As far as the IR is concerned, it is comparable to the TV remote! LOL

 

[wooooooolazer]

na, dx are still cheaper than that, a quick flash of 5mw isint going to hurt you, but if you stare into it it will. That sounds like a good idea, i might put some peices of sunglases infront of it to reduce the power.

I hope drained batteries would work tho, since the regulating circuit isint that good it might, i hope it doesnt have a cutoff point tho like below a ceartin voltage the driver will not funcion and it just shuts off.

I dont think i really wana mod this tho might break it soldering the the driver board tryin to add another resistor, and aperantly its hard to open.

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

 

[Rhith]

Maybe try a resistor on one of the battery connections, like down in the case between the spring and the case. It would cause it to act like low batteries but without needing to tear it apart or using low batteries.

 

[PhysX]

Stick it in the freezer... The longer it is in there the dimmer it will get. This will last for a decent amount of time. Once it hits room temperature (which actually takes like a good 20min) it will go back to normal. I once left my 50mw in the car overnight and when I took it out there was just a red dot...lol. No green AT ALL. I brought it inside and put it on the heater for 15min and shook the batteries around and it went right back to normal.

 

[Cyparagon]

Realistically, a flash of 15mW will not cause any permanent blindness. It's probably more dangerous to glance at the sun.

 

[wooooooolazer]

O, i thought anything above 5mw would cause it instantly, thats good then since it only peaked at 15mw and hopefully that was underpowered.  Im gona try using some aaa's i drained with a light bulb , lets hope the driver doesnt just cut off, like it just slowly goes dimmer instead of cutting off because of low voltage.

Hopefully i can get a resistor in there tho but i think ill be fine with drained batteries in it.

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

 

[Rhith]

I have another great solution for a <5mW laser! If you have the money just get a Spyder II GX! :

 

[wooooooolazer]

okay...lol i posted a link for a diy driver, i had copied my sig and i guess i copied that link too...lol

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

 

[Benm]

There are a couple of ways to go about this, apart from draining batteries which sounds rather impractical.

First off, you could 'hack' the driver circuitry into delivering less current to the pump diode, down to a level that is satisfactory. You can also replace it with your own driver that can be better than what comes factory fit - this is quite a lot of work, and difficult if not familiar with electronics, but can give a more stable power output.

The last solution i'd propose is just to put a neutral density filter between the output that cuts power by the desired amount (a factor of 3 in your case).

Another realistic safety solution is to de-focus the output lens a bit, resulting in a larger dot. Since the dot could be larger than the pupil at any distance over 1 meter or so, the amount of light entering the eye would be down to a safe(r) level.