Cheap laser pen mods?

[silvercookie]

ok, now before i get yelled at :-[, i have been searching for the past 45 minutes and didnt come up with jack. i tried alot of different words/phrases and i got nothing that answered my question.

Well i got this little cheap laser/light/pen thing from my moms job as a promo thingy, and the warning label quoted out put at 3-5 milliwatts. it uses the lr41 button batts which i believe are 1.5 volt lithium each.

so it should be 4.5 volts with a little under a quarter of an amp if that.

i was wondering if swapping out the resistors, or removing it and just soldering in a jumper would get me a solid 5-7 milliwatts.

im taking a pic now of the board to help.

 

[rocketparrotlet]

What's the point in that?  Just get yourself a more powerful laser.  I have red pointers of various strengths, and 7mW is barely more interesting than 3mW.

EDIT: The only "mod" you can do to achieve this effect would be to cram another lithium cell in there. That would reduce the diode life, though.

-Mark

 

[silvercookie]

this is just until friday when i finally get my 300$ from the amp i sold my friend.

soon as i get the money to paypal account im buying a 120mw blu-ray laser kit from Mohrenberg for 70 bucks.

 

[Jimmymcjimthejim]

Just keep the laser without modding it.. Not only will it make barely any difference, but there's a large chance that you will just fry the diode inside.

 

[Warske]

i was wondering if swapping out the resistors, or removing it and just soldering in a jumper would get me a solid 5-7 milliwatts.

I can see why you want to mess with it...

My question is, how do you know it isn't already putting out 7 mW? A lot of the lasers are under or over what is printed on them.

And second, how are you going to tell if you've increased its power after you play with it?

 

[silvercookie]

Just keep the laser without modding it.. Not only will it make barely any difference, but there's a large chance that you will just fry the diode inside.

oh.

I can see why you want to mess with it...

My question is, how do you know it isn't already putting out 7 mW?  A lot of the lasers are under or over what is printed on them.

And second, how are you going to tell if you've increased its power after you play with it?

well the last true 5mw laser i had was able to show a clear dot on the house 35 feet away from me.
the one i have now is barely bright enough to see it, even with brand new batteries.
so even if i was able to see the dot a little brighter i would know if the power increased at all.

it was a freebie anyway so it is prolly built like crap to begin with.

 

[Warske]

Good point.  Well, the way to crank it up is to give the diode more current.  It will get brighter.  The hard part is knowing when to stop. ;D ;D ;D

When it doesn't work anymore, you will know you gave it too much.

 

[silvercookie]

yea it already started dimming after giving it another lr41

oh well atleast i have another one

 

[Warske]

yea it already started dimming after giving it another lr41

oh well atleast i have another one

So the next step is to take it apart (if you want) very carefully, taking good, clear pictures at each step, and posting the results!

Use some program like IrfanView to crop your photos and resize them to about 640 wide so they fit on the screen. You can use its [Image, Create panorama image, vertical] to put all your pictures into one file, and then attach that file.

Most of the folks here use some sort of free picture hosting service for posting pics, but as soon as their accounts go away, or that web site goes bust, those pictures are going to be lost to this forum. You can see that it has already happened in some of the older posts.

 

[silvercookie]

yup i know all about hosting pics im on 8 other forums

i ll get pics soon as possible

 

[larrball]

Good point.  Well, the way to crank it up is to give the diode more current.  It will get brighter.  The hard part is knowing when to stop. ;D ;D ;D

[highlight]
When it doesn't work anymore, you will know you gave it too much[/highlight]

 

[silvercookie]

lmao
reminds me of the guy who was doing a engine flush, and poured water through his engine and started it.

 

[Mohrenberg]

;D mod it, and send it to mo! i'll test it when my LPM arrives! muahaha

 

[silvercookie]

lol