Ebay $9 blu-ray pens: GREAT!

[fullinfusion]

Yes its a green, One would think that blue, green pens of the same build would have the pot in the same place.

But hey, ima no0b and I'm totally open to take in as much info as I can

 

[fullinfusion]

This may sound stupid, but how did you find the pot? Did you partially dissect the host until you could see the pot and make an estimation from there on where to drill?

No not at all, ..... all I did was remove the foam ring aroung the spring and use a flash light to look into the barrel... I have a rough idea what a pot looks like and all I used was a tooth pic (how fancy is that lol) to determine the length and just marked the pen.

took 10min at the most to hit the mark and turn it up.... I tell ya, it's sure bright now... I just make sure to cycle it sooner.

 

[qumefox]

405nm diodes have an entirely different voltage and current requirement than the 808nm IR pump diodes green DPSS uses. Hence, they have a different driver.

I haven't messed with either of the green pens I got with the 405's. As touchy as the crystals in them seem to be about temperature, I didn't figure cranking up the power would help matters any.

 

[qumefox]

I had to pull the module out of the 405 I disassembled the first time to fix it again heh. If you take them apart, and put them back together, remember you still have to glue the module back in or else battery pressure against the spring will slowly slide it back up and the switch won't work eventually.

This happened to this one and when I pushed it back down I broke one of my repaired traces again.

anyway. when I had it out this time, I remembered to take pics of the driver this time. They're 'iphone macro' images though.. Meaning I didn't have my good camera, so I used my iphone and a magnifying glass.

 

[Markus Unread]

Got a green and another blue.
Interesting wierdness - the green starts very weak and then gets pretty damned bright after about 6-10 seconds. After that it starts slightly weaker for <1sec and then full bright. I guess if I could measure the IR I could tell if it's the xtals or the diode/power supply. What am I saying? For this price??!!

 

[qumefox]

Got a green and another blue.
Interesting wierdness - the green starts very weak and then gets pretty damned bright after about 6-10 seconds. After that it starts slightly weaker for <1sec and then full bright. I guess if I could measure the IR I could tell if it's the xtals or the diode/power supply. What am I saying? For this price??!!

It's the crystals. I measured mine through safety goggles that block green but pass 1064. The IR output never varied much even though the green did wildly.

One of my pens acts identically to what you say, so long as the ambient temp is less than 80F. Over 80F and the thing quits lasing at all. Funnily enough though, it's twin I got at the same time, will only lase if it's over 80F, though it never just 'pop's to full on. The hotter it is, the better it works.

 

[Markus Unread]

It's the crystals. I measured mine through safety goggles that block green but pass 1064. The IR output never varied much even though the green did wildly.

One of my pens acts identically to what you say, so long as the ambient temp is less than 80F. Over 80F and the thing quits lasing at all. Funnily enough though, it's twin I got at the same time, will only lase if it's over 80F, though it never just 'pop's to full on. The hotter it is, the better it works.

Okee doke... I wonder if that's my next lesson - repairing flaky DPSS modules.
:yabbem:

 

[Markus Unread]

Speaking of digging into DPSS - before I start mucking with mine I thought I'd see what to expect inside.

Has anyone actually dissected one of these Ebay greenies?

 

[jeffez]

I'm interested in getting some if these blue and purple lasers, but I'm in aus and eBay doesn't allow me to purchase them can anyone help? Cheers

 

[ppctx]

my 405nm pen metered at 45mw and stayed about constant.

my "50mw" 532's, same pen, different seller, one did 47mw then dropped fast, the other did ~30mw constant.

 

[ppctx]

Geez man. I let one of my friends hold my green laser. I turned away for a second and when I look back the FIRST thing I see is a green dot on the side of my other friends eyeball......I was like ARE YOU SERIOUS STOP THAT!!

You'd think even if for some reason this wasn't common sense you'd have at least a couple seconds to explain to them not to do this before they get a lame idea like that. If even a pause as they contemplate to do it or not. But nope. I think they know now but I'm never letting them touch anything stronger than that ever.

Sorry guy, that is partialy your fault for not explaining to them the associated dangers along with the do's and don'ts. Laser safety is not common sense. Most people's concept of a laser is thing you see commonly in presentations or a toy that you can buy for $5 in the checkout line. One guys avatar on here is a scene from Seinfeld with a red laser dot right between the eyes of George Costanza. Very popular show at the time, teaching people that the dot is for amusement with no safety precautions required.

I learned this a couple of weeks ago. I did explain the potential eye damaging power but did not go into do's and don'ts. My friend promptly took the laser and shined it on a semi glossy table, at just about the correct angle to pop me in the face.

Another instance with a neighbor, let her hold my Arctic so I could see how visible the beam was perpendicular to it from an angle. Told her “This thing can seriously blind you in a fraction of a second, even from several hundred feet away. Only point it into directly up into the sky. Do you promise to only point it into the sky?” She said yes. I run 50’-75’ away, look at the beam, and by the time I got back she still had it pointed directly at the sky but had lowed it down to chest level and was leaning over to get a better look at the source of the pretty light.

People just have a hard time associating laser with danger.

 

[ppctx]

Ok ok, you've convinced me, you have dumb friends, j/k

There is also a very clear danger sticker right on these that you can't miss. Plus lasers are always associated with heat and pain from movies to military use to lab lasers.

That's a big problem, not just with lasers. EVERYTHING has some sort of warning label on it, associated with it or someone telling you things like "You'll grow hair on your palms if you do this or that..", "If you ingest this or that your brain will fry like an egg in a frying pan". There's a warning on you cup of coffee from McDonalds telling you that the coffee is hot and may burn you. Even my dad warned not to use the shower nozzle to wash my babies bottom off (like he claimed to have used for me) because "babies get slippery when wet".. ya think.

We are trained thru necessity to live outside a closet that most warning labels, signage and cautionary advice are unfounded and we tend to ignore them unless you can directly relate to the purported danger.

If I could only get everyone believe every warning label, things would be a lot more interesting.

As for learning things from movies, refer back to the Seinfeld show comment above.

This is not your fault, just the culture we live in, one should be cognizant of the issue though. I won't be handing my lasers to anyone again any time soon.

 

[Markus Unread]

By the way, the people selling the pens above also have a DPSS 35mW module that also seems overpowered as well. I just got one and it's pretty darned bright.

INDUSTRIAL/LAB 532nm Green Laser 30mW Diode Module DOT - eBay (item 120571564083 end time Sep-15-10 06:20:10 PDT)

 

[cexshun]

My lasers arrived a week ago and I've been playing with them. The green sucks. Maybe I got a bad one. The 405 beam is visibly brighter in a dark room or outdoors.

However, the 405 is great. Well worth the purchase price.

 

[ppctx]

how much of a turn takes it from lowest of highest. I got the hole drilled but couldn't turn the dam pot for anything (seems mine had some goo applied to keep the pot at factory setting) so ordered some precision screwdrivers from ebay to get better leverage on it. Do the pots have a hard stop like a key in a door lock or will they allow infinite turning with max and min staying the same like some knob type audio controls on receivers.

I like the idea of being able to turn it down for presentations or to max if wanted. If I can get it to turn, I might try to jb weld an extension so it can be adjusted at will.

 

[ZapU]

Got this 405 blue and a 5mw 532 from DX for $9.69. The DX greenie came in a box and is MUCH brighter that the blue that just came in bubble wrap. You can see the green beam at night, but not the blue.