Galileo, disassembled !

[Abray]

Today I got bored. I have another 5 mW green laser in the mail, so I thought I'd look at the insides of my Galileo-5. It started like this:

skipping to the end first...this is what the tube looks like completely empty. Looks like it could be easy to mod. There's a battery stop any everything!

unscrew some stuff, you get this:

unscrew the cap, and you get this:

There was a little glue, and it was easily broken, to unscrew the long-ish brass piece on the outside. That piece has the final lens on it. The little lens in the middle is the problem child... It was glued on to the end of the crystal assembly. I ripped it off, and now the final beam is EXTREMELY small in the beginning, but the divergence is horrible. Like a 6 or 7 inch dot at about 10 feet.

Here is the outside lens...

This is the crystal assembly with that little lens. My camera sucks, this is about the closest picture I could get.

until I tried a little harder, and I got this to come out...

another:

You probably can't see anything in this picture, but this is where the green end laser comes out. There is a little piece of something (glass like) that is at a 45 degree angle. I'm assuming that is the IR filter.

My problem is that I took the little lens off, and now I can't get it back on perfectly. I half ass stuck it back on, and the dot was way of to one side, so I knew I wasn't going to get it back on like that. Maybe I'll go out and buy some glue, and try to get it on, but I'm thinking no. I am currently trying to twist the lens on the removable part, but its really sticky, and I haven't been able to turn it. I think if I can find a flat head screw driver the PERFECT size I could get it done, but that hasn't happened yet.

If I can't get that damn lens to twist, I'm probably going to rip it apart even more and that means more pictures of insides    :

I might try to put another type of laser inside, but that lens would be the only problem. With another diode, it would still be unfocused lol unless I somehow used a different lens. I'm not that skilled though. I'm just going to keep trying on that lens. I'll keep updating this as I go, though

ideas? questions? comments?

 

[Things]

Just a hint, the little peice of tilted glass isnt the IR filter, thats the beam splitter for the APC circuit. It reflects some laser to the sensor, and lets the rest pass through out the front.

 

[Abray]

Oh so that's what that little thing is on the side of the module...

Is the IR filter even further inside?

and I finally got the lens to turn. Except I'm not sure its going to focus very well... there seem to be many scratches lol. we'll see.

 

[Abray]

Last update, as this is now a destroyed laser lol.

APC is bent out of the way, and frequency doubling crystal is removed. I'm pretty sure just the IR is left, cause no light comes out anymore. And no I'm not stupid enough to look into it.

The tube left is almost a PERFECT fit for a DIY, though. The aixiz module fits with only 1 mm of extra room diameter wise!! length wise, there is PLENTY of room for anything. I will definitely be converting this into some other kind of laser! If anything, I might buy a pre-made green module to replace the one I just destroyed! I'm also looking at meredith modules since the end cap has a hole only about 4 mm in diameter, a beam from aixiz might not fit. Or I could go buy a tool to enlarge the hole.

that picture makes the space look a little larger than in real life. However, that's a close fit! I've never used thermal paste of any sort before, but I think that might work to keep the thing from moving around in there. Another plus of the end cap, you could focus the laser to infinity, put the cap on, and have a permanent collimated nice looking laser! downside, no focusing. If you wanted to focus it, you would have to take the cap off and have a slightly less nice looking laser....

 

[Rhith]

Try out some 1mm copper sheet to wrap around the module. Would give it a firm hold and heat dispersion.