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Got my laser pointer today... interesting power output?

Hiemal

Hiemal

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For $4.87, I figured why not. When I fire it up, the green is REALLY powerful for a few seconds or so, and then it drops considerably INSTANTLY, not like gradual power drop. It seems to happen quicker the warmer the pointer is.

Is this normal, and is there something I could do to fix it? I like it when it's a lot brighter. It practically lights up my basement when it's on "high" mode. :p
 





Re: Got my laser pointer today...

If i were you.. i would have opened it and took the module out.. give it a nice heatsink and power it up with a dc source... if it still drops power then its the cheap driver thats overheating. or the laser diode not heatsunk properly.. usually these are the two culprits of laser flickering / laser dimming.
 
Re: Got my laser pointer today...

I never said it was broken, or not working on high mode. It just doesn't seem to like running on high for long and then suddenly drops to low.


I've tried different batteries and the problem remains.


Edit:

Wait, I think it's just warm up period. It starts out low, and then gets brighter over a period of like 5 seconds. Then it stays on "high" mode. Sorta. It's hard to tell what it does. :p
 
Last edited:
A picture or video speaks a thousand words. Cheap greens tend to do that. My cheaper greens need to warm up to work also. Depending on the temperature you are using it in many factors come into play.

Mike
 
well, it definitely likes being warmer. Running it for a while, I can feel the outside of the pen case getting a little warmer than the surrounding air and that's when the output power is at max. It's definitely bright. o.O
 
If it works better warm, consider using a proper power supply and heatsink. To get the best results you may need to maintain a module like that at a certain temperature to get good output... but keeping it warm is easier than keeping it cool :D
 
I wonder if I'm just over-exaggerating the brightness since this is my first greenie. :p

And eh, I'm going to keep it in the pen case. I don't have anything else to stick it in.
 
Im sure its just because its your first time. Mine seemed wicked bright then i got a 50 and a 100mW and it blows them out of the water. don't get me wrong though 5mW pens are fun!
 
I read something on this forum some time ago, and it was someone that had discovered that his green pen had some optic feedback that regulated the optic output, perhaps thats the case ?
 
http://i.imgur.com/rIvYz.jpg

There's the output of the laser once it's warmed up. It looks about as bright as a 50 mW to be honest, based off of other videos and pictures i've seen.

I can see the beam pretty well in a lightly lit room, and very faintly in a brightly lit one.
 
Well, I said screw it, and dismantled the pen pointer into just the green module....

I made a new driver for it, running it at around 560 mA.... the stock driver was around 450 mA to 470 mA, depending on how hot the driver was.

I can see the beam REALLY REALLY well now...I just need to find something to put it in!
 
Yeah, it had died. xDD

I think the original driver for it was overdriving the diode enough as it was actually... unless they use 0.5 watt IR diodes in there.

It's the same crystal set I used in my custom DPSS system actually.
 
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