- Joined
- Jun 12, 2008
- Messages
- 76
- Points
- 8
Reading all the controversy about these NewWish pointers, i thought i would take one completely apart, to see exactly what's what. I was helped a little by one of the batch i bought not being fixed together at the front properly, so the assembly just slid apart!
Here's one of them in its case.
Purchased these on 4/6/08 from Hong Kong (where else!!!).
Basically the parts are all threaded, and the various parts look like this, from left to right: End cap, Collimator, Crystal set, and bare IR diode/driver board.
Top side of driver board.
..and the other side. Note the position for the pot (marked RE1) is bridged with a resistor instead.
View of the bare IR diode, surprised to see its not cased!
View of the back of the crystal set.
I wouldn't recommend dismantling this far unless you have to, it was a right pain to get that lot realigned!! The use of hot melt by the factory helped, all i had to do was re-melt it to glue the crystal housing back in place (this has to be spot on rotationally, you're firing the diode into a crystal with about a 1.5mm end, and it's offset!).
As the complete assembly pulled apart easily, i'm guessing whatever held it in wasn't there on this one, whether it was a shim or not i don't know. Bit of glue on one side maybe, not all the way round though as electrical contact is relied upon to carry the +ve current to the diode case (which i always thought was the cathode, or at least it was on the dvd diode i played around with. So don't quite know how they get round that!).
Anyway, one thing i noticed straight away- where's the IR filter? All i saw from the diode to the outside world was crystals, mirror/lens, and collimator. No IR filter as far as i can see!
One important thing i must stress is, be careful of the -ve battery spring, make sure the piece of foam isn't too low down, a friend of mine screwed it together and the spring must have leant sideways and bridged the neg straight to the case. Dead short across batteries = lots and lots of heat!!
Also i didn't see anything supporting the driver board to stop it bending when pressing the button, so i stuck a piece of foam down between the back of the driver board and the case to support it.
Hope this helps answer a few questions!
Here's one of them in its case.
Purchased these on 4/6/08 from Hong Kong (where else!!!).
Basically the parts are all threaded, and the various parts look like this, from left to right: End cap, Collimator, Crystal set, and bare IR diode/driver board.
Top side of driver board.
..and the other side. Note the position for the pot (marked RE1) is bridged with a resistor instead.
View of the bare IR diode, surprised to see its not cased!
View of the back of the crystal set.
I wouldn't recommend dismantling this far unless you have to, it was a right pain to get that lot realigned!! The use of hot melt by the factory helped, all i had to do was re-melt it to glue the crystal housing back in place (this has to be spot on rotationally, you're firing the diode into a crystal with about a 1.5mm end, and it's offset!).
As the complete assembly pulled apart easily, i'm guessing whatever held it in wasn't there on this one, whether it was a shim or not i don't know. Bit of glue on one side maybe, not all the way round though as electrical contact is relied upon to carry the +ve current to the diode case (which i always thought was the cathode, or at least it was on the dvd diode i played around with. So don't quite know how they get round that!).
Anyway, one thing i noticed straight away- where's the IR filter? All i saw from the diode to the outside world was crystals, mirror/lens, and collimator. No IR filter as far as i can see!
One important thing i must stress is, be careful of the -ve battery spring, make sure the piece of foam isn't too low down, a friend of mine screwed it together and the spring must have leant sideways and bridged the neg straight to the case. Dead short across batteries = lots and lots of heat!!
Also i didn't see anything supporting the driver board to stop it bending when pressing the button, so i stuck a piece of foam down between the back of the driver board and the case to support it.
Hope this helps answer a few questions!