hello pps, i am here to bust! your balls And ask a gazilion questions (joking).
glad i found this forum, shame i didnt 2 years ago when i got dragon laser viper 95mw.
story: i allways liked lasers, first time i searched them on the net i think 2004/5, i stumbled upone wicked lasers, optotronics and others mentioned on this forum, but i didnt have a budget for them and didnt wanna start with greens below 75mw (decided that by extrapolations from youtube vids). Since then i thought lasers are out of my reach, few years later on some forum i red "get a dragon laser, they USE same internals from CNI just much cheaper than WL" and i thought holy crap WL basterds screwing people over, and started targeting (checking out) DL models.
1st viper had a nice beam, but after my friend playd with it for a week he fkd the button, and since i was a noob i sent it for replacement (instead of just poping out the unit and soldering a new button or jumping it like i'd do these days).
The fixed 1 was ok but after few drops a week later, only faint red light was comeing out, cost me 115$ to fix at DL (because i was a noob)
3rd had a beam comeing out at an angle and was mode hopping more frequently at 18c than previuos units, and i thought oh noooOO what have i done, i shold'v never replaced the 1st unit (because it's easyer to replace everything related to driver and optics axcept been sure you'd get a quality diode and crystal well aligned when sending your unit for a replacement)
6+ months ago i tried to connect a liFePO4 bat for a steady current because with my NiMH the beam was shiny only for 10 first min, but something burned and i killed it.
In mid 2009 i started reading about e-bikes, and only 2 weeks ago (im a slow thinker) it hit me why dont i check if there are any info sharing forums and not bias like WL that let you talk only about their products, and with the electronical knowledge i aquired from e-bikes try to check my viper and save at least another 100$.
and so 2 weeks ago i finally got the balls to do the unimageanble, i guted the viper ! it was hard because the parts were glued i thought with some loctite hence i never tried to open it befor, thought its seald for dead.
in the procces i broke the diode pins off the driver and they twisted inside the diode module holding them and lifted a trace, the guting was horrible.
but im glad i did something, i hate stagnent situations, and now i see what needs to be done.
p.s.
as well been reading the forums for past 2 weeks non stop,
got hit in the eye and veporised my retina in few miliseconds.
added a bit, cos from a mobile phone cant see the whole picture like from a pc now, small screens interfer with the line of thought
glad i found this forum, shame i didnt 2 years ago when i got dragon laser viper 95mw.
story: i allways liked lasers, first time i searched them on the net i think 2004/5, i stumbled upone wicked lasers, optotronics and others mentioned on this forum, but i didnt have a budget for them and didnt wanna start with greens below 75mw (decided that by extrapolations from youtube vids). Since then i thought lasers are out of my reach, few years later on some forum i red "get a dragon laser, they USE same internals from CNI just much cheaper than WL" and i thought holy crap WL basterds screwing people over, and started targeting (checking out) DL models.
1st viper had a nice beam, but after my friend playd with it for a week he fkd the button, and since i was a noob i sent it for replacement (instead of just poping out the unit and soldering a new button or jumping it like i'd do these days).
The fixed 1 was ok but after few drops a week later, only faint red light was comeing out, cost me 115$ to fix at DL (because i was a noob)
3rd had a beam comeing out at an angle and was mode hopping more frequently at 18c than previuos units, and i thought oh noooOO what have i done, i shold'v never replaced the 1st unit (because it's easyer to replace everything related to driver and optics axcept been sure you'd get a quality diode and crystal well aligned when sending your unit for a replacement)
6+ months ago i tried to connect a liFePO4 bat for a steady current because with my NiMH the beam was shiny only for 10 first min, but something burned and i killed it.
In mid 2009 i started reading about e-bikes, and only 2 weeks ago (im a slow thinker) it hit me why dont i check if there are any info sharing forums and not bias like WL that let you talk only about their products, and with the electronical knowledge i aquired from e-bikes try to check my viper and save at least another 100$.
and so 2 weeks ago i finally got the balls to do the unimageanble, i guted the viper ! it was hard because the parts were glued i thought with some loctite hence i never tried to open it befor, thought its seald for dead.
in the procces i broke the diode pins off the driver and they twisted inside the diode module holding them and lifted a trace, the guting was horrible.
but im glad i did something, i hate stagnent situations, and now i see what needs to be done.
p.s.
as well been reading the forums for past 2 weeks non stop,
got hit in the eye and veporised my retina in few miliseconds.
added a bit, cos from a mobile phone cant see the whole picture like from a pc now, small screens interfer with the line of thought
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theres truckloads of info and awesome projects here and hopefully you'll be able repair your laser 
