I honestly hate building lasers.

[Marco Polo]

And NOW the Ehgemus host is working fine again. I have no idea how. Some weirdness in the battery spring, I think? I knew that wire couldn't have come loose, the thing is rock solid. It's stuff like this that drives me nuts.

I'm glad that's over, at least the laser survived by bungling and now I have something else to take pictures of. I just wish that getting to this point didn't involve running my blood pressure through the roof every time. That can't be good.

I'm kind of done with Chinese flashlight hosts, anyway... this custom host is nice, does not have the durability issues (paper-thin metal) that the C6 and 301's have. This host is basically everything good about the Laser 301 and none of the bad. Will post a thread after/during work.

 

[Pman]

I'ts no issue at all for me to take a look at it for you and repair if needed.
I've found a very common issue with units I've purchased is the contact boards not making proper contact.
I thought that I read somewhere that the SL contact boards issue had been fixed. Have to be good and hot and the surfaces totally clean.
I do however prefer to purchase my modules as complete units as it's so inexpensive and you can save some $ on lenses. Prefer DTR modules as he does a very good job and sells the actual G2 lenses with the modules at a reduced cost. The G2 cost less now than they used too.
Guess I've been lucky so far with not getting the hand shaking. My close vision has unfortunately been trying to make up for that though

Hang in there my friend, they're just lasers.

 

[Grix]

Don't worry OP, it gets easier with practice for sure. No need to get stressed, if it doesn't work then just take a breath to collect your thoughts and systematically troubleshoot. No need to get angry, the parts are inanimate after all.
If you feel like you are about to start tearing your hair out, take a break and don't think about the build for a while.

For me it has sadly gotten perhaps too easy, building lasers for money for my store for years have taken out a lot of the joy, it's reduced to mundane routine now.

 

[Marco Polo]

Honestly, I'm pretty sold on this Ehgemus host, once I had power on the output wire all I did was solder driver negative to the diode case pin (HL63603TG, case-isolated diode) and driver positive to host power lead. Push module into host, adjust the focus, and good to go.

It is much nicer than the C6 because there is no goofy battery board to mess with, no separate heatsink, no real risk of rotating the module and twisting off pins. Also, no weak metal that will break; a lot of the metal on the C6 is literally paper-thin. No idea about the no-voltage issue but it's working now and this unit has ended up being, basically, a prototype anyway. So, I'm happy with it, and hopefully this style/layout will be what I work with going forward. It should save a lot of stress.

Don't worry OP, it gets easier with practice for sure. No need to get stressed, if it doesn't work then just take a breath to collect your thoughts and systematically troubleshoot. No need to get angry, the parts are inanimate after all.
If you feel like you are about to start tearing your hair out, take a break and don't think about the build for a while.

For me it has sadly gotten perhaps too easy, building lasers for money for my store for years have taken out a lot of the joy, it's reduced to mundane routine now.

 

[Team Orange07]

To the Op, dont give up! Like others said . best part is building one .trying to convince my friends to buy lasers so I can build for them, plus you can always buy a host that's super basic to build. Host builders will work with you on what you want out of the host. For anyone local to me who might need a hand building just pm me. In no expert here but I'd love to help out. Op post up your build when you get it done.

 

[Atomicrox]

If you don't enjoy building then don't build - I don't think it's an acquired taste after all. Cost wise the difference isn't that big anyways. There are lots of builders here happy to do the hard work for you

That said, I also have an issue of soldering small stuff and getting pissed off because it goes wrong. Not sure if it's due to my crappy soldering iron or if it's my fault - I do shake a bit, after all. OTOH I like building stuff, always have.

 

[Pman]

I don't care how you get them MP as long as you keep doing what you do
I have hundreds of units I built or modified as a therapy thing because of pain issues. If i hadnt gotten into lasers it would been something else.
Have always loved to tinker. Cant throw anything out without taking it apart first and seeing if theres anything I might use later.Gives me something interesting to do and the results still feel a bit like magic. Grew up with things like Star Trek and read tons of sci-fi. Who wouldnt want a real life phaser

 

[lazeristasUVISIR]

I used to and use a zoom scope for soldering now, it really helps.

Do you have any fume extractor or blower?