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Just ordered a 1W 501B from sci-fi!

EllyEnthusiastic said:
.. And it looks like my laser might be dead. The clicker isn't working, and neither is completing the circuit with a paperclip.

I have no idea what's wrong. My laser was working fine, I stuck it on my bed, when I picked it up half an hour later it refused to work.
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My goodness! That's strike two for you when it comes to lasers! First, the SciFi experience and now this! At least you have options. Contact Podo about it. I have no idea how he does things but I'm sure you'll get this resolved without too much trouble. Either a fix or replacement.
 





LEDbeam said:
My goodness! That's strike two for you when it comes to lasers! First, the SciFi experience and now this! At least you have options. Contact Podo about it. I have no idea how he does things but I'm sure you'll get this resolved without too much trouble. Either a fix or replacement.
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We're dealing with it right now. Here's to hoping I can get it fixed/working before the semester ends.
 
EllyEnthusiastic said:
We're dealing with it right now. Here's to hoping I can get it fixed/working before the semester ends.
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Hey at least you didn't wait 6 months for a 300.00 1w WL that didn't show up or finally did with a crooked beam and a bunch of heat paste holding it together.

We have been through tough times too, I popped a 100 dollar diode I really liked late last month and can only blame myself.
 
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LEDbeam said:
The way things are going, lets hope you'll have a working laser before the world ends! :yh:
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Ahaha.. :(

RedCowboy said:
Hey at least you didn't wait 6 months for a 300.00 1w WL that didn't show up or finally did with a crooked beam and a bunch of heat paste holding it together.

We have been through tough times too, I popped a 100 dollar diode I really liked late last month and can only blame myself.
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A $100 diode gone, ouch.. What diode was it?

Right now I'm hoping so hard that my dead laser is a manufacturing issue and not my fault, and that Podo will fix it under warranty.

Question: If the circuit completes (tested with a multimeter), but the laser doesn't shine, is that likely a problem with the driver or the diode? I would expect a fried driver would result in the circuit not completing, but I don't know enough to say for sure.

It'd help, of course, if I were to remove the heatsink module and give it a look, but I worry doing that will definitely void the warranty.
 
I had my nubm06 dialed in really nice by way of one of my 25mm zoom lenses and it was burning with an open flame at 15 feet, I was having so much fun I forgot it wasn't one of my mammoth heat sink builds and got it screaming HOT!

It suddenly went led, something they usually don't do unless you get them very overheated and it was too hot to hold, the tough little diode hung in there until the bitter end putting out good power until a sudden failure.

I want to get another one but I'm still punishing myself for being so dumb.



Yours could be the driver or the diode, sometimes rough shipping knocks something loose, I get packages smashed on all 8 corners, they are really careless with my packages, I think they throw them around and walk on them.
 
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RedCowboy said:
I had my nubm06 dialed in really nice by way of one of my 25mm zoom lenses and it was burning with an open flame at 15 feet, I was having so much fun I forgot it wasn't one of my mammoth heat sink builds and got it screaming HOT!

It suddenly went led, something they usually don't do unless you get them very overheated and it was too hot to hold, the tough little diode hung in there until the bitter end putting out good power until a sudden failure.

I want to get another one but I'm still punishing myself for being so dumb.



Yours could be the driver or the diode, sometimes rough shipping knocks something loose, I get packages smashed on all 8 corners, they are really careless with my packages, I think they throw them around and walk on them.
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Ouch! Poor diode. I'd like to get a nubm06 someday, they seem impressive!

I'm definitely hoping it's a loose connection on the driver. Something like that is easy to fix. A dead diode, not as much. I haven't received a reply from Podo since he asked for more information, but I'm wondering if I'll end up with a partial refund. Once we figure out what's broken, something substantial enough to cover the broken parts.

Though I am hoping is nothing a blob of solder can't fix!
 
Hopefully you can get it fixed and it's just a connection that broke during shipping or something.
 
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Razako said:
Hopefully you can get it fixed and it's just a connection that broke during shipping or something.
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I'm the last person that should be talking about the technical aspects of lasers, but from Elly has said so far, I kind of doubt it was something that got knocked loose during shipping. Otherwise, it would not have worked from the beginning, or it would at least work sporadically now. First, he had trouble with the switch, then after a short time, the laser went dead. I'd say it's either the switch (doubtful, since he was able to bypass the switch and make it work) or a burned out diode. Same thing happened to me shortly after I got mine and it appears to be the diode, being that it went "led" on me. NOTE: Mine isn't a Sanwu.
 
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Oh look at that, Joker leaving a negative rep cussing at RedCowboy by his real name lol. What a pathetic guy Eitan is.

Dude, your ride is over. Stop trying to get revenge. You're done, nothing left of what you've created. It's exploded.

-Alex
 
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Hap said:
Oh look at that, Joker leaving a negative rep cussing at RedCowboy by his real name lol. What a pathetic guy Eitan is.

Dude, your ride is over. Stop trying to get revenge. You're done, nothing left of what you've created. It's exploded.

-Alex
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^^^This exactly :D He left me negative rep too...like come on man...
 
Hap said:
Oh look at that, Joker leaving a negative rep cussing at RedCowboy by his real name lol. What a pathetic guy Eitan is.

Dude, your ride is over. Stop trying to get revenge. You're done, nothing left of what you've created. It's exploded.

-Alex
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Haha, seriously? What an asshat.
 
I'm going to jump in here and say that it is not uncommon for a switch to have issues when it is compressed too much. My bet is there would have been no further issues if you had just bought a flat top cell which is not expensive rather than continuing to mess with it the way it was. I have no idea at this point whether the driver, diode or both got fried because of the intermittent connection but I do know that you shouldn't have continued to use it with the issue. I get the excitement thing and wanting to mess with what you paid a lot of money for and why you did it and it's probably not exactly fair for me to sound a bit harsh since I have a background in working with electrical equipment. You used your new laser as anyone would want to.
That being said, if podo didn't say that you specifically needed a flat top cell then that's a fail on his end as it must be assumed that any buyer would not know the difference because it would just seem like you had a nice strong connection so that would mean it should work even better.
Hard to know what exactly is fair in this case and I'm sorry you had a problem. What exactly is happening at this point? I really hope the diode didn't blow.
Did you check to see if the battery still fully charges and also read the voltage across it?
I'm not trying to be mean about any of this. You'll just have to trust me when I say I REALLY wish things had gone better with all of this. I believe Sanwu/Podo products are high quality and they certainly look like beautiful classy works of art. I hope all of this turns out satisfactory for all parties involved.

On a seperate note 800mW is NOT NOT NOT low powered!!! Please let's agree that <5mW can be referred to as low powered. I can light a match with about 35mW of 405nm. These are dangerous lasers and it does not matter if you can build a 10W laser for a nickel. Availability and price have nothing to do with a diodes power and all lasers including those under 5mW are a potential hazard. 2-3W lasers may be available cheap and this idea that that somehow makes them the new standard in a beginners first laser is disturbing. Generally when someone mentions 800mW what they are actually referring to is a 405nm at that power and that is one nasty laser.
Have fun and be safe;)
 
Pman said:
I'm going to jump in here and say that it is not uncommon for a switch to have issues when it is compressed too much. My bet is there would have been no further issues if you had just bought a flat top cell which is not expensive rather than continuing to mess with it the way it was. I have no idea at this point whether the driver, diode or both got fried because of the intermittent connection but I do know that you shouldn't have continued to use it with the issue. I get the excitement thing and wanting to mess with what you paid a lot of money for and why you did it and it's probably not exactly fair for me to sound a bit harsh since I have a background in working with electrical equipment. You used your new laser as anyone would want to.
That being said, if podo didn't say that you specifically needed a flat top cell then that's a fail on his end as it must be assumed that any buyer would not know the difference because it would just seem like you had a nice strong connection so that would mean it should work even better.
Hard to know what exactly is fair in this case and I'm sorry you had a problem. What exactly is happening at this point? I really hope the diode didn't blow.
Did you check to see if the battery still fully charges and also read the voltage across it?
I'm not trying to be mean about any of this. You'll just have to trust me when I say I REALLY wish things had gone better with all of this. I believe Sanwu/Podo products are high quality and they certainly look like beautiful classy works of art. I hope all of this turns out satisfactory for all parties involved.

On a seperate note 800mW is NOT NOT NOT low powered!!! Please let's agree that <5mW can be referred to as low powered. I can light a match with about 35mW of 405nm. These are dangerous lasers and it does not matter if you can build a 10W laser for a nickel. Availability and price have nothing to do with a diodes power and all lasers including those under 5mW are a potential hazard. 2-3W lasers may be available cheap and this idea that that somehow makes them the new standard in a beginners first laser is disturbing. Generally when someone mentions 800mW what they are actually referring to is a 405nm at that power and that is one nasty laser.
Have fun and be safe;)
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No, I understand what you mean, don't worry!

I don't know if the site mentioned requiring a flat top cell. It does now, but I don't know if that was an update made after Podo brought it up in his sale thread. If I had known a button cell was A. not recommended B. had a chance to damage the laser, I would have returned them the day the laser came in.

Podo PMed me asking for further clarification on how my laser stopped working. I provided it, he asked if I wanted to ship it to him so he can look at it or if I wanted to return my batteries and see if a new set of flat tops will make it work. I'm going to do both-- the former because, though the button tops are not optimal, I think an actual component from the laser is damaged, and the latter because I don't want to screw up my laser again with suboptimal batteries when it comes in again.

On 'low power' 800 mw lasers, I'm not sure what you mean. I never referred to 800 mw lasers as low powered, and I don't remember reading anyone else saying the same thing in this thread. I figure you know, but Sanwu's 'low power' mode is 10mw. That's more power than a 5mw pointer, of course, but all things considered, at 1% of the laser's full power, I think it qualifies as a low power mode anyways.

edit: Forgot to mention, the batteries are fine, they fully charge, I've metered them and their voltage is fine-- better than, actually. They're rated 3.7V, but one came out at 4.17V.
 
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