Kryton groove duty cycle @1A + SWITCH FIX inside!

[Prototype]

Re: Kryton groove duty cycle @1A

It's not the spring, people have put plenty of current through them before, remember they weren't designed for laser hosts, they were designed for flashlights. Try shortening the spring, I bet you it's shorting to the side of the host. MarioMaster was having the same problem burning through switches until he tried shortening the spring a bit, it was just shorting to the side of his kryton.

 

[anselm]

Re: Kryton groove duty cycle @1A

Thanks for your answer, but:
It's not the external spring, it's the tiny one INSIDE the switch.
I trimmed the external spring, nothing is bending and shorting against the barrel, the switch works fine at first,
but then the little internal spring "melts" and the switch is dead.:banghead:

Maybe it's a bad batch, and I still have two or three switches left, but it seems pointless to
replace them for, what, 2 minutes of fun?

I really need a high duty replacement.

 

[Prototype]

Re: Kryton groove duty cycle @1A

That's what was happening with Mario's switches as well. I don't think there are any other 16mm switches out there that work. You could try one of the switches from Light Hound designed for the Surefire lights, but they're like $10-12 a piece.

 

[anselm]

Re: Kryton groove duty cycle @1A

OK, I've had it with these damn crappy switches.
I opened one or two and sure enough, the little internal spring had heated up,
distempered the metal and got squished in the process.:banghead:

So, since I didn't feel like ordering 12$ switches I don't even know if they fit,
I McGyver'd it once again. I opened up an unused switch and beefed it up electrically.

Now the current has a lots of paths, and the silly spring doesn't have to take it all anymore.
To close up the switch, I had to superglue it in the corners where I had cut it open.
I haven't played THAT much with it since, but as of now it is holding up very well indeed.
I am a happy camper now, I love this beautiful laser, and now it finally does work.

 

[Mohrenberg]

Re: Kryton groove duty cycle @1A

I've had this exact problem with other boost drives as well. Not only that but I have ran into these same symptoms before with the rkcstr driver. Back when I was buying 50 of them at a time, i would run into 5 or 6 that did this. I never found out what it was, and ended up throwing the drivers away when I ran across one that did this.
However, when your spending $26 per driver, it's not as easy to throw them away

I am a bit puzzled. I have a laser that is doing this as well using a microboost (unheatsinked). It would begin the slow blinking between 90 seconds and two minutes. I thought, "If I have to I'll just turn it down and sell it 'at cost' to someone."

I hooked it up to my bench PSU and ran a test to make sure what the output was before I started. Since I had it in front of the LPM, I decided to see how quickly the power was dropping with the heat.

The laser ran for 5 minutes without blinking, when hooked up to the bench PSU! The head was hot to the touch at the end of the 5 minutes. It was just the head and driver. It was not screwed into the body.

So it got hot enough to be uncomfortable to hold, and yet continued to lase without blinking. The bench PSU was set to 4.5V.

I am wondering if maybe we have some other phenomenon at work here. Could the problem be caused by something that is only present when the driver is being powered from a battery? Could it be that the battery cannot keep up? Could it be something overheating in the switch?

Peace,
dave

 

[Asherz]

I'm glad I'm not the only person having issue with my flex drive flickering on and off, I noticed it a while ago in my dorcy build, and now it's occuring in my new build as well both set at 1A.

I'm going to try heatsinking it to a penny and see if it stops it.

 

[daguin]

Had another switch fail.

I got a laser back that had a failed switch. Owner reported "blinking" before failure. The microboost is heat sinked. I tested the laser with power from my bench PSU. No probelms. 4-minute burns without fail.

I decided to see how it acted with it being powered by the battery. I wired the battery to the positive spring contact and clamped the negative contact to the laser head. I have performed several 4-minute burns with the battery. It works perfectly. The only thing left is the switch.

I have tried the switches that came with the Grooves. I have tried the switches that Anselm got. Both fail at 1A.

We need a higher rated 16mm clicky switch. I sure as heck do NOT want to rebuild every switch the way that Anselm did

Peace,
dave

**EDIT** -- I just did a test run with the laser head in the body with me shorting the negative of the battery to the host. It ran fine for a 5-minute burn. The problems are in the switches

 

[Asherz]

Had another switch fail.

I got a laser back that had a failed switch. Owner reported "blinking" before failure. The microboost is heat sinked. I tested the laser with power from my bench PSU. No probelms. 4-minute burns without fail.

I decided to see how it acted with it being powered by the battery. I wired the battery to the positive spring contact and clamped the negative contact to the laser head. I have performed several 4-minute burns with the battery. It works perfectly. The only thing left is the switch.

I have tried the switches that came with the Grooves. I have tried the switches that Anselm got. Both fail at 1A.

We need a higher rated 16mm clicky switch. I sure as heck do NOT want to rebuild every switch the way that Anselm did

Peace,
dave

**EDIT** -- I just did a test run with the laser head in the body with me shorting the negative of the battery to the host. It ran fine for a 5-minute burn. The problems are in the switches

Really? I need to get in touch with Ehgemus then, because it seems the switch in this host causes blinking pretty quickly, it hasn't failed all together though which is why I didn't think it would be the switch.

I'll try shorting the battery and host and see if it lasts longer without blinking, is it ok to do this with a DMM?

 

[icecruncher]

Just an FYI, In the last 445nm you (daguin) built for me I had the same problem, I pm'd you about. I beefed up the flexdrive with a couple great copper heatsinks that were suggested online but the switch is bad and I can't get one that doesn't fail quickly. I can short across the battery to the case and it runs without issue.

top of line battery so I know the battery can handle the power drop.

I may try one of the $10+ clickies, is there a link for them.

BTW here is the link for the heat sinks I used in the head. I simply cut one in half and used thermal adhesive on either side of the flexdrive.

Thank Kenom for the suggestion.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.24500

Had another switch fail.

I got a laser back that had a failed switch. Owner reported "blinking" before failure. The microboost is heat sinked. I tested the laser with power from my bench PSU. No probelms. 4-minute burns without fail.

I decided to see how it acted with it being powered by the battery. I wired the battery to the positive spring contact and clamped the negative contact to the laser head. I have performed several 4-minute burns with the battery. It works perfectly. The only thing left is the switch.

I have tried the switches that came with the Grooves. I have tried the switches that Anselm got. Both fail at 1A.

We need a higher rated 16mm clicky switch. I sure as heck do NOT want to rebuild every switch the way that Anselm did

Peace,
dave

**EDIT** -- I just did a test run with the laser head in the body with me shorting the negative of the battery to the host. It ran fine for a 5-minute burn. The problems are in the switches

 

[anselm]

LOL maybe I should beef up my remaining switches and sell them 5$ each.:eg:

 

[daguin]

Really? I need to get in touch with Ehgemus then, because it seems the switch in this host causes blinking pretty quickly, it hasn't failed all together though which is why I didn't think it would be the switch.

I'll try shorting the battery and host and see if it lasts longer without blinking, is it ok to do this with a DMM?

I know it is OK to do this. I do NOT know if it is OK to keep it on for five minutes

LOL maybe I should beef up my remaining switches and sell them 5$ each.

I'd take about 20 of them

Peace,
dave

 

[Asherz]

I know it is OK to do this. I do NOT know if it is OK to keep it on for five minutes



I'd take about 20 of them

Peace,
dave

Just to confirm, I tried the battery to host without the clicky switch and the laser runs perfectly, so it's definitely a problem with the switches, which is good and bad, atleast it's not the driver/diode

My dorcy host does the same thing, guess I need to try and find a replacement switch

 

[lazeerer]

What i dont understand though is How come its only the Kryton groove that does this.? We have laser in flashlight host that use the same Clicky No.? Or at least very similar.

Why do they not Fail like in the Kryton groove.? Granted they do fail but nothing like these are.


Edit:

Have any of you tried a switch that you are currently using in another laser that you know for sure works well in that laser.

Try putting that switch in the Kryton groove for testing. If that fails too i dont think its the switches then. It got to be something else.

 

[anselm]

My guess is because this particular switch is really crappy, and the fact that a boost or flex
can draw up to ~2 amps or even more from the battery, depending on the setting
and the batteries voltage.

@daguin:
I just modded my last 3 switches, ordering more from DX.

 

[lazeerer]

Have you tried using a switch from another Laser host that you know works well and handles High currant. Like one of your other High Powered 445nm laser.

Or try one of the 16mm switch in one of your other high powered laser in another host and see if it fails.

 

[icecruncher]

Have you tried using a switch from another Laser host that you know works well and handles High currant. Like one of your other High Powered 445nm laser.

Or try one of the 16mm switch in one of your other high powered laser in another host and see if it fails.

I blew several switches in one night trying to fix mine, off working Kryton tailcaps. No success