Laser Died?

[Putrio]

Good Morning

I have the following issue. When I power on my laser, there is a fraction of a second where it's the old brightness, and then it's very dim, like an LED. Is this a battery problem? Perhaps my cr123 went dead? Or, is it something more problematic, like the diode being burnt out? I would think there wouldn't be any bright flash if the diode was bad, but I'm not experienced and am just guessing. Perhaps a solder connection could cause it? I'm just throwing things out there, anyone have a better explanation or can mostly verify one of the things I've said? 110 mw 803t blu-ray diode in DJR host with a single non-rechargable cr123 3v battery. Perhaps the battery is too low for the lavadrive to power the laser any more except for the power on spike? Thanks for your help

Ian

 

[Putrio]

Bought a new battery, that didn't fix it...I'll have to see if the connections came loose tonight when I get home. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[chipdouglas]

Did you build it yourself? If so ESD might have killed it. :'(


michael

 

[Putrio]

Did you build it yourself? If so ESD might have killed it.  :'(


michael

Yeah, I built it myself...it worked well for about 12h non continuous use and then died. I didn't open the host or anything prior to it stopping. You think it's a symptom of a dead diode then, and not a crappy connection?

Ian

 

[Putrio]

I need to know what to order here, I know you veterans have burned out your share of diodes and drivers  ;D...What do the symptoms of my initial post match?  Again - Bright flash, then very dim beam every time I turn it on.  Additionally, there are two rectangular lights on either side of the dim UV light that are both yellowish.  Last, there is a very high pitched whine if I hold it up to my ear.

Ian

**Edit

I connected the battery up directly to the driver rather than screwing on the bottom half of the Dorcy....instant laser goodness.  Has anyone ever had a Dorcy host burn out?  I'm not very happy about it, these things are expensive!!! :-/

 

[rkcstr]

Make sure there isn't circuitry in the tail cap of the Dorcy host... may well have a circuit in there which interferes with the voltage from the battery... could be causing the "whine" you hear too.

 

[Putrio]

So after connecting the battery directly to the Flex drive and the diode working, I had to assume the plug in between the battery positive and my assembly spring had something in it that burnt out. I took a large allen wrench and a hammer and knocked the thing out, and inside was a circuit board that looked similar to the DrLava drive. It HAD to be the culprit. I jimmied up a plastic washer to keep the spring from touching the inside of the host, and to my great relief, it was working again. So, if anyone ever has this issue, that's probably why.

Ian

 

[daguin]

The Dorcy's original driver is under the black plastic ring that the battery contact spring goes into. The original driver must be removed. You can push it out from the rear of the body easily. You can simply replace the black plastic ring to guide the spring to the center of the host. The spring from the driver must make direct contact with the battery.

Peace,
dave

 

[CTM]

Thanks for this post. I too was struggling with the same problem. :-/ Just my luck, my problem happened to be solved on the first page. I took out the original circuit board in the host to get a direct contact from the spring to the battery.
This solution saved me from giving up on my laser. I have Now built my first burning Blu-Ray laser.
Thank You for y'all's help!!! ;D