Hey all, this is the first time I had a laser die out on me and wanted to post my views on why it did so others can learn from my experience.
It was a LAZERER 405nm Rifle @ 562mW (on power cert) that died right after I gave both its batteries a full (possible over-) charge. It lit up real bright for a second before it LED'd in my hand.
Some history:
Had it for 3 months.
It HAS been used past the duty cycle (45sec) for just over a minute with about 15-20 sec cooldown about 3-5 times during multiple burning experiments... Yeah. :angel:
Being my first and most powerful laser in this wavelength (405nm), it was too easy to damage the diode this way while not paying much attention to the passage of time.
Impressions:
Stable, single-mode lasers like the Lazerer mini-B 100mw are much more enjoyable in my eyes (no pun intended) than the unstable, risky overspec lasers.
I sort of expected it to endure the damage from overuse but can't help thinking that the fully (or over-) charged batteries have caused the diode to finally burn out.
Any other theories/comments?
Concerns:
After taking it apart (only the twist-offs) a spring appears to be glued into a small hole, which I am thinking of using a soldering iron to melt the glue and extract the spring to reach the diode. Even so, the hole is too small.
I dunno how to approach this even if I had a spare diode.
Final Thoughts
It was fun while it lasted, albeit costly. I have learned to take better care of these type of overspec lasers and hope that my analysis has helped you as well.
It was a LAZERER 405nm Rifle @ 562mW (on power cert) that died right after I gave both its batteries a full (possible over-) charge. It lit up real bright for a second before it LED'd in my hand.
Some history:
Had it for 3 months.
It HAS been used past the duty cycle (45sec) for just over a minute with about 15-20 sec cooldown about 3-5 times during multiple burning experiments... Yeah. :angel:
Being my first and most powerful laser in this wavelength (405nm), it was too easy to damage the diode this way while not paying much attention to the passage of time.
Impressions:
Stable, single-mode lasers like the Lazerer mini-B 100mw are much more enjoyable in my eyes (no pun intended) than the unstable, risky overspec lasers.
I sort of expected it to endure the damage from overuse but can't help thinking that the fully (or over-) charged batteries have caused the diode to finally burn out.
Any other theories/comments?
Concerns:
After taking it apart (only the twist-offs) a spring appears to be glued into a small hole, which I am thinking of using a soldering iron to melt the glue and extract the spring to reach the diode. Even so, the hole is too small.
I dunno how to approach this even if I had a spare diode.
Final Thoughts
It was fun while it lasted, albeit costly. I have learned to take better care of these type of overspec lasers and hope that my analysis has helped you as well.
