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Long overdue introduction

itw3ak

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Joined
Jul 7, 2009
Messages
41
Points
6
Hello fellow forum members!

itw3ak aka lasermole speaking. (i only have one account as itw3ak just fyi)

I have been a member here for about a year now and I was so excited to jump right into all of this laser goodness I never started at the beginning.

I came to the forum originally to talk with members, learn, and purchase things for my first DIY 405nm build. JayRob was and has since been very helpful, Daguin you too. Many tid bits of info here have taught me a great deal about the science behind the laser hobby.

An error in judgment and perhaps a practice not worth perusing are what brought me to post this introduction tonight. Only moments ago I destroyed a $180 laser by A:Not using my better judgement of safety, B:Altering a device that was fine left alone. I was POT modding a 5mW CNI 405nm pen that in the past I had modded without damage and was quite delighted. It turn it into a whole new device, it now was capable of burning, etc.
Tonight I changed out the batteries for a new set of rechargeable CR2 3.0v's I just bought in the hope that I would never again have to buy more primary CR2's at exuberant costs. Well it worked out ok for most of the day, the laser was brighter then ever and burned like the dickens. Only just moments ago it dimmed and died. Desperately I yanked the batteries out hoping the new RCR2's were just dying, nope...I killed it :cryyy:

Are any of you familiar with thinkgeek.com? And "bucky balls" well they are small round powerful magnets that I often use to make a quick dirty "wire" connection between batteries as it "holds" them together. Turns out they are a little too powerful with minds of their own. While not paying attention working on the laser driver and diode the magnets grabbed hold of each other and made a perfect short circuit in the brand new RCR2's ! I started to smell burning and looked over to find my batteries melting their plastic casings and nearly ready to explode! I was able to find a piece of cardboard and separate the short in time to avoid an really dangerous mess.

To make a long post short, This was dumb in many ways. I should have just left it alone. And this has given me a great deal of respect for the danger of jumping in, and the danger of Li-ion batteries when not used properly.

-$200 later I thank all of you for your wealth of information and I warn new users of lasers and this forum to be safe, take your time, and don't forget to ask senior members for advice when you are not sure! Let my example teach everyone something.

Thanks everyone.
P.S. anyone got a 12x 405nm diode they wana sell?
 





Ash

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Joined
Mar 3, 2009
Messages
1,981
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0
Great introduction. Glad you didn't get burned, and sorry to hear about your pot-modded CNI pen dying. It sounds like you got it upwards of 50mW before it died.
I have a theory that the new batteries over-drove the driver and LED the diode. I killed my dilda v1 using 2x 3.6v CR2's a few months ago :(

I know you have been here a year, but
welcome-monkey.gif
 

Kevlar

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Joined
Apr 26, 2010
Messages
1,353
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I use those strong rare earth magnets for my CR2 battery mod with my LOC build but I use barrel shaped with flat top and bottom.

I'm not totally sure I understand how it shorted out? Did you have 2 magnets stacked in between the batteries then they rolled next to each other?

Glad to hear you didn't get seriously hurt, those Li Ions can be pretty dangerous.
 
Joined
Apr 28, 2009
Messages
2,416
Points
63
Welcome, and sorry to hear about your loss. It's the never ending saga, that goes on and on. Buy laser parts, sometimes good luck. Sometimes not. But as time goes on, more good luck than bad ;-)
I dropped a 850mah ultrafire on the concrete garage floor and it exploded like a firecracker. Funny thing was, it was on the Fourth.
 
Joined
Nov 17, 2009
Messages
2,031
Points
83
Man, stay FAR AWAY from shorted LiIon batteries. I kind of worry sometimes because I use so may of them in my laser collection. Recently I bought a bunch of those little plastic cases from DX because the last thing I need is a short happening in a drawer full of ~50 LiIon batteries. At ~$1.50 a case, it's a pretty good investment to just keep something real bad from happening.
 




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