O-Like Crown 500mw internals

[arcaneinsomniac]

I received one of these lasers. It produces a pretty epic amount of output but sadly the alignment of the internal unit is slightly off-center, causing a not-great beam profile and a decrease in output power when collimated...

I have contacted Susie and have been given instructions to send it back to China to get it re-aligned but it seems like they want me to pay shipping... between that and my always wanting to go back and turn it on all the time I haven't actually gone through with putting it back in the mail. It's just too much lasing goodness for me to put back into the hands of strangers.

These units should be similar to the 400mw and possibly other "crown" models that O-like produces. There appears to be some kind of glue or epoxy holding various components together. Which is kind of lame.

My question is has anybody taken one apart? What might be the safe procedure to attempt to take one of these apart? I'd like to:

1) see if I can realign it myself so I dont have to ship it around the world again
2) see if I can reassemble it into a smaller host because I have a thing for small hosts. The internal module seems to be a good bit thinner than the host and it looks to be perhaps 2 inches long. It looks like a pretty good way to source a portable high output 532 module for a bleeding edge 14650/14500/2x14500 build.
3) This one I think is a little more realistic. Some helpful user on here might have the tools and know-how to extract the module and get it assembled in a sweet custom host. I'd be interested in that.

Another question. Underneath the collimating lens the aperture looks like a lens. I can't tell if it is convex or concave but I'm wondering why there needs to be a lens here. Without the collimating lens the light is projected out in a ~10 degree flood... Why isn't the light simply going out straight rather than put through this "beam expander" of sorts? To improve divergence? Each additional lens reduces output. Not that any builder of lasers wouldn't know that. Am I missing something here?

 

[Flaminpyro]

I could be wrong here but it's my understanding O-like is a reseller and produces none of the things they sell.

And glue is common with DPSS modules, now if you spend a few thousand dollars you might get a DPSS laser with no glue holding the bit's in place :crackup:

These units should be similar to the 400mw and possibly other "crown" models that O-like produces.

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

Afaik, o-like is not a manufacturer, but, they do put the lasers together. At least some of them... and for others they just bin and resell.

If you do end up shipping the laser back to o-like, GET TRACKING, yes it's not cheap, but otherwise you can expect the laser to never arrive.

 

[Flaminpyro]

Very good advice, I have sent items back and they never showed up and I did not have tracking

If you do end up shipping the laser back to o-like, GET TRACKING, yes it's not cheap, but otherwise you can expect the laser to never arrive.

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

Very good advice, I have sent items back and they never showed up and I did not have tracking

Thanks for the +rep, and back at you :beer:

I learned from experience too, unfortunately :scowl: Now when dealing with chinese companies, there are two things I always do, no matter what... tracking, and dispute after 40 days if there is a problem, and it's still not resolved by that point in time.

 

[Cel]

I learned from experience too, unfortunately :scowl: Now when dealing with chinese companies, there are two things I always do, no matter what... tracking, and dispute after 40 days if there is a problem, and it's still not resolved by that point in time.

You're right, as always...

Tracking is a must for any (expensive) laser...

 

[arcaneinsomniac]

Thanks for the input guys. More reasons for me to see what I can do on my own.

I really hope somebody has experience messing around with one of these and will chime in.