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FrozenGate by Avery

Possible death of a 473... Help maybe?

ZRaffleticket

ZRaffleticket

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Feb 4, 2010
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So today I decided to turn on my 473, since I havent in a while and out came no light.

Figured the battery was dead, no problem I have 2 sitting in the charger. Pull one out and.... No blue light.

So i wondered if the huge IR diode in the back was dead... and using my night vision camera I turned it and the laser on and looked at the wall. Small spot, no brighter than a 5 mW red laser produces in the night vision, not visible to the naked eye. (theres a cheap IR filter inside, after taking it out the spot is pretty damn bright)

So right now my assumption is the crystals are misaligned, and I have absolutely NO idea how to fix this, and knowing there are a lot of smart people here... maybe its possible to revive this thing?
 





I have a 594nm laser in the same condition.

Ya wanna trade ;)

Peace,
dave
 
I take that as its nearly impossible to do... Great.
and i like blue more than yellow too ;)

Edit: I decided to take it apart as well as I could and got down to the bare IR diode. Three words about it: Damn its huge!
I also am quite scared to turn it on at this point. After going through the optics i thought it was bright in night vision. But... raw... oh christ. Dont these things need to be 1W to get like 10 mW of blue?
Uploading a few pics right now to imageshack, connection is slow today though.
 
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ZRaffleticket said:
I take that as its nearly impossible to do... Great.
and i like blue more than yellow too ;)
Click to expand...

Although it is "possible" even the manufacturers often just send a replacement (or simply replace the entire module) instead of trying to repair one of these.

Peace,
dave
 
yeah but my warranty ran out already. It took 11 months for this thing to crap out on me next... thursday i think.
 




Three best pictures, took me a while to get the focus close to right. For some reason my camera doesn't like focusing on small things.

Theres just those last... Two... pieces... superglued together. Goddamnit china!
(probably double post, ah well)
 
First of all, you took it apart. It's dead for good now.

Second, I find your remark:
Goddamnit china!
Click to expand...
...very uninformed.

Every single laser, laser component, printed circuit board, component on that board, crystal, machined part is made in China. Highest quality lasers such as CNI, Viasho and Optotronics are made in China.

Just sayin' :p
 
I only unscrewed the parts that are apart like that. That really would kill it? :cryyy:

I said that about china because they love superglue. Not once have i found one company that doesn't like the stuff.
 
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It's not supposed to thread apart like that. You have a bare diode exposed there, which means crystals have been removed, and crystals are alligned to the diode with micrometer precision for the laser to work.

In short, it's impossible to put it back together.

Also that's not superglue, that's optical grade epoxy, superglue would ruin the optics with the fumes.
 
Ahhh... of course these things are fine-tuned that much.
Welp maybe i can get a bargain with the company and try to extend the warranty a bit and replace it... even though i took it apart a bit already... I just wont mention that part ;)
Wish me luck...
If not i suppose it'd be time to work on converting this into an IR burner once I get appropriate glasses. Hopefully the first option......
 
ZRaffleticket said:
Ahhh... of course these things are fine-tuned that much.
Welp maybe i can get a bargain with the company and try to extend the warranty a bit and replace it... even though i took it apart a bit already... I just wont mention that part ;)
Wish me luck...
If not i suppose it'd be time to work on converting this into an IR burner once I get appropriate glasses. Hopefully the first option......
Click to expand...

I would suggest you tell them the whole story, no cheats. Maybe they will be considerate and give you some fair offer. Trying to hide something from them will result with them finding out what really happened and not talking to you anymore.
 
Don't those crystals degrade in the atmosphere (from water vapor) as well?
 
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My 473 has got me a little worried aswell, sometimes it lases and other times it doesn't :(
 
LBO will absorb water from the air, but this happens over time.

If you set an LBO crystal out on the kitchen table, it would take a few weeks before it would become unusable.
 
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