Pot modding FAQ's

[lasersbee]

Pot mod all muh lasers, pot modding is awesome just dont bypass the res and you will be fine.

So... let's see ALL those POT MODDED Lasers on a Laser Power
Meter...
It's the only way we will know if your POT Mod even worked...


Jerry

 

[chipdouglas]

my ledshoppe 50mw is pot modded, i didn't have it tested before but it would not pop balloons or lilght matches. now it does both-- and it was tested on scopeguy's LPM with fresh alkalines and it settles at about 100 mw.. i don't use it a whole bunch but it is about a year old and it works no problems at all in freezing weather and at high altitudes.

 

[MikeBP]

Touche Mr Laser Bee, i assume they are pot modded because they get much brighter after turning up the pot to the stopping point.

 

[chipdouglas]

to people reading what mikebp said, ignore his post above. most pots do not have a stopping point, they just turn and turn. so you can go from 0 to full power in a hair!! Testing is always the safest route.

michael

 

[JaiNobeZ]

I bought a cheap 5mW green and twisted the pot around roughly one million and twenty seven times. I then attached it to my deathstar. It worked pretty well, until i got greedy and tried give it a 28th turn and then it blew up and my entire deathstar exploded in a big ball of fire that could be seen from outter space.
The police assumed it had blown up because i'd been driving it drunk (w/ power) and i got a DUI. Was pissed off.

*hopes you can tell i'm kidding*



...sorry if that was innappropriate. I just wanted to ridicule all those posts saying pot-modding is a good thing...

 

[JaiNobeZ]

Also, googling doesn't really yeild anything like what the laser ones look like. Just thought you should probably know that.

 

[LSRFAQ]

Quotes are in BLUE


- Increase power to original level when substituting lower voltage batteries (1.2 v NiMh vs 1.5 v alkaline).

Ummmm, How about buying a laser with a real constant current driver, battery voltage falling off should NOT greatly change the current in a modern laser, That's why you just got the minus one rep.


- Reduce power to original level when substituting higher voltage batteries (3.7 v lithium vs two alkalines).

How about buying a laser with a real constant current driver, battery voltage being higher should NOT greatly change the current nor stress the electronics in a modern laser





Also, if the driver doesn't have a pot you can still usually adjust the power. If you know which resistor to change on the driver, that usually works.[/QUOTE]

Doing this without a power meter and a copy of the pump diode specifications is just a path to disaster.

Steve

 

[lasersbee]

Hey Steve...
just a heads-up...

It is really difficult to read Dark Blue text on a black background..
A lot of members are using the DarkShadows background...

BTW... I agree with your statements...


Jerry

 

[Benm]

Ummmm, How about buying a laser with a real constant current driver, battery voltage falling off should NOT greatly change the current in a modern laser,

Well... on that: Why does it seem so very difficult for manufacturers to get this correct even remotely? Most of the cheaper (say <$100) commercially produced pointers have such bad drivers that the current varies wildly with battery voltage.

Surely with 2 AAA cells there is little or no voltage drop to work with and its understandable, but green lasers running off lithium cells suffer from it too, and there really is no excuse for that.

 

[RDTech]

POt Mods: Remember the small pots on all commercial and cheap laser pointer drivers use single or maybe a few adjustments are all you will get, they are very fragile and will not stand fir multiple adjustments. I have experimented with micro multi-turm buornes SMD pots. They offer greater precision and multiple adjustments, You will have to measure the on board pot to check its resistance before purchase or sampling another small multiturn smd pot. Size will be your next hurdle. Will it fit in the modue or in the housing,

 

[TTerbo]

i think you forgot the Question
How do i pot mod my laser??????
lol bahahahha

 

[psi seeker 34]

The above statement is true.
I read this whole thread which amounts to a bunch of ranting about reasons on weather or not to mod a <$10 laser pointer in order to help it out with it's "issues" and contains only precious little traces of information on "how to pot mod a laser" which is the purpose of this thread in the first place.
I suggest resolving to post only useful information or questions about said information
rather than posting dramatic over reactions and uncalled for personal scoldings instead of facts on how to do it right. It is a known fact that ALL moding can and does break all kinds of things including lasers however the benefits are often worth the effort.
If a person buys 10 dirt cheep laser pointers and manages to break all but one of them but manages to get the last one to ignite paper it was worth the effort for 2 reasons.
The first reason is the person who did said mod now has an awesome device which may have cost him/her more than the cost of all 10 dirt cheep lasers combined.
The second reason is if said person's mod fails all 10 times or shortly afterwards
you have to admit two things to said person 1 this person has lots of perseverance
thus s/he is guaranteed to succeed in the future one way or another and 2 this person
has learned something weather it be "this kind of laser can't be moded" or "how to do it right the next time".

 

[Pontiacg5]

All I can say after that post is
Wat?

Why bring up a dead thread to post that? While there may be a little truth in what you say, other parts are flawed.
Its generally a good idea to leave a thread that went as off topic as this one dead, especially when it has been a month since there has been a post in it.

 

[shintashi]

Can a person just buy a higher powered diode and then pot mod it? or is there more stuff that can go wrong? It just seems like the diodes are only like 10-40 bucks a piece, and it would be cheaper in the long run to buy a new diode. Wait. What the heck am I talking about?

 

[chipdouglas]

^^^ diodes are diodes. they don't come with a driver. any hobbyist that makes their own lasers "pot" mods the driver to set the current to the laser diode. But this is done safely because we know the max, and long life settings for all the bare diodes on the hobby market are.

Now with complete lasers already sold there hasnt been the research done. So that is why it is not a good idea to pot mod your premade laser. Unless you don't care about ruining it. Then by all means, crank that bitch up!!! I do. LoL.

Michael.

 

[Helios]

^^^ diodes are diodes. they don't come with a driver. any hobbyist that makes their own lasers "pot" mods the driver to set the current to the laser diode. But this is done safely because we know the max, and long life settings for all the bare diodes on the hobby market are.

Now with complete lasers already sold there hasnt been the research done. So that is why it is not a good idea to pot mod your premade laser. Unless you don't care about ruining it. Then by all means, crank that bitch up!!! I do. LoL.

Michael.

It would be interesting if someone were to disconnect the diode from the driver and see what kind of current is possible and then look up the specs for the diode. It would be cool if we could have a suggested current for the cheapo greens that one could set using a test load so that its not just blind pot modding. Thats really the problem with pot modding, as you suggested, that it is just a guessing game.


I have a dozen or so cheap 532s so maybe ill give it a try.