RIP my 532nm greeny

[Skittles]

Today I decided to make a review for my 9 month old laser pointer that I got on ebay. Thought it would be cool to show how well it served me for that long.
I open the box, pick it up, put in my LG 18650 battery in it, turn it on, it blinks for a mili-second and bam, nothing. I tried my other batteries, LG, cheap ones, Intervine, nothing. I guess my laser died. :cryyy:

I was warned about getting these types of lasers on ebay before, knowing that there is no guarantee that they will last, I still went with the purchase, and was happy with it while it lasted. Despite its terrible dot and beam divergence I liked it a lot, I took it to camping trips, showed it off to friends, even took pics.

I guess all good (cheap) things must come to an end. I will not for certain ever spend $100 on a laser again that I can't trust. Buying it was not a bad idea for me and I still think it was worth it, but next time I will invest in something that will last longer.

It had a glow in the dark push button

 

[Razako]

That sucks, usually those lasers have suspect drivers in them, poor heat sinking, or some other corner was cut which eventually leads to failure.

 

[Encap]

Could be something else --poor or no contact between host and tail cap or bad switch-----with tail cap off--take a paper clip or tin foil to short the host to + battery terminal --see if it comes on--just to check

 

[deadshadow]

its always sad to lose a laser,i can't even consider it cheap for an ebay laser.do you know the output it had?

i vote to Encap's advice,definetly try to sort the battery with the host without the tailcap.tailcaps are the number one reason for failures

 

[Skittles]

Could be something else --poor or no contact between host and tail cap or bad switch-----with tail cap off--take a paper clip or tin foil to short the host to + battery terminal --see if it comes on--just to check

I tried aluminum foil and I tried a magnet and nothing. Thanks for the tip though.

its always sad to lose a laser,i can't even consider it cheap for an ebay laser.do you know the output it had?

i vote to Encap's advice,definetly try to sort the battery with the host without the tailcap.tailcaps are the number one reason for failures

I remember asking the seller for the output and he sent me a picture of it being metered at 375mw, it doesn't have an IR filter though.

 

[GSS]

Total bummer:cryyy:
If your certain you have tried everything to revive it and have given it a nice memorial:can: can you try to carefully take it apart and show us how this one is put together..
The host is actually nice and you just might to be able to put another 532 module in it, depending to how much of it is glued together.

 

[Alaskan]

Total bummer:cryyy:
If your certain you have tried everything to revive it and have given it a nice memorial:can: can you try to carefully take it apart and show us how this one is put together..

Show and tell for LPF, I like it

 

[Encap]

I tried aluminum foil and I tried a magnet and nothing. Thanks for the tip though.
I remember asking the seller for the output and he sent me a picture of it being metered at 375mw, it doesn't have an IR filter though.

Unfortunate-----if you are careful you probably can take it apart and replace a bad driver or the 808nm diode---might cost more than a new one of same type and quality at this point.

Suggest you replace it with a high quality laser that has an IR filter such as Jetlasers PL-E Pro that will give years of service if you want another 532nm see: https://www.jetlasers.org/38-green-lasers

 

[317718]

Unfortunate-----if you are careful you probably can take it apart and replace a bad driver or the 808nm diode---might cost more than a new one of same type and quality at this point.

Suggest you replace it with a high quality laser that has an IR filter such as Jetlasers that will give years of service if you want anopther 532nm see: https://www.jetlasers.org/38-green-lasers

i can assured that Jetlaser is an excellent vendor as well. They even went above and beyond to build me a custom ple-pro( their iconic series) made out of copper .

En cap off for Encap.

 

[GSS]

Unfortunate-----if you are careful you probably can take it apart and replace a bad driver or the 808nm diode---might cost more than a new one of same type and quality at this point.

Suggest you replace it with a high quality laser that has an IR filter such as Jetlasers PL-E Pro that will give years of service if you want another 532nm see: https://www.jetlasers.org/38-green-lasers

Yup, what Encap said..
If the output was any where near the 375mw as claimed i'm assuming it has at least a 1W 808nm pump diode. These modules alone even rated at 200mw cost around $60.

You can though get some Fasttech 5mw 532's for $5 to $6 just to have some fun in trying in the mean time..
Even though they are rated at 5mw they can do 30mw to 80mw or more..

$179.99 of 200mw and over spec for a Jetlaser is a no brainer

 

[Skittles]

Total bummer:cryyy:
If your certain you have tried everything to revive it and have given it a nice memorial:can: can you try to carefully take it apart and show us how this one is put together..
The host is actually nice and you just might to be able to put another 532 module in it, depending to how much of it is glued together.

I will when I get the chance, I tried before but the module is glued in to the host pretty well, I'll see what I can do with some pliers. Should I post the results in this thread or make a new one?

Yup, what Encap said..
If the output was any where near the 375mw as claimed i'm assuming it has at least a 1W 808nm pump diode. These modules alone even rated at 200mw cost around $60.

You can though get some Fasttech 5mw 532's for $5 to $6 just to have some fun in trying in the mean time..
Even though they are rated at 5mw they can do 30mw to 80mw or more..

$179.99 of 200mw and over spec for a Jetlaser is a no brainer

Yeah I guessed that it would pump out tons of IR, the dot wasn't even round on it, it was more like a blob; like a 2 year old trying to make a drawing of a circle. And the beam was more like a 520nm beam, but the color was 532nm for sure. I have two empty hosts now from 532nm lasers, I'll post pics later to see if you guys can recommend me some modules or something.

 

[paul1598419]

I doubt the IR content would be very high. It is debatable whether it was actually 375 mW as the pump diode would more likely be a 2 watt. If it did put out 375 mW, about 75 mW would be a reasonable guess of the IR content. I'll bet it was not much higher than 150 mW, though. You'd have to measure it yourself to know and it's too late now. Sorry for your loss.

 

[diachi]

I doubt the IR content would be very high. It is debatable whether it was actually 375 mW as the pump diode would more likely be a 2 watt. If it did put out 375 mW, about 75 mW would be a reasonable guess of the IR content. I'll bet it was not much higher than 150 mW, though. You'd have to measure it yourself to know and it's too late now. Sorry for your loss.

Yeah, IR leak is usually a small fraction of the green output. Most of the 808nm pump light is absorbed by the vanadate (Better than 99% in the first 100-200μm for a 3% doped crystal) anything that isn't is likely reflected back or lost in the housing seeing as the pump light isn't collimated.

For 1064nm, unless the coatings are trash most of that should stay inside the cavity. It wouldn't lase at 532nm otherwise.

As for pump power, a 1W pump would be able to produce no more than 300mW@532nm, that's best case. A more typical efficiency would be closer to 15-20% or 150-200mW.

Looking forward to your pictures! :beer:

 

[Skittles]

I doubt the IR content would be very high. It is debatable whether it was actually 375 mW as the pump diode would more likely be a 2 watt. If it did put out 375 mW, about 75 mW would be a reasonable guess of the IR content. I'll bet it was not much higher than 150 mW, though. You'd have to measure it yourself to know and it's too late now. Sorry for your loss.

It was much brighter than my cheap 100mw green, and it was brighter than my 1 watt 445nm.

 

[paul1598419]

Of course it was brighter than a 445nm as your eyes are able to "see" green much better than violet/blue light. I would expect a 70 mW 532nm to look brighter than a 1 watt 445nm. I have a 477nm blue laser that outputs 130 mW and is just as bright as my 550 mW 445nm laser. Deep blues and reds are always seen as dimmer than any wavelength of green. You can't compare brightness of different wavelengths like they are equal. They are not.

 

[Skittles]

Of course it was brighter than a 445nm as your eyes are able to "see" green much better than violet/blue light. I would expect a 70 mW 532nm to look brighter than a 1 watt 445nm. I have a 477nm blue laser that outputs 130 mW and is just as bright as my 550 mW 445nm laser. Deep blues and reds are always seen as dimmer than any wavelength of green. You can't compare brightness of different wavelengths like they are equal. They are not.

I know that, my 1 watt 445nm is brighter than a 100mw green (Judging by advertisements) And the broken 375mw was at least three times brighter than the 100mw green. I am just trying to say that I'm sure that it would be too bright to be 175mw.
On the other note, here are some pics I took of the module and the host:

https://imgur.com/a/xeZQA

Where can I buy a module like that? :yh:

http://lsrtools.1apps.com/relativebrightness/?nm1=532&mw1=70&nm2=445&mw2=1000&useRaleigh=on
The calculator says that 70mw 532nm is not as bright as 1 watt of 445nm lol.