Rip my only laser

[Emialias]

here we go again
well
so a few months ago i spent a good $40 on a 200mw 650, and for the time i got it in the mail and today, it worked wonders.

and now its dead.

i want to know why
this is the 3rd time this has happened, and im really frustrated.
any help is appreciated,

got a job cleaning gutters for my pastor so i have money now so thats great

 

[Dutch67]

I think that sometimes batteries have something to do with it. What type of laser was it and what batteries were you using?

 

[Chrisbee]

I think that sometimes batteries have something to do with it. What type of laser was it and what batteries were you using?

This is very possible. If it ran off of 2 AAs it should be fine. But I've seen some of those Chinese 650s come with a 3.7v battery, which is too much voltage when fully charged. I've bought a couple of cheap eb@y 650 modules and they swear that they can run on up to 4.5v. I tried it on one and It lasted for a whole 5 mins. The 650 laser that I built myself runs off of one 3.2v LiFeP04 and works great.

 

[Emialias]

i was using fully charged 18650s i got from batteries+bulbs. Nuon brand.
protected and everything. it was turned on, having a jolly good time pointing it around and then poof
200mw turned into <1mw
it was a real shocker

 

[dden4012]

I'm 4 of 5 with 650's. My GGW is still holding up. I'm sure it was my fault with the LPC 826's.

 

[Chrisbee]

Those open can 650s are fragile anyways, but are also sensitive to voltage. From what I was told before I built mine was that a fully charged 3.7v li-ion was too high of voltage for them (18650 or other), so I used a 3.2v LiFeP04 (which also comes in the 18650 size) and is working fine. You just have to have a charger that'll charge those cells.

 

[grainde]

What laser was it and did you stick to a duty cycle? More often than not diodes do not like being over driven continuously. Was the laser getting warm or hot? Did you remove the lens or burn anything close up?:beer:

 

[Emialias]

as i said, i was just pointing it around. not burning anything, the laser was actually quite cold, wasnt on for a while and my lasers are usually in my room and my room is kinda cold. i think maybe i somehow got the laser to shine in on itself somehow, but i think thats very unlikely since i dont have any reflective things below waist level. i dont want to remove the lens assembly because from what ive learned from taking my old broken 301s apart is that the diode window is kinda right there, and i dont think getting anything on there is a super good idea.

i might just forget buying complete units, will probably just start building my own so if it dies i can just blame it on myself and try again

 

[Crazlaser]

If you're looking to replace the 650, I have an Oclaro 638 in a C6 I can sell for $110.