Something's wrong... help!

[Daddy]

Hey guys.

Got my Sanwu Red Guardian in the post today. It has a 1W 405nm diode. It arrived much sooner than I was expecting. After I tried to use it, I immediately noticed something was wrong.

I put my Nitecore IMR 18350 battery in and turned on the laser. Immediately it started smoking. The laser dot looked kind of strange, like it was several smaller dots instead of one circle. (This might be normal though, I don't know.) The laser beam seemed kind of dim. After maybe two seconds, I turned it off. The positive end of the battery is a little fried and blackened in a small area.

Please advise.

 

[BowtieGuy]

I'll ask the obvious first, which way did you install the battery?

 

[3DLaSeRBuiLDeR]

Maybe he inserted the batteries in the wrong way and caused a short circuit , unless the battery is PCB protected from reverse polarity, accidental :thinking:

 

[Encap]

What was said above +

Which end of battery towards the tailcap switch or which end towards the laser output/business end?

Sanwu Guardian is case negative meaning positive + end of batttery goes towards diode/output end --- negative end of battery towards tailcap.

 

[Daddy]

I tried the battery both ways because I knew that the Sanwu driver has reverse polarity protection. When the positive end was facing the tailcap, the laser didn't turn on. The laser only turns on with the negative end facing the tailcap.

 

[BowtieGuy]

Even though it's polarity protected, putting the battery in the wrong way could still damage the driver.
Does it still turn on at all?

 

[Daddy]

I'm afraid to try because the battery might explode. Should I try again?

 

[BowtieGuy]

If you're suspicious of that battery, use another one if you have one, and be sure it's fully charged.
Be sure to insert the battery as Encap mentioned, + side in first.

 

[Daddy]

The battery is fully charged according to my Nitecore charger. I tried again and the laser turned on. There was gentle smoking so I turned it off after two seconds.

I don't have a different battery so should I buy one?

 

[BobMc]

I've bought many a laser from Sanwu ( including a 405 Guardian) never had one smoke. I'd email Sanwu and see what they say. Life happens, but a replacement sounds in order. Keep us apprised. Best wishes

 

[3DLaSeRBuiLDeR]

Which brand are your batteries current ?

 

[BowtieGuy]

I've bought many a laser from Sanwu ( including a 405 Guardian) never had one smoke. I'd email Sanwu and see what they say. Life happens, but a replacement sounds in order. Keep us apprised. Best wishes

Good advice!

 

[Encap]

The battery is fully charged according to my Nitecore charger. I tried again and the laser turned on. There was gentle smoking so I turned it off after two seconds.

I don't have a different battery so should I buy one?

Nothng to worry about --Sanwu Red Guardian lasers for the UK market are apparently powered by smoke running in a sophisticated smoke circuit to a smoke powered diode--battery is just used to produce smoke to power it up much the same as in Jaguar XKE "electical" systems of the late 1960's to 1975, which also ran on smoke. :crackup:


Seriously, try a different battery--is supposed to take a 18350 flat top not button top and battery could be a bad battery also.
Look inside the barrel and inspect the area where the positive end makes contact to see if anything look unusual i.e. spring/contact bent at angle causing a short.
Contact LPF member Podo/Sanwu and ask what's what and which way to proceed - refer them this thread.

 

[BowtieGuy]

Nothng to worry about --Sanwu Red Guardian lasers for the UK market are apparently powered by smoke running in a sophisticated smoke circuit to a smoke powered diode--battery is just used to produce smoke to power it up much the same as in Jaguar XKE "electical" systems of the late 1960's to 1975, which also ran on smoke. :crackup:

You're probably right, I was assuming he was in a "No Smoking" area! :crackup:

Edit: This could be Sanwu's first multi use product, lasing & vaping!

 

[BobMc]

Good advice!

Thanks, I'm a Sanwu fan, so I really like customers to get what they paid for. ( I'm sure Sanwu does too )

Nothng to worry about --Sanwu Red Guardian lasers for the UK market are apparently powered by smoke running in a sophisticated smoke circuit to a smoke powered diode--battery is just used to produce smoke to power it up much the same as in Jaguar XKE "electical" systems of the late 1960's to 1975, which also ran on smoke. :crackup:
.

Too funny! :crackup:

Ps, Don't tell the EPA they'll probably try to regulate the emissions.

 

[Encap]

You're probably right, I was assuming he was in a "No Smoking" area! :crackup:

Edit: This could be Sanwu's first multi use product, lasing & vaping!

A UK "No Smoking" area could well be the problem. In no smoking areas the gravitational field is modulated to keep the air a little bit cleaner however this perturbations of the gravitational field in "no Smoking" areas also can interfer with a proper smoke circuit's functioning and with the laser wavelength as well if not linearly polarized. Sanwu may have sent him a spherically polarized model in error rather than the linearly polarized model for use in UK "No Smoking" areas being employed in UK market Red Guardian lasers to make them that much more special.

Is a phonomenon known in some circles as the "Pop Goes the Weasel" effect --
see excerpt from paper, Gravitational properties of light—the gravitational field of a laser pulse, as follows below:

"The gravitational field of a laser pulse of finite lifetime, is investigated in the framework of linearized gravity. Although the effects are very small, they may be of fundamental physical interest.
It is shown that the gravitational field of a linearly polarized light pulse is modulated as the norm of the corresponding electric field strength, while no modulations arise for circular polarization.

In general, the gravitational field is independent of the polarization direction.
It is shown that all physical effects are confined to spherical shells expanding with the speed of light, and that these shells are imprints of the spacetime events representing emission and absorption of the pulse.

Nearby test particles at rest are attracted towards the pulse trajectory by the gravitational field due to the emission of the pulse, and they are repelled from the pulse trajectory by the gravitational field due to its absorption.

Examples are given for the size of the attractive effect. It is recovered that massless test particles do not experience
any physical effect if they are co-propagating with the pulse, and that the acceleration of massless test particles counter-propagating with respect to the pulse is four times stronger than for massive particles at rest.
The similarities between the gravitational effect of a laser pulse and Newtonian gravity in twodimensions are pointed out.
The spacetime curvature close to the pulse is compared to that of induced gravitational waves"

See entire paper here: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1367-2630/18/2/023009/pdf