Something's wrong

[Emialias]

So ive had my green laser for a while now, and ive been noticing this horrid halo around the dot. :gun:

Heres a pic of it without the lens

So whats happening here? Is the infrared diode screwed up? Maybe the crystals are dirty?
is this damage repairable or will it just have to stay?
this kinda worries me and i probably will get a new one since its been a while since ive seen a green laser without the halo

Edit: i will also stop using it if this issue is considered a danger

 

[Sta]

Looks like you took off the aperture end. That is just normal splash, but it was previously covered by a cap of some kind (that cut it off.) This is pretty usual for a chinese product. No worries

Edit: Looks like some dust got on the lens. Have you been using this laser near fire?

 

[Emialias]

yea i have, mostly because smoke+lasers=cool stuff.
i havent really taken anything off except for the lens thing, and it wasnt like this when i got it. there is a little bit of splash outside of the ring, but thats not the issue. its the bright ring around the dot and it kinda ruins the effect of an otherwise collimated beam of electromagnetic energy
the effect is much worse when the lens is taken off, the lens just pushes the insanity into the ring you see when the laser has its lens on.

 

[Razako]

Your lens might be dirty.

 

[94Z28]

Looks like my 532 star pointer when dirt gets on the lens... the more dirt, the worse it gets... if you have plastic lens and you wiped it off, this could also be the by-product of that... I have to use compressed air on the plastic 532 lenses or they get ruined as seen above.

 

[Emialias]

well the thing is, its not the lens. the lens just collimates it into the ring. take off the lens and you get all the broken insanity around the actual raw output.

 

[diachi]

well the thing is, its not the lens. the lens just collimates it into the ring. take off the lens and you get all the broken insanity around the actual raw output.

Got a picture of the raw output? If it's not dirt on the collimating lens it could be dirt on the expanding lens that sits before the collimating lens.

 

[CaliKirk]

It's more than likely an issue with the final collimation lens but could be a combination with something on the expanding lens. I have found that using alot of fog or even VG heavy vape juice will cause this in alot of lenses, both plastic and glass. Cleaning plastic lenses is almost impossible without scratching the lens itself, making the problem even worse. The tiniest amount of dirt, dust or even condensation on either of lenses in a 532 assembly will cause some crazy looking outputs with artifacts all over, well that's all lasers really not just 532

Kinda sucks but at this point it looks like the damage is done and using the laser is fine. Anymore attempts at cleaning the lens more than likely will cause more damage. I personally like having a beater 532 for when I know keeping it clean is an issue.

Pics- (all pictures) on the right is a brand new 532, left is a very used 532 with known scratches on both lenses.
First pic with collimation lenses, second pic raw output.
Edit:third pic is with collimation lenses swapped. Brand new 532 with bad collimation lens on right, and scratched expansion lens 532 with brand new collimation lens on the left.

 

[Emialias]

oh rip. i will probably get a different cheap greenie to replace it somewhere. it would always be nice to find a more powerful one, so i will try to see if this XPL company has any. i hear they got good prices on these cheap lasers