This is the WEIRDEST diode I have ever seen!!!

[spinout059]

I took apart my <5mw pet toy laser trying to find a poteniometer... it did not have one... I did find a VERY weird diode however...

Here is the circuit board

 

[wooooooolazer]

There called a printed diode, there alot cheaper to make the the ones we are used to that is why they are in those cheap lasers, no wonder you didnt find a pot in it, most of them are just a resistor and thats all, kinda like a pulsar.

...lazer... ;D ;D ;D

 

[spinout059]

There called a printed diode, there alot cheaper to make the the ones we are used to that is why they are in those cheap lasers, no wonder you didnt find a pot in it, most of them are just a resistor and thats all, kinda like a pulsar.

...lazer... ;D ;D ;D

I just posted a pic of the circuit board, it has a 121 resistor in it. This laser was $4 at walgreens. I broke part of the optics so I could not continue but I was modding the case to hold 4 lr44 batteries rather than 3. I got it to work without the back on and the dot was SIGNIFICANTLY brighter.I will buy another one soon and then post pics of how I did it.

 

[wooooooolazer]

Cheater, that wasnt there when i posted

...lazer.... ;D ;D ;D

 

[spinout059]

Cheater, that wasnt there when i posted

...lazer.... ;D ;D ;D

Because you inspired me to expose how cheap these circuits are. Especcially with pumping 4.5v of current into the diodes... How do these survive? Are the printed ones more stable that the canned or opencan?

 

[wooooooolazer]

I was just wondering that, seeing as how a little spike from the battery can kill one of the dvd burner ones, yet these have a simple resistor and even with fresh batteries that would send quite a big spike they still live fine.

Oh by the way be very careful with that, theres a very tiny wire that connects to the actual laser itself (which is a very tiny rectangle on the front of it) and it can be broke extremely easily, thats i how broke one of those i took apart.

...lazer... ;D ;D ;D

 

[RA_pierce]

I bought one of those laser+led light things from Walgreens...
I took off the led and adjusted the collimation down to about 0.5mRad and made it fit 4 LR44s instead of 3, and yes they do get a lot brighter.
Those diodes suck. They don't fit in modules and they break easily.
But they are brighter than the 650nm diodes. Probably closer to 635 than 650nm.

 

[f22warzone]

i had one hookd up to 8 nimh battries before : )
at first it was 4 then it kept getting dimmer and dimmer so i just added more battries to keep it about the same bright ness then i ran out of ways to add more battries and it dimmed to nothing :|