What is Wrong with my Dimming Laser?

[Trendkilla254]

My Osram PL-515 with a Lazeerer Super Miniar Driver has seemed to diminish in brightness. I've thought this for a while. It used to be much brighter. I had Pman LPM the diode for me at 5mw and he provided the recommended output. I had the driver built for that mA. It appears that when you press the momentary button it puts out the full 5mw and soon fluctuates to a lower power. I don't have an LPM to see what it is actually doing. It may in fact be giving more than 5mw and comming down to 5mw. (I highly doubt that as it used to have a faint beam outside on any given night, but now only in certain conditions or inside in pitch black).

I feel like maybe a capacitor is bad.
The batteries at still at more than 90%, it does it at 100% power as well.
Is the driver damaged? Is this normal? How can I fix it? I wouldn't mind if it was exactly the opposite with it ramping up, but NOT ramping down... that just doesn't make sense.

Uploading video to

FYI my palm was covering any reflection.

 

[RedCowboy]

You could try changing the driver, yes I know...process of elimination.

Maybe the emitter has lost it's heat sink bond? or maybe it's just giving up, I would start by eliminating the driver.

 

[Richie89]

My little cheap 532 was doing the same thing, like you, I too don't have a meter. I took it apart and never found out what was wrong.

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

Only option is to try to replace the driver. Sometimes diodes do just fade and led or die, without any apparent cause.

 

[Chrisbee]

I have 2 of those cheap $2-3 532nm pens that do the same thing from out of the box. I'm getting a free one from the seller because of it. And the other one I decided to TRY and press the module out to see if I could find out anything. I ended up destroying the driver, and there wasn't any potentiometer on the board to control current. So, I'm assuming it just cheap components.

 

[paul1598419]

Those cheap 532nm laser pens mode hop like crazy. If you are getting a free one because of this, more power to you, but don't expect the new one to be any better.

 

[NightExplorer96]

Those cheap 532nm laser pens mode hop like crazy. If you are getting a free one because of this, more power to you, but don't expect the new one to be any better.

Yep. Those 532nm eBay pens are just like going to the casino and spinning the machine. You might hit a million dollar jackpot & get a flawless over-spec unit, or you end up with a cheap piece of crap that dies on you after 10mins. :yh:

-Alex

 

[TheDukeAnumber1]

How about measuring the current at the tail cap to see if it drops after startup?

 

[Trendkilla254]

How about measuring the current at the tail cap to see if it drops after startup?

good idea!

@others
also this isnt 532nm yall.

 

[Chrisbee]

Those cheap 532nm laser pens mode hop like crazy. If you are getting a free one because of this, more power to you, but don't expect the new one to be any better.

Yeah, definitely not expecting anything. I just mentioned to the seller that it dimmed pretty badly after the first second, and they said they would send a new one.