Confirmation!! NewWish Lasers ARE Pot Moddable!!!!

[Athoul]

The Nd:YVO4 crystal will probably not handle 1Watt of pump energy, let alone 10. They are simply to thin in 5mW pointers. You might want to order a crystal for this purpose if you are thinking of building your own.

 

[badinstincts]

Here is a tip, DO NOT DO THE STAGE 2 mod for these NewWish lasers, expecially the one Sputnik pictured. The diode is already aligned as best it can, if you unscrew it YOU WILL NOT be able to get the same beam ever, unless you have special tools or just get really really lucky.

The REASON is that the diode is smaller than it should be, it has space when inside the thingy and if you remove it it will be almost impossible to have it centered. I've tried thermal paste to keep it moving smooth, NOTHING HELPS, I've had a good beam however it has some spill, so you know that it will never be as good as it was before. I must have spent 10+ hours trying to realign it and I got it back in the spot once only to remove it again thinking I can get it better, but no way, didn't happen again...
Also i'm thinking that if you mess around it it unaligned it will damage the diode or crystals because when not aligned I would get an extremely bright beam and then it would dim out... So there ya go, I should have just gotten the leadlights to begin with... I also did the pot mod on this one and the beam got dimmer just a little bit than stock, so it didn't seem to work on mine. I had 3 tries and only 1 made a brighter beam, the first laser with bad divergence... I may only try to short the pot to see if that helps with the last unmodified one...

 

[badinstincts]

umm, shorting the pot against the case didn't do anything except turn the laser off, or whatever. I stuck tiny scissors in and cut the red wire and its much better now. This seems to be the only mod that works on my lasers. I'm guessing we are supposed to disable the APC in the first place without doing the pot mod, the pot doesn't do anything after you cut the wire. I'm guessing its now pulling 320mA and giving around 20-45mw I wouldn't know, but its at least twice as bright. I'm finally happy... Still going to get a couple leadlights... ouch my eyes hurt from looking at the spot on the white paper...

 

[badinstincts]

well, it doesn't burn black bags, i dont have electrical tape here right now, so I wont know till tonight, I'd guess it would take 30-60seconds to start burning it though... do you guys have a clean dot or are there small specks all around? if you point it at a white paper from 2 feet the specks go out 2-2.5inches from the center...

 

[badinstincts]

yea, the best thing to do for these lasers is to cut one of the wires, red or black, from there I have not noticed any change when turning the pot it is at 300mA now and wont go higher by turning the pot. I'm thinking of doing the resistor mod now, i may add a second resistor to the one already there...

I can see the beam very clearly at night and so can people who you point the laser towards... I can also see the dot about 1/2 mile further without binoculars or anything.. i'm sure if you used binoculars you can see it wayyyyyy further...

 

[archangel080]

When I point my laser on a wall, there's the main dot, but surrounding it, there is a lot of "noise" and even some shapes around it. Is it a dirty lense or did it get unfocused?

 

[badinstincts]

well, hopefully if you didn't take the crystals out, (by taking the diode out) you can simply stick a q-tip (with some cotton pulled off) into the head and spin it or whatever until you get as little speckle as possible, i had it soooo clean once that all i had was the dot. i gotta find 97% alcohol again, they dont sell it like they used to... you can dip it in the alcohol and then clean it up, should work well.

how do i take the ir filter off, would that improve range/brightness? also i want to do the resistor mod, how do i do it on these? I have spare parts from 1 other board. 1 of my power buttons stopped working too well and i decided to take that laser totally apart, no hope in cleaning up the crystals now or finding the right position for the diode...???? help...

 

[bassplayer142]

I have one of these and I want to pot mod it. How delicate is the pot because I'm thinking I might be able to twist a paperclip around the button and blindly be able to turn it. I just hope it isn't to hard to turn or I don't scratch the electronics. Also, am I reading this right when you say that if you clip the red wire it will do the same as the pot mod or what?

 

[archangel080]

^^^
Turning the pot without removing the module? Impossible. Plus, you need the laser turned on to know where to stop turning the pot. And no, cutting one of the wire isnt equal to the pot mod, it disables the APC which limits the juice. So yeah. Its 2 mods.

 

[pixar]

Hi,

I just bought one of these off Ebay - a 30mw model that came with a <35mw sticker. When I press the button it takes about 0.5 seconds to go from dim to brighter but then stays there. I tried the green led check method but I could not get it to read above 21ua's (absolute max) which seems to suggest it's really a 5mw laser

To remove the laser module, do you need to remove the metallic button beforehand or just leave it alone - not that it seems to come off.

Thanks.

 

[PEU]

I convinced myself and I bought two of these lasers (1 me, 1 friend) can someone tell me which is the correct way to open them to adjust the pot? I don't really want to cut the body like sputnik did

I purchased them from the same seller as sputnik

Thanks in advance


Pablo

 

[abeland1]

Hi,

I just bought one of these off Ebay - a 30mw model that came with a <35mw sticker. When I press the button it takes about 0.5 seconds to go from dim to brighter but then stays there. I tried the green led check method but I could not get it to read above 21ua's (absolute max) which seems to suggest it's really a 5mw laser

To remove the laser module, do you need to remove the metallic button beforehand or just leave it alone - not that it seems to come off.

Thanks.

Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur. Which is all right with us.

 

[pixar]

Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur. Which is all right with us.

The latin or translation? - either way I am confused

 

[PEU]

The saying ascribed to Petronius mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur means "The world wants to be deceived, so let it be deceived."

nice quote


Pablo

 

[pixar]

Got someone to cut around the body on a lathe - finally got it apart. Cut the red/black wires and whatever I do with the pot, hardly any ua readings - around 10-12 max. The pot rhs leg to centre sweep ranges between low ohms to approx 4.8K. I see hardly any difference no matter what. Paid for a 30mw unit, looks like I got a crap shoot.

 

[archangel080]

Can anybody tell me how to focus this laser? because my dot at 8-9 meters is almost 5cm in diameter. All I did was the pot mod and cut the APC wires... I hope I didnt touch anything else that could have affected the focus :S

 

[PEU]

The seller of these lasers sent me an email telling that he was out of stock till the end of this week, in the meantime I ask again the question:

how do I safely open this unit without losing focus or damaging it? Thanks!


Pablo

 

[pixar]

Well, still no success getting much out of my laser - 21ua max equating to 7mw max (for a 30mw as-sold laser), but normally giving much less. I wonder if anyone has any more to add on their successes or otherwise?

I cut around the case on a lathe and now have the front of the laser with the module inside it and the pcb glued onto the laser diode - I take it you need to remove the cap (how without damaging it?) to get to the optics + crystals.

I played around though. With 3 volts from a bench supply powering the laser via the bronze body and spring, the diode actually has about 2.2 volts on it. The APC wires are both cut and the pot hardly seems to make any difference in output, but at one place the switch gets very hot with the current flowing through it, with the pot turned the other way the brightness is the same but the switch is cool. So, I can mod the current through the on-button but not affect the output - hows that for a mod

My pcb looks the same as in the pictures on the first page - but maybe there are other differences between supplies of this laser.

 

[pixar]

The laser is now heading for the great clouds in the sky - it's dead jim. I took the brass module apart and so got to the the real in-nards. The mistake was prodding what looked like setting compound just behind IR filter / splitter assembly - this apparently was the part of the laser that housed the crystal set. I was left with powdered white coloured crystal and a very small square of green crystal. The size of this amazed me - very, very thin and about 1mm square! 2 tiny lenses and a seperator (collimator assembly) were first in line after the laser diode.

£45 total down the drain - but for some reason it was a very poor performer.

 

[Athoul]

White powedered crystal? Was it dropped? hmm, the green thin crystal should be the IR filter, while the ND/ktp should look kinda topaz or pinkish in colour.