LeadLight 105 Modifcation Stage Questions

I've got a few questions that I would like to ask about the different modification stages, sorry if I was supposed to ask them on the respective threads, I just decided to compile them all-in-one. I have owned about 4 previous green laser pointers. They were never powerful enough to burn electric tape, pop balloons, etc. But I recently ordered a new greenie - 30mW Leadlight 105. I don't plan on modifieing it right away, but I'm more of a plan-aheader. Now, on to the questions...

1. Soldering Resistors. These things are SMALL, do you guys have any recommendations on soldering them? I have been practicing on an old DVD drive board that i had laying around, I also got my resistors for my new greenie from there. Is there any alternatives to soldering these resistors? I.e- penciling. Penciling resistors on gfx cards work really well, but how would I measure the resistance after penciling? Sorry if that was noobish, I'm just now learning the basics of a DMM

2. On stage 4, what is used between the diode housing and the MCA holder? I have both AS5 and Arctic Alumina Thermal Adhesive. Which do I use? Both are thermal-conductive. Focusing seems pretty straight forward.
3. On the MCA holder, Do i pick the white thermal grease out of the notch and apply new stuff in there?

Well, I think that is it... Thanks for your help and time!
-alex

I thougth leadlights are only 5mw?

...................And I heard somewhere that pushing it passed 50 or so mw will quickly ruin it.

Well I just got it today, and I'm pretty impressed, i put a black mark on my arm and it burned it after like 1 second... My old one didn't do that...
Anyways, can someone help me with the above questions?
Thanks
-alex

Show me a link to it or where you got it

It's the atlasnova CPF special... Sorry for not mentioning it earlier...
Also, It's kind of wierd, might be a common problem though, My laser, when i first turn it on, it gets bright, then it goes dimmer, then it sometimes gets brighter.
Thanks for the help
-alex

http://www.atlasnova.com/
i just bought another 30+mw from him and its awesome, i need to order another one


i wish i could help you on your question but i havent went that far in modding yet so im interested to see how yours goes

well, so far i havent done anything, the pot was already turned up, so I couldn't do that one... I'm debating wheter to take it apart to focus it and redo the thermal paste stuff, but I don't know wheter to use thermal adhesive or just thermal paste.... No resistor mods for me yet , thinking of just penciling them though. Ah well... Time will tell.

alaskawolf said:

http://www.atlasnova.com/
i just bought another 30+mw from him and its awesome, i need to order another one


i wish i could help you on your question but i havent went that far in modding yet so im interested to see how yours goes

Click to expand...

OK, i just realligned the MCA, damn that was hard, would help to have like 4 hands, but i did it.next up: focusing

I just ordered my 105 leadlight, is that the one you have? You said it came turned high, whats it running at for mw? I have another light i got last week, it runs at 5mw but there are no mods for it, thats why i ordered the 105 series from leadlight. Im also new at this and would love to solder a new resistor on but i heard that it quickly dies out, I just want to see a real bright beam in the sky. Is it hard to solder, and whats the easiest mod to do with the crystal alignment, and is that difficult? -Thanks-

Well, I don't know what happened, but now my laser is really dim, what I did was realign the MCA, Refocused the lens, and penciled the resistors a little. Now it does not focus properly. It also doesn't burn my skin with a black dot anymore . I'll prolly take it all apart and redo it. i didn't solder anything, I recommend just turning the pot and focusing the laser. http://www.greenlasers.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?num=1111314012

-alex

Well, now it won't focus at all and its stuck unfocused, however, without the MCA on, it easily smokes my black leather wallet! and almost catches a kleenex on fire....
Cool
-alex