Kudos to everyone involved in helping the dummies like me figure out how to modify these lasers! Within minutes of receiving my 105, I had performed the seemingly miraculous improvment of step one. Wow!! But, the gadget-geek side of me couldn't rest until I tried step 2. That's where I should have left well enough alone.
After performing the re-alignment process, the reassembled light seemed slightly dimmer. I thought perhaps I had bumped the pot, knocking it down a notch or two. So, I tried to re-adjust it. Having gained some confidence by those that has posted the ultimately bright lasers by shorting the pot to the case - well, I tried that.
Without so much as a pulse of light, it went dark. It was just a momentary short - not even an 1/8th of a second. It did something. Something bad.
Now, when I look into the front of the assembled laser, I see a very, very dim red dot. When adjusting the pot to every possible position, I'm able to spark an ever-so-faint green dot. The pot still works, but the range is from off, to red dot (internally), to extremely faint green light.
I went back and resoldered everything - thinking perhaps a marginal solder point couldn't handle the over-current of the shorted pot, but that didn't make a difference. I've tried re-shorting the pot, but it just turns off the laser all together.
Has anyone been able to revive this? I went ahead and ordered a replacement, but I didn't just want to throw this away with out trying other things.
I'm bummed, but I knew going into it that I would probably break it. It was a risk I was willing to take - and I don't regret trying it...
