pot mod question

[vodkaniac]

I received an old style leadlight from abeland (manufacture date of sep 2003). It looked great, but of course I could not stop myself from trying to make it better.

Anyway, the mod went perfectly. insanely bright beam. but when i went outside to play, no light /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

More fiddling, and I realized that i had probably been shorting the pot to the case with the screwdriver. so i wrapped it in a layer of scotch tape.

So here's the thing, even with the shaft of the screwdriver insulated, I get a much brighter more intense beam with the tip of the screwdriver touching the pot. when i take the screwdriver out and turn the laser back on, i get nothing.

I finally did the mod blind (adjust pot, pull out screwdriver, push button, repeat until you get best results.) my best results were to get it back to it's original brightness. My question is why does it behave like this? i know that i am not touching the screwdriver to the case, so why would just having the screwdriver on the pot give me such good results that can't be repeated whith the screwdriver out?

as if you can't tell, i'm new at this, but i did search the forums before asking.

 

[liteglow]

first, when u did go outside.. was it cold ??
Becouse the laser and all the chrystals is very effected by hot\cold air..
If used outside at 3celsius, there is almost no light /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

And second, when u did touch the screwdriver, maybe the pot was abit "broken" and u did push it down so there was better contact ? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif


only a thougt..

 

[CliffS]

That happened to me, so I ripped the pot off and did the old school resistor mod. Its currently a 470 ohm resistor, I'm going to be rasing the value soon so I can keep the laser on longer.

 

[vodkaniac]

No, not cold out. A good thought, though. I like the idea that it could just be the pressure on the pot giving a better connection. I'll try with a toothpick and see what happens...

Cliffs, is the "old school mod" shorting the pot with the case? I'm seriously considering that. The power is so beautiful.

Thank you both for your ideas.

 

[liteglow]

use a resistor insted of just short the pot to case /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
that way i will have the pointer working some days longer /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif hehe

 

[slammin]

I just shorted the pot to the case without the resistor, as long as you work a 10 second duty cycle youll be okay, but I may try the resistor anyway, just to be safe. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif