Need help Broke POT..... Wont hold position

This is the laser I purchased http://www.z-bolt.com/generic33.html The first thing I did was the Stage 1 POT MOD in which case I was turning it clockwise and nothing was happening until eventually turning it until the point where I broke the piece off (DAMMIT) Anyways I took the laser apart and turnd the pot manually until I got a good bright light. The thing was when I would play with it and apply pressure with the flat head the light would get insanly bright I MEAN REALLY. Then as soon as I took the flat head off and release the power button and turned it back on it was back to its original little dot state. Then after playing and prying I got it to stick to a bright setting, but after a hour later and haveing it move aroudn in my pocket the LASER stopped working completly. So then I opened it back up played with the POT and now it is really bright. The thing is when I apply pressure it gets so bright that you can barely stand to look at it and it hard this huge ORA of green glow aroudn the dot (amazing). How do I get this POT and DIODE to work at its fullest capacity without burning things? I wasnt sure if all you do is solder a wire from the pot to the pen case itself and thats it to achieve maximum brightness out of this diode. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in ADVANCE!!!

First, please give people a minute to reply before sending them a PM.

It sounds like you either fixed the pot but it's a bit flaky now and not making very good contact, or you're doing something else that is shorting out the pot as you're doing it. I can't tell.

Having yet to own a leadlight myself, I don't want to encourage your decision one way or another. Someone who has actually done a resister mod should help you.

well, first things first - when you put the laser back together is it still really bright and slowly dies down after use or is it really suddenly?
If you've been able to tell that it's DEFINITELY the pot that keeps moving, a little bit of heat glue or epoxy would work to keep it in place. Just make sure the glue isn't conductive *some glues are, but they're mostly designed to be that anyway*

that'll keep it in place, and make sure you have it set EXACTLY where you want it. Once it's glued, it's a pain to have re-glued.

u can just remove the pot and do like this:



470 ohm resistor !

hey liteglow where is the other end of that resistor soldered to, the pot and the...

Yeah, last time I saw this pot-resistor-bypass-mod, it was soldering the resister from pot to copper casing.

On this mod, i did REMOVE the pot!
So the resistor is soldered to the points where the actually POT was supposed to be !

Yea i see that you have it soldered to where the pot is supposed to be, but where did you solder the other end?

Did you do it like this (path where the resistor is is in blue, contact points are red)



Or did you not connect the bottom 2 contact points?

Also how many mA are you pushing with the 470 Ohm resistor in place?

cliffs, what are you talking about?

Where did he solder the resistor on, from which points? did he make it where the vertical blue line is, then bridge between the horizontal one with solder, or is it just the vertical line?

on your picture with the RED line..
The point at right side is the point where the "low value" , and the Left side is the "high value" is ..

u can se it better at the full size image :
http://stardust.as/crazy/gallery/album149/IMG_1893?full=1

so to answer you question, no i did not solder to both points /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I did use a 470oHm resistor.. the current mA is "400mA"

Well my solder point broke on the high spot on the left. So I sodlered directly to the chip where the lines meets. Put the batteries in and everythign is working fine we will see what happens? I think its the same thing as having it on that joint. THANKS for all the help 470 OHM resistor soldered in.

now when I press the button the beam is super bright with a ORA that spreads 10 inched wide from the centerpoint. After holding it 20 seconds the ora goes away and it is a perfect dot. The thing is I dont knwo if I am getting the same power range as in the begining the beam almost hurts yoru eyes to look at on the wall wait 20 secs and it dies off alot. Anyone knwo what this problem is? Possibly a chip that regulates the output of my leadlight? THANKS

sounds like you're overheating the diode, and it's suffering a miserable death.

hold the laser on for less than half that time (less than 10 seconds), and let it rest for about a minute. this is the duty cycle of an overpowered pointer. otherwise it will stop working.

ooh..
i have never used my laser more than 20 sec. max /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
i often use it 10 sec on and 10 off...


/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Why would you need a 10 on off duty cycle when the diode max power is 500mA, and you're only pushing 400mA?

Thats only like 60 or so more then the pot can put out.

So even if I had a 125mW laser I should only run it for 10-20 secs max? I noticed when I run mine the beam goes from being DEAD bright to barely be ableto see it after several seconds. Then the barrel get mildly warm and thats it. When its first powered its amazing with over 20 inches of artifacts. Then it asll narrows down into a small beam. Just curious the rules that should apply for such a high powered laser. Also how do I go about testing the MW on this light? THANKS

ttt

[ QUOTE ]
CliffS said:
Why would you need a 10 on off duty cycle when the diode max power is 500mA, and you're only pushing 400mA?

Thats only like 60 or so more then the pot can put out.

[/ QUOTE ]

i have never seen any "confirmed" details that tell me that the diode can handle 500mA..
Anyway, the laser is not just a diode and green light !!
There is chrystals and stuff in there!
They need to be cool down, not just the diode !
If the chrystal "burn up?" there will be no light ....

btw, yes the diode can maybe handle 500mA constand power, but do u think that is without no cooling at all ??

aaah i dont think so...

and the leadlight has NO cooling...