Help! Dropped Green laser pointer!

OK I bought a green laser pointer from Optoelectronics several years ago. It had a very nice brigh output (an unqualified twice as bright as the one I got from Happaporte around the same time).
This weekend I left my coat pocket unzipped and the thing fell out onto the floor when I bent over to look at something...
I heard something rattling inside. It looked like it was still lasing green so the ND:YAG doubler crystal was OK (I assumed that had cracked).
I took it home and started to take it apart for the first time. On the tip was a pointless sort of threaded cover, I guess it could be replaced with diffraction grating designs later but I don't believe they were ever made for this particular laser.

Here's the site from the company I bought from but I have to say

http://www.eoi.com.tw/laser-2.htm

the laser I have is from around 1999 (I think?) and doesn't look like the picture. It was so long ago that the laser didn't even have the eye safety, CDRH, and other compliance on it (it got stuck in customs for a while). It was a steal at the time at $230 though (most places were US$300+)
Anyway it's much thicker than most (maybe thicker than the diameter of an AA battery).

So, under the dustcap was a lens in an aluminum threaded tube. This tube had threads on its outder diameter and it threaded into a black plastic tube that is threaded on it's inner diameter. This first lens was a convex magnifying lens.
The next lens that unscrewed was an IR filter
The next piece fell out. It was a concave lens with a piece of copper with a tiny pinprick hole on it. I believe this was glued to the output of the laser and this is what came loose when I dropped it.

The next piece is a black plastic threaded part BUT it is glued into the main tube.

I need to glue the lens/pinhole back onto this part but can't get to it because it's deep in the pointer's barrel. The electronics won't push out from the front or the back (though it will move slightly in both directions.

Does anyone know this type of pointer and how I might disassemble it further so I can fix it?

Thanks

Hm, well I guess nobody is familiar with this particular pointer. I'm not all that suprised, I may be the only one who bought it at the time and I think they changed the design soon after.
Anyway I 'sort of' fixed it, I realized that the lens just after the convex lens with the pinhole foil cover was the IR filter and is not position sensitive.
Since the black plastic part was glued in and I couldn't get tools down deep enough into the tube to reliably position the convex lens/foil pinhole with glue, I just positioned it on the IR lens and screwed it down into the tube. So it's not held by glue but rather the IR filter threaded down onto it. It's not perfect because the optical alignment is not as good as it would be if I could place it by hand, but it does project a dot. The dot is relatively round but the profile is not as good as it was, and it does have a little more scattering around the main beam.

If you drop your green laser stop using it. Take it to make sure the IR filter is still there. Otherwise you will be cooking eye burgers and not even know it.

It is- it was the 2nd component threaded down into the tube. In fact it's what I used to hold the convex lens with the pinhole back in place.

How can one check if the filter is still there?
bernhard

[ QUOTE ]
Kiessling said:
How can one check if the filter is still there?
bernhard

[/ QUOTE ]

I think there is no other way than take it appart and se inside !
If u not got some meassure tool that can meassure IR light!

Use a camera to watch the beam power

Dyter I don't know how that method would work, yes a lot of videocameras are or can be made IR sensitive, but even with a color camera how do you tell if you are viewing green light or IR? Both would be quite bright and probably come out as a white spot.

What I did is take an IR-sensor (not an electronic one, but they make special paper with an IR-sensitive coating for checking remote controls, etc) and put it in front of my TV remote and pressed a button. I observed the flashing on the IR sensitive paper. Then I put what I thought was the IR filter over the IR LED on the TV remote control and pointed it at the paper from the same distance as before. Pressing the button resulted in no flashes on the paper.
This is not the only way to check if something blocks IR but it satisfied me that I had located the IR filter.

Also if you take a green laser apart the only things that will pass light with no magnification will be the IR filter and the frequency doubling crystal. In other words if you come across a component that just seems to be clear glass, it's a likely canditate for the IR filter. I haven't found any pointers that have a piece of glass as a dust cover (added expense).

The IR filter has a characteristic blue-green tint to it.

Many camcorder cameras have IR filters.
I used a camera from a security kit costs about $40
If I put a red piece of plastic in front of the camera
the green is attenuated drasticly and the IR is much more easly seen.
The IR shows up as white , where the green is obviously green.
The camera I use is a CMOS type, not a CCD.
I got mine at the local BJ's, Usually you can know if it is an IR sensitive camera by the IR LED's around the front of the camera. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

For make a IR Filter, use a glass teint black hard.