Just a quick question

My question: Whats anyones opinion on http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5819080752&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWN:IT&rd=1
and do ya think this addition will prohibit POTing it?

$60 (shipped) and it's a 110....

I think you could find a 105, that you could modify, for that much (if you were so inclined)

Whats the difference between the two? is it much? Did I overpay? Sorry, I'm so confused...

I guess Im gonna have to figure this one out through trial and error eh? At least the seller offered a return policy if I wanted my money back to buy a 105...assuming thats better. Is it? whats the difference?

One is not better than the other unless you plan to modify the output to over 5 mw. Then the 105 lends itself to modification while the 110 does not.

If you just want a nice bright 5mw pointer then the 110 is fine.

If you want to roll the dice on your modification skills and your lasers possible potential to be increased in brightness then ask for the the 105. It is a more simple circuit to adjust by far.

That's the short answer.

Sorry I didn't get back here sooner.

No, No, No, I never ment to imply your 110 wasn't good enough as a greenie

Your question didn't state you'd made a purchase, just that you were interested and the "POTing" part made me think you might be inclined to tinker with it

The 110 is fine.... no need to return it. Because I just have to take everything apart & mess with it, I'd prefer the 105 is all.

Databyter said:

the 105 lends itself to modification while the 110 does not.

Click to expand...

Ummm, not true. Yes, more than turning a pot is usually needed, but I don't regard pot mods as a "mod", it is an "adjustment".

110s do respond well to "mods", but seldom to pot tweaking because of careful design crippling and component selection.

Attach a 3.7~4.5V source to a 110 and gee whiz, now the pot does something. There's a clue...

Corona, I hear what you're saying but look carefully at what the poster is asking about.

He is specifically asking about the pot mod period in his initial posting.

I would not want to encourage someone who isn't an expert to try to mod a 110 beyond a pot mod, which as we agree is inneffective.

I stand by my statement that the 110 doesn't "lend" itself to modification, even to more advance users, compared to the 105.

Can it be done? Sure. Is it easy? Not for most people.

That being said I want to state clearly that I have never Mod'd a laser and am not trying to come off as a hands on expert.

My comments come from reading most of the posts on this forum thoroughly and trying to save time for those who fly through here with easy questions and don't want to do an intensive search or who prefer to ask a question "live" into the ether.

Also just for clarification there are countless threads in here refering to "adjusting" the pot as a "pot mod", You are modifying the current and the output of the circuit.
Lets not confuse the issue arguing about semantics. The meaning is clear.

Thanks for all the replys, as it is true, I was only asking about POT'ing it, but that is because I don't have any experience with anything else. I have been told though, that the APC will prohibit use of a POT adjustment on this laser. I know there are other mods I can do, but which are there that I don't need to have expensive tools to do?

Some interesting posts are on a different forum about this topic more or less:
Stages 1&2...
http://www.greenlasers.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?num=1111314012

Stages 3(A&B)...
http://www.greenlasers.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?num=1111737381

Stage 4....
http://www.greenlasers.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?num=1111343462

Just a lil extra info incase you havn't seen it.

It's like the old CB days; once there was a time when nearly all CB radios had a pot you could just crank up to attain higher power, and later the FCC said "OH nooo, we cannot allow that anymore". Thus was born a basement industry of CB Modification Booklet authors. If there were an Internet in the 1970s, there would have been no CB Modification booklet authors.

I have recently encountered self-effacing, arrogant individuals on EBay selling "their" laser mods and claiming to be experts, "everyone else is a poser", etc etc blar blar blar. To me this is predatory and opportunistic, besides being arrogant - and I strongly dislike the practice enough to share what I have learned and developed with like-minded hobbyists. I fell into the trap of assuming that the majority of the members here had soldering experience. Sorry if I came across as anything remotely resembling an EBay Laser Mod and Snakeoil Salesman.

Anyway... SOME 110s do respond to a pot mod, due to component tolerances - but most apparently do not. Since the manufacturer's design intent was clearly to prevent much over 200mA diode current regardless of pot setting, I agree then - the 110s do not respond to pot mods.

To get more, you need to do more, yes.