Almost a year into "still being a newbie" question...

[Bradfo69]

Hey guys (and gals),

First time in this hobby I've opened a box containing a new laser module and slightly still overwhelmed with what I'm doing. I just want to get it to light up so I can see it made the trip from England o.k.

Obviously... I'm plugging AC into the power brick. (I'm not THAT stupid.) But, there is no output from the laser. Common sense tells me the little white connector on the small red and black wires needs to be plugged into something but, I haven't bought any other parts yet. So, in order to test it, can I jumper them together for a moment? Don't want to screw anything up.

Speaking of screws, what are the pots for on the driver? I understand what they are for on scanner amps with respect to tuning but, not sure about a driver board. I suspect I should just leave them alone but, I'm having a "duh" moment as to what they adjust. A couple have glue so, I'm certain they shouldn't be touched.

Thanks!
~Bewildered... I mean Brad

[LASERGUY]

Hey Brad,

It always good to move slow and always good to ask questions before jumping the gun and blowing something up...

Been there.... done that

Your laser will have some form of blanking \ modulation input.
The laser likely needs a "high" signal to produce any output... Right now it’s actually in its blanked \ no intensity state.

Some lasers are conveniently equipped with a jumper for inverting the blanking level... this one may not have that feature.

DO NOT play with the pots on the driver as these are typically factory set and changing these could inadvertently overdrive a component and fry the entire thing ;/

Connecting the blanking leads to a 5 volt source will bring you to your "high" state.

Do you have a laser show controller yet?

LG

[Bradfo69]

Oh, I've got plenty of other lasers, projectors, LD2000, livepro, FB3 etc., etc., etc., I bought this from Aidan with the intent of possibly adding it into one of my RGB's or, incorporating into a lumia box or something someday. I don't have a specific use for it and won't for some time. I just wanted to test it.

I don't, as a rule, do anything inside the case yet except clean optics. That's why I'm uncertain as to how to go about testing this. I suppose I could take it to work with me tomorrow (where all my gear is) and possibly connect it to one of my exisiting projectors.

Thanks!

[LASERGUY]

LOL!!

You start meeting so many people on this thread you start to forget who is who sometimes...
You are quite equipped and experienced!

Sorry about that

Hell..... take a 4 AA bateries in series to apply 6 volts to the modulation input and see if thes thing lases

[Bradfo69]

No worries! I periodically get people mixed up as well. It's funny, I said from the beginning that I really never expected to do much "below the hood" on these things and somehow, in the last few weeks, I've bought DT40's, GM20's, lasorbs, laser bugs, motors for lumia wheels, DZ's color board and breakout board, a new aperture window, etc.

Not the faintest clue about most of it yet but, I'll get there! I'll grab some AA's and give it a whirl.

Thanks!

~Brad

[Bradfo69]

Tried the AA's with no luck. Taped 4 of them end to end and ran leads, pos & neg to the white connector - nothing. Reversed them and still nothing. I'll open a projector at work tomorrow and see what I can test that way.

[badger1666]

Hi i would not try 4 aa batterys that eould overdrive mod input
It might have protection ,and thats why it did not work
Try 2 or 3 of them might have better luck

[mophead]

Are there any tiny switches around the perimeter of the driver board? Laserwave drivers have very small switches that can be hard to see which set TTL/analog, ect.
Grabbing at straws.

[Bradfo69]

I don't recall there being any but, I'll check tomorrow. It's at work. I never had a chance to pop open a projector today and see if I could trace existing wires from another module to plug it in and test it.

[Doc]

That looks like a CNI, did you wait for the start delay to time out?