400mw green not emitting light

[Buontinh]

Hello to All,

Bought laser 5 or 6 years ago and played with it for 1 or 2 hrs then put it away under my bed ever since. Now after reconnecting the head to the driver and powered it on, it only makes a faint green dot and red glow around it that is visible only when putting your hand in front of the head. Any idea what might have caused it to die prematurely? Took it apart and the voltage between the big red and black wires measures 1.848v. Driver gets proper 5v.

Is it really dead? Can I replace it with one of these http://www.ebay.com/itm/808nm-1W-50-...item3cd06a8f09

Thanks

[steve-o]

Judging from the perf-board it looks possibly home-made. Do you have any experience aligning an 808nm diode in a DPSS laser?

[Buontinh]

It was actually a laser made by Laserwave. It was my first DPSS laser and no, I do not have any experience in aligning DPSS laser, but from studying its innards, it does not seems to be something too complicated. So is the voltage measured at the diode seems normal?

Thanks

[swamidog]

be very concerned at the amount of dangerous IR radiation that thing is emitting with the cover off and potentially out the beam aperture.

if you have no way to safely view IR light, don't attempt it.

It was actually a laser made by Laserwave. It was my first DPSS laser and no, I do not have any experience in aligning DPSS laser, but from studying its innards, it does not seems to be something too complicated. So is the voltage measured at the diode seems normal?

Thanks

[Buontinh]

Thank you for your concern, swamidog. Yeah, I'm aware of IR and will be super careful.

[badger1666]

Being super carefull wont help you if your not wearing
Ir goggles.
You wont know you been hit by stray ir light untill its to late
And then spend the rest of your life wondering if only i wore protection
I would not have that black spot in my vision because i was hit by light i could not see

[smogthemog]

You have been warned mate, IR is dangerous so if you have had no experience of it, and I don't think you have, leave it to someone who has OR wear suitable eye protection.

[Buontinh]

I know IR is dangerous as it's invisible to the naked eyes, but we aren't talking about an atomic bomb here. Even so, I won't be stupid to just stare at it with out eye protection. I do have a goggle I bought from Laserwave 5 or so years ago, but don't think it covers 808nm. I plan on measuring the dimensions before removing the old diode and mount the new one at the same height, cover it up, and then fire it up slowly via analog input and check the beam at the aperture.

[dream beamz]

I know IR is dangerous as it's invisible to the naked eyes, but we aren't talking about an atomic bomb here. Even so, I won't be stupid to just stare at it with out eye protection. I do have a goggle I bought from Laserwave 5 or so years ago, but don't think it covers 808nm. I plan on measuring the dimensions before removing the old diode and mount the new one at the same height, cover it up, and then fire it up slowly via analog input and check the beam at the aperture.

you are not realizing that very harmful IR goes in practically all directions, many many watts of it. Its like staring in to a laserscope pointed at a discoball but it shoots out completely invisible beams.

expect to walk away from this with permanently blurry vision at the least. no one is trying to have you stop so we can make money off of you. we just want to help

[Buontinh]

I understand that if the diode is exposed, then IR would shoot in all directions that you can't see and that can be dangerous. I understand what IR is and how dangerous it's, but if the diode is covered up with the case, how would IR get out? If one could get hit with IR with the diode completely covered up and just by looking at the beam exiting the aperture, then all of you with multi watts lasers wouldn't be able to read this and I also wouldn't be able to type this too after looking at the beam (note I'm referring to the beam and not laser spot here) produced by the laser same laser module when it was working.