2x 1w Green Laser both broken - What'd I do? :-(

[vIQleS]

So I have these 2x 1w Greens. They both stopped working at about the same time. They do output, but at about 1% of what they used to. Most of the rest of it seems to be working - scanners etc.

I hounded @Soulstorm into having a look - he thought it was probably just needed a retune (something something). However it turns out there's something else weird going on.

He suggested I post the pictures here to see if anyone else knows what's going on.

[ablelaser01]

You may let your supplier to help you. Each company's products is different, so only your supplier know more how to repair their laser.

[Soulstorm]

+5v modulation direct did nothing on the drivers, meanwhile faint scan output is detected in darkness, well under 1mW from one unit. Optics are still working and pretty clean.

After some discussion seems that potentially a temperature/vibration related de-alignment occurred, as there are two 500mW units PBS'd in each projector, so four lasers with independent drivers and PSUs to go at the same time to me is a bit unusual in any other scenario.

[daction]

I second the temperature idea. It happened to me when I was watching it. Most upsetting. Cni ask for 50 to 100 mm of clearance between the laser aperture and the first optic. I wouldn't know how to fix it. Maybe Pitts in Rotorua?

[badger1666]

sounds like a possible spike up the mains power sent the diodes nearly LED

[norty303]

Cni ask for 50 to 100 mm of clearance between the laser aperture and the first optic.

I cannot think of any reason why they require this, or what negative effect it could have if you have the optics closer.

[vIQleS]

You may let your supplier to help you. Each company's products is different, so only your supplier know more how to repair their laser.

I did ask the guy that sold them to me (@djtraximus), and he had no idea at the time. They're pretty huge, so getting them to him to have a look is a bit out of the question. I could potentially get them to rotorua, but that's still a day trip at least.

Was hoping someone might have something similar and know exactly what's wrong... (Pref with an easy fix... :-/)

[planters]

The pictures tell very little. Not your fault but, they only show that the greens you are talking about are the typical DPSS vanadates rather than the very new direct green diodes. To have both fail at the same time is pretty weird unless a large power spike fried them and this probably would have fried a few other things as well. When you said the guy that sold them had no idea at the time do you mean you bought them and they were dysfunctional at that time? Big or small, if these are not working then they are the source to go to. Unless there is a problem with the input signal from the computer (DMX) then I don't think you want to try to fix these yourself as you could make things worse and unrepairable. Do the other lasers (are there other colors?) operate properly?

[norty303]

I wouldn't even bother sending them back to djtraximus. He hasn't a clue about the hardware anyway. He's just a box shifter and didn't have a great time of it on the forum when he came here

[vIQleS]

The pictures tell very little. Not your fault but, they only show that the greens you are talking about are the typical DPSS vanadates rather than the very new direct green diodes. To have both fail at the same time is pretty weird unless a large power spike fried them and this probably would have fried a few other things as well. When you said the guy that sold them had no idea at the time do you mean you bought them and they were dysfunctional at that time? Big or small, if these are not working then they are the source to go to. Unless there is a problem with the input signal from the computer (DMX) then I don't think you want to try to fix these yourself as you could make things worse and unrepairable. Do the other lasers (are there other colors?) operate properly?

I brought them late 2011/early 2012. They were working fine at the time. They just failed last year. (On a job ><). When I noticed that they had failed, i emailed the guy to see if he had any ideas what was wrong.

All I could really do myself was fiddle with the knobs/settings etc. I tried dmx vs ILDA vs Auto mode and the output was the same.

There's 2 units, each (presumably) the same as the photos above. So that's 4 failures all at about the same time.

(I have left them in the car a couple of times when I've been too lazy to unload (or if i'm going to a gig later) - so heat may be a common factor)

They're just greens.