[Laser] DPSS Laser weirdness

[Bob Blick]

--- Chuck Hast <wchast at gmail.com> wrote:
> I have a DPSS green laser, it worked fine up until a
> few weeks ago, I noticed
> after it was on for about 2-3 seconds the power
> would drop. It is a 30mw
> laser, after the power drops it is only a 10mw
> laser. I checked the current
> and it stays the same, so not sure if the laser
> diode is at fault or if it s the
> freq conversion crystals. It does it regardless of
> temp. Indeed the cooler it
> is the faster it appears to have the problem. Prior
> to this happening it worked
> just fine for as long as I kept it on (usually at
> most 10 -15 seconds) 

Hi Chuck,

Since you probably have not overheated the unit,
chances are there has been some mechanical shift.
Depending on the design, there is sometimes a way to
tweak it. But that will require disassembly and also
safety precautions to be taken to protect you against
the almost 1/2 watt IR laser diode inside, like repair
inside a box using a video camera.

But if it's an inexpensive unit it is probably just
glued together inside and there's not much hope of
repairing it.

Cheerful regards,

Bob