Laser pointer battery contact

Maybe it’s just me, but all of the laser pointers I’ve bought, even the relatively spendy ones, have crappy switches and unstable battery contacts.

For example, this is the business end of a $12 (!) pen-style pointer. The battery contact was off-center and poorly secured; I pried the white plastic retainer out, bashed the spring into submission, and replaced the retainer with a length of heat-shrink tubing. It wasn’t pretty.

This pointer has an actual mechanical switch module inside, with a clicky mechanism actuated by the external button. Cheaper pointers seem to rely on bare PCB contacts bridged by the button’s base. Ugh.

Laser pointer battery orientation: positive DOWN

Memo to Self: The AAA cells fit into the housing with the positive terminal away from the laser head. The white plastic plug has a molded cross that could be mistaken for a + symbol, but it’s not.