Since you don’t use a heated bed while lasering (or at least that’s the usual case I guess) and laserdiodes are somewhat efficient I don’t think that power will be a problem… 
But I also don’t expect it to be actually shipping in the first half of this year. All in all the easiest way for @JustMyLuck to get back to lasering is getting a new 1600mW laser head.
This year’s Chunyun began on January, 28 and will last until March 8th. So I think I can give up on hearing anything back until March.
well, the phase out started, but the official full blown is the 12th or so of feb, so you still have a chance. then you have a phase back in after a week but its a slow process.
I had the same experience. For the exact same reason. The box made it extremely difficult to change the head and attach the cable, specially because it’s dark and the LED cannot technically be ON when you are changing a module. So I screwed up.
Of course I must have been thinking that it is common practice to design reversible cable these days, or at least make it failsafe. Then 5 seconds later, there was some smoke from the 3D printer module, and by the time I turned it off the damage was done. I verified that at least two components on the 3D module controller, and one component on the main controller are damaged. The reason was reverse polarity of 24V line, which fried the buck converter and a high power IC under the radiator. When switched to the laser module, it also showed problems in laser intensity control suggesting a damaged components in the main controller.
I contacted them on Jan 21st asking if they carry just the controller boards for sale. I got a response on the 25th asking for a picture of the display when it’s on to clarify the problem. Then they informed me that this issue is well known and is caused by connecting the cable backwards and warranty does not cover it. I did not expect warranty coverage anyway. Paid them directly for a new controller and a new 3D printer module a couple of days ago and waiting on the tracking number.
So I’ve been sitting here in my garage looking at the brown magic box that’s not glowing anymore at nights. And just to make the story a bit more interesting, I had to take care of a tooth abscess a few days ago too.
i really hate that people are having bad experiences with the machine.
It makes me sad.
Its a terrible hunk of junk, but it can bring so much joy.
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@govigor, Did they ask you to pay via paypal? I just got a response and thats how they are asking me to pay, sounds a bit fishy. I’m hesitant. https://www.paypal.me/snapmaker
I don’t think the power will be an issue as much as cooling. A 8W laser usually produces about 12W of heat. So you need a big hea sink and lots of airflow to keep it from burning itself up. Add to it the need for the esp32 cam, laser driver & mcu and cooling for those as well and your looking at a good sized module. So they may have some issues getting the high power laser to fit in a form they like
I paid via paypal a few times when ordering thru them like that, its safe.
I actually just did another order like that yesterday i wanted some replacement wires inside the 3dp module which they gave me if i paid for shipping but suggested i order some hotends or something to make it more worth it.
I have paid them about 800 dollars over paypal so far for various reasons.
if you act fast they might get it out 
Hey everyone, thanks for your feedback and contributions. I did not get my replacement parts under warranty simply because I wasn’t willing to deal with the back and forth of emails that have a 24 hour response time. So I paid for the replacement part and I’m operational. Now I have new issues, that belong in different threads. Maybe I’ll see you there.
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was thinking of doing the same. the lighting is poor and not independently able to turn on/off. If you’d recommend the lights you bought, can you share the link?
This is what I got:
Used an old power brick I had. Cut to fit. I’ve used the excess with some other little projects using a 9v battery to power them.
-S
Aye, that misconnection of cables is very real. It can happen especially in the Enclosure, so I bought a free standing LED floor lamp magnifier to ensure correct connections.
I do hope that you will get things made right.