gcdante

Member

Total Posts: 26

Member Since:
April 2010

July 13, 2010, 09:03 PM

So I have a 50-laser system that I am using right now.  It’s basically a piece of foam with holes punched through and bristles I glued on there.

  I have had six out of the 50 lasers burn out on me already.  The only thing I can think that may have damaged them is that initially I was using a 5.0V AC-DC power supply (one that I modified from an old router).  I now have a 3.3V power supply from TRC (a nice, 7amp one with solid rails).

  Basically, the laser diodes start going bad by running extra hot and then burning off.  I have completely unscrewed the caps so that they disperse.  SHOULD I just remove the focus from inside the cap and then put the cap back on?  Or does that make a difference.

  I’m sorry if this question has been asked before, but I figured I would post it here so that everybody can see the response for the future.

OverMachoGrande

Editor

Total Posts: 811

Member Since:
January 2010

[ # 1 ]

July 14, 2010, 06:18 PM

Hey, gcdante!

I’m sorry I couldn’t get to you sooner! 

It’s POSSIBLE that your power supply could have burned them out, but we’ve used power supplies before that have gone to 5 volts and there weren’t that many problems.  Now, we have tested some smaller, cheaper power supplies and found that sometimes the voltage is all across the board, so maybe it was that.  Maybe it was really giving 6v and that IS too much!  Maybe they were just bad, though.  But yes, that’s how they die… the get hot, go dim, and then go dark.

By the way, for future reference for everyone reading this… one thing that I’ve found that really can kill the diodes like this is stressing the wires too much.  For example, I recently decided to transfer all of my diodes out of my original laser messiah and put them into a new one (I kept giving my 400 diode LM II helmets away that I made for myself, and I knew that if I had my original diodes in there I would stop doing that!).  ALL OF THEM (254) WORKED PERFECTLY before the transfer -and these diodes are all over two years old and were still going strong.  Well, I lost about 11 of them after the transfer -and yes, they followed the “demon diode death cycle” of getting hot-dim-dark.  I was pretty careless pulling them out, and I didn’t really pay attention to hyperflexing the wires, etc. - guess I sort of felt they were indestructable since they lasted so long. 

Are they AiXiZ diodes?  If so, then tell them that OverMachoGrande (John Christian) said that they should ship you six more.  That *should* work -unless they don’t like me anymore or something! lol… 

But hey, DO NOT screw the lens caps back on!  An ideal diode should look something like this:

-O.M.G.

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