Fear of bad lasers (aka "demon diodes")
 New Member Total Posts: 3 Member Since: |
September 19, 2010, 11:55 AM My understanding is that a diode can go “bad”, and become excessively hot (I’ve seen OMG call this a “demon diode”). A bad diode can apparently cause a helmet user to experience excess heat and feelings of sunburn in the skin. (I understand this can also happen *without* their being a “bad” diode.) I’ve seen posts where other users have had to cut down their time because the initial 20 min 3x week was just too much for them. That’s what I did when this happened to me; I stopped for a week, then cut down to 5 min, and right now I’m OK at 10 min 3x week. I’ve got a 400 diode helmet, and I wonder if that fact alone might account for the level of heat it puts out. I’ve thought about removing 50 or 100 in a diffuse pattern, for cooling and additional ventilation. Still worried I might have a bad diode, though, as the helmet does get quite hot. The complication is that I’m not at all convinced it’s safe for me to flip the thing over and stare at the lasers. I’m starting to lose my vision as is, and I’m not too keen on anything that might accelerate that process. I’ve seen a post elsewhere that suggested shining the diodes through paper, and that this would identify a hot one. I pushed a sheet of 8.5x11” up inside the helmet while it was on, and didn’t feel like I learned anything at all from that. It’s also been suggested to run the helmet on the stand for 20 min and then feel each diode for excess heat. Although that would take some time, at least it’s not so scary; I have laser goggles I can wear while I’m doing it, so my eyes would be safe. But would it work? Would I clearly be able to identify a bad one that way, or would I just be wasting the time it would take for me to feel each one individually? And what would be the best part to be touching - I assume the metal ring on the end? |
 Editor Total Posts: 844 Member Since: |
[ # 1 ] September 19, 2010, 12:15 PM Hey, Tao! You *need* to get this problem taken care of. If you’ve seen problems where people had to cut down their time because of hot diodes, then it’s no ones fault but their own when they don’t get results -because they WON’T get results. That was a very FEW people that reported that experience, and yes… it was because of hot diodes. By the way, just to say it… If you saw posts about people using one of my helmets less than 20 minutes, then the rule of thumb is to completely stay away from them until proven otherwise because either they have a bad device or bad information. Plus, there were scammers at another forum that were purposely confusing information on this. My 400 diode helmet isn’t hot, and most people’s 400 diode helmets aren’t hot -it’s literally just a couple of diodes in yours that are problematic. The diodes made in helmets at the end of June/beginning of July was the timeperiod in which a few of these diodes did this, and that’s when your helmet was made, too. You can send it to me if you want me to check it, but it’s really not hard, and no… it won’t hurt your eyes. Also, you confuse me… you have laser goggles but aren’t using them to check? I’m not sure why you are talking about the fear of your eyes when you have laser goggles, and I’m not sure why you can’t tell which diodes are problematic through them. They aren’t going to look like they are lit at all. You are getting zero harmful laser energy through 650nm laser goggles, so take your time and look and touch, look and touch, look and touch. Also, lol… as far as not knowing where to touch them, there are only two ends -and one is close to your head! So, that’s the end to touch! Anyway, you can email me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or skype me at “overmachogrande” (TOMORROW… I’m taking the weekend off for the first time in a billion years) and I can help you fix this problem, but this is not any sort of major issue other than a few problematic diodes that will probably be easy to find. Trust me… if you find them, you’ll know it. Just a reminder… if you’ve been using it only 10 minutes, you haven’t really been using the helmet so you need to get that taken care of! -O.M.G. |
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Build your own Laser Helmet | Laser Brush | Laser Device at OverMachoGrande.com! The internet’s first, best, and biggest consumer advocate site on laser therapy for hair loss! It’s time to educate yourself about one of the greatest treatments in FORUM HISTORY… |
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Editor Total Posts: 844 Member Since: |
[ # 2 ] September 19, 2010, 01:14 PM PS- Don’t forget to introduce yourself… this is a community! We get to know each other and try to help each other as much as we can, and posts often get ignored (or worse) in which people don’t take the time to say hello on their first post. |
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Build your own Laser Helmet | Laser Brush | Laser Device at OverMachoGrande.com! The internet’s first, best, and biggest consumer advocate site on laser therapy for hair loss! It’s time to educate yourself about one of the greatest treatments in FORUM HISTORY… |
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Member Total Posts: 26 Member Since: |
[ # 3 ] September 19, 2010, 05:01 PM So the reason I worry about these demon diodes is that of the batch of diodes I bought in July… now 20 of the 50 have gone bad on me. I’m scared of constructing another laser device for my hair because of the price involved and the diodes going bad. Furthermore, Aixiz has been really slow in getting back to me, and they have NEVER responded to an email unless I email them through Ebay.com. The last time I ordered something from them (some laser diode caps), they sent me a mounting pad instead… and they haven’t responded to my request to return it. Any ideas? —G |
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New Member Total Posts: 3 Member Since: |
[ # 4 ] September 19, 2010, 05:08 PM Thanks for the fast reply OMG! I’ve tried checking the diodes while wearing goggles, and the goggles block the light so effectively that it looks as if NONE of the diodes are lit. I appreciate the offer to ship the helmet back—but what if you fix it for me, and then MORE diodes go bad after you ship it back? If this may be an ongoing problem, I think I’d better learn how to fix it myself. |
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Editor Total Posts: 844 Member Since: |
[ # 5 ] September 19, 2010, 05:12 PM Yeah I’ve got some ideas, gcdante… KEEP ME IN THE LOOP ABOUT THESE THINGS!!! lol… Whether I sold you the diodes or not, if something is going on and AiXiZ isn’t getting back to you, let me help you! You guys have got to let me know, though -preferably through email though because these threads always make people with perfectly good diodes start to be concerned that they might be getting hot, and I’m tired of that. Sounds to me, gcdante, that you got the brunt of them. Anyway, I’m not going to talk about it on this thread for the reason stated above so you guys can email me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), and I’ll get to my email tomorrow. I’d like to ask you guys some more questions anyway -mostly about the power supply- but we need to do it through email. -O.M.G. |
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Build your own Laser Helmet | Laser Brush | Laser Device at OverMachoGrande.com! The internet’s first, best, and biggest consumer advocate site on laser therapy for hair loss! It’s time to educate yourself about one of the greatest treatments in FORUM HISTORY… |
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Editor Total Posts: 844 Member Since: |
[ # 6 ] September 19, 2010, 05:17 PM Tao… We’ll skype or something this week. It’s extremely easy to replace a diode, so I’ll show you how. The good thing is that usually once a couple are replaced, that’s it -no more problems. One guy in France had about thirty or something, obviously gcdante has a lot, but these are “big”, obvious problems that were obvious. There were a few others here and there -all in that June/July timeframe- but they’ve all been taken care of and there hasn’t been any recent problems. -O.M.G. |
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Build your own Laser Helmet | Laser Brush | Laser Device at OverMachoGrande.com! The internet’s first, best, and biggest consumer advocate site on laser therapy for hair loss! It’s time to educate yourself about one of the greatest treatments in FORUM HISTORY… |
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Member Total Posts: 26 Member Since: |
[ # 7 ] September 19, 2010, 05:21 PM Hey OMG, I sent you an email to Editor at worldhairloss dot com a few minutes ago without seeing your reply here. Get back to me and we’ll take care of this. I figured you’d want to know how things progressed with me since you’ve helped me in the past with things. I think I may have told you that my PSU was the same Mean-Well PSU that you have on the original OverMachoGrande.com website. It’s the 3.3V, 7A one. —G |
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Editor Total Posts: 844 Member Since: |
[ # 8 ] September 19, 2010, 05:22 PM ...And by the way, I’ve heard of three different manufacturers that use other brands of diodes (made in different factories) that all had the same thing happen in that time frame. So, it’s not just us, not just AiXiZ, and not just a helmet design. I find that really interesting, but it might simply be that we are just hearing about it because lasers continue to get more and more mainstream every day. |
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Build your own Laser Helmet | Laser Brush | Laser Device at OverMachoGrande.com! The internet’s first, best, and biggest consumer advocate site on laser therapy for hair loss! It’s time to educate yourself about one of the greatest treatments in FORUM HISTORY… |
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Editor Total Posts: 844 Member Since: |
[ # 9 ] September 19, 2010, 05:25 PM Ok, cool… I’ll get to email tomorrow. I’ve had a week with a lot of delinquent payers for helmets so it’s unmotivated me to work through the weekend like I normally do, and I’m about to shut off my computer until tomorrow afternoon. I pretty much only got online to post my Segway Scooter video in that other thread! lol… |
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Build your own Laser Helmet | Laser Brush | Laser Device at OverMachoGrande.com! The internet’s first, best, and biggest consumer advocate site on laser therapy for hair loss! It’s time to educate yourself about one of the greatest treatments in FORUM HISTORY… |
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Member Total Posts: 33 Member Since: |
[ # 10 ] September 20, 2010, 05:27 AM FWIW, I have a 415 helmet, and started at 3x15mn/week. I was scared about overstimulation due to fake posts at other forums and wanted to start it easy. |
 Member Total Posts: 69 Member Since: |
[ # 11 ] September 20, 2010, 05:36 AM Hey John… |
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Member Total Posts: 26 Member Since: |
[ # 12 ] September 20, 2010, 08:17 AM Hey WinterHeart… you’re most likely not going to *#&^-up your eye by examining the lasers with your naked eye, although you could probably find a laser safety chart on the Internet from OSHA or any number of organizations. You *could* wear sunglasses or use an attenuator (basically a piece of translucent material) to decrease the amplitude of light incident to your eye. I used to work in a laser lab when I was doing my PhD, so I do know *some*thing about light… not much… but something. Remember, what I’m telling you only works because the total amount of light entering your eye at one time is low. If we took a focused, 0.5W or more beam of visible light to your eye, you’d hear a *pop* after a little time. That *pop* is basically you going blind from your retina going kaput (well it works like that with infrared light and with higher spectrum red light, so I’m assuming 650nm would do the same). I’ve smelled that happening to people before with a 20W focused, infrared laser. Burning eye is a fun smell. Oh, and if you want to ever know more about lasers and eye surgery, you need to watch this video. My friends in the discipline play this for their patients to make them laugh - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W-DtIAzWVc&p=C15E2FF01A5918EC&playnext=1&index=13 —G |
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Member Total Posts: 37 Member Since: |
[ # 13 ] September 26, 2010, 12:23 AM So I’ve had my 300 diode laser messiah for a little over a year now. I’ve had problems with hot diodes for a couple months but have been going with it anyway. I think you made this particular helmet for me in July or August of 09, OMG. So I don’t know if those are th diodes you’re referring to or not. I’ve noticed that 1 diode is out. I’ve just kept at it over the last couple months at 20 min x every other day, and haven’t gotten a dry scalp problem since I use coconut oil somewhat frequently. However, I’m wondering now if I could be doing more harm than good. I was recently considering selling my current helmet for a deflated price to someone who could replace the problematic diodes, and just buying a new one from you. |
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Member Total Posts: 87 Member Since: |
[ # 14 ] September 29, 2010, 07:10 PM Hey OMG! it’s been sometime since I am not posting, my mom was ill, but now she’s ok and I think I am going to start reporting again! Well, about the hot diodes I had a bad experience with them, first helmet had a broken PSU, and 80]% of the diodes were “ill”, and the new upgraded replacementeone still had hot diodes at around 30 minutes and involving around 50% of the diodes. -at least 90% of the diodes are still working at the needed 20 minutes!- I don’t know if it is something to do with Mexico’s domestic current arrangements or not, but I would guess that all of you reporting bad diodes are not living in USA! that could be a hint! |
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New Member Total Posts: 3 Member Since: |
[ # 15 ] June 10, 2011, 08:50 PM I’ve owed OMG a forum update for quite some time and apologize for the delay. I ended up shipping the helmet back and received a brand new one in November. I’ve been using it as prescribed and so far there have been no problems with it at all. Unfortunately my hair’s still thinning, but that certainly isn’t the helmet’s fault. Thanks OMG, for the excellent customer service. |
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