Damaged the 6x...

Well... I decided I wanted better battery life out of my 6x/kryton build. With the rkcstr driver (which worked great while it was in there) I would only get about 15 minutes of run time at ~185-190mA before the batteries (2x cr123a) would droop, and the driver would no longer be in regulation. So I decided to switch to the fusion drive. Well... in the process of removing the driver, I got the diode waaaaay too hot. I wasn't holding it in my hands, so I didn't even know before It was too late. I never had the iron on for a super long duration, but the aluminum in the kryton head just sucked the heat right up. When I was done the head was really hot. Too hot to touch. This is when I let out a small string of expletives, because I've never had anything soak up heat that fast on me.

Anyway, I got the fusion driver on and it works great. The run time is much longer now. I knew I must have caused a bit of damage, so I had to check. Unfortuneately, when I unfocused the laser and turned it into a huge spot on the wall, I could see a 'dim' section of the spot which was never there before. I tested the power and sure enough, I was down from 200mW to about 150mW at the same current :'(

In a few weeks I'll be building another 6x blu-ray, I just had to vent a little bit :-X

Moral of the story: If it aint broke, dont fix it. ;D ;D ;D

Ouch man, ouch...the 6x is the holy grail of blu-ray...

Maybe now you can ramp up the current to see what the diode is capable off handling and putting out? ;D

What is the max anyone has run a 6x diode? (bit off-topic)

Lets hope the GGC drives contain the same diode


brtaman

GG, maybe smth got on the window, blemishes, smudges, whatever dirt obscuring the beam? you could de-can it and see if the beam profile changes

phenol said:

GG, maybe smth got on the window, blemishes, smudges, whatever dirt obscuring the beam? you could de-can it and see if the beam profile changes

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This is what I originally thought, so I cleaned the window and the lens really well, with the same result. One can even see the damage without the lens in the barrel at all. It looks like when you overpower a red and the uncollimated light from the diode appears to get a 'vein' in it.

Oh well.. it still kicks out around 160mW now... that will tide me over until I get another one

That's a shame

When you get your new one can I have your current one

el-taco said:

That's a shame

When you get your new one can I have your current one  

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hehe... well... i was thinking about selling it at a dramatically reduced price

GooeyGus said:

Moral of the story: If it aint broke, dont fix it. ;D ;D ;D

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. . . and that's a fact of life

Peace,
dave

GooeyGus said:

Moral of the story: If it aint broke, dont fix it.   ;D ;D ;D

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Whew.. You'd think I'd have learned that lesson by now, but I keep making that same mistake.
I'd bet a lot of us here are in the same boat

GooeyGus said:

[quote author=el-taco link=1215427814/0#4 date=1215436605]That's a shame

When you get your new one can I have your current one  

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hehe... well... i was thinking about selling it at a dramatically reduced price  [/quote]
TESTING!

Man, a fusion drive? I didn't know BF was legit with anything he sold.

360freak said:

Man, a fusion drive? I didn't know BF was legit with anything he sold.

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It's just called the fusion drive. I don't think HE ever shipped any out. He didn't even design it. The fusion drives were the beginning of the end for him.

Peace,
dave

A couple of us here have hit 190 mA and a little beyond on the 6X.

Good Luck -- Mike

Hemlock Mike said:

A couple of us here have hit 190 mA and a little beyond on the 6X.

Good Luck  --  Mike

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I have mine set to 220mA now to offset the damage done ;D

still only about 170mW though.... :'(

The 830 club has more members but the 6x club still RULES ;D ;D

Mike

*crys for you* *small violin plays in background*


Anyhow, painful to hear. I have made that mistake COUNTLESS times. and what sucks is, I still dont learn from those mistakes ;D ;D


but good to know it still works!!

Now, PUSH IT!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D


lol,

amk

Well.. I pushed it ;D

It was running at 230mA for a day or two... today I left it on for like 10 minutes straight because I honestly stopped caring about it after I knew it was messed up. It was still fine after that, and I used it on and off for a couple more hours. Well, it started acting up a bit, only blinking (at regular power) for a split second when power was applied. Every once and a while it would work for 15 seconds or so, but then just shut off again. The weird part was all I had to do was remove and re-apply power and it would come back on. Well, after a while of this, the blink was no longer regular power, and was just a yellow blink. So the diode is no officially dead ;D Oh well... it gets kinda boring when everything works perfectly all the time, right? I was getting antsy to build something again 6x #3 will make it's debut soon