Defintive 6X GGW-H20L Thread.

[Tech_Junkie]

quoting myself here, and repeating _ I will never risk a single $ for GGL 6x sleds.

Latest success rate is nor only %50. I had one of latest failures after about 45min of use at 216mA it turned into a 20mW defective diode with weird pattern, while still outputting mainly coherent light.


just thought i update you all.

From what I've read a setting under 200mA is a safe bullet proof setting for the GGW.

 

[jander6442]

careful w/that Tech I had one last maybe 2 hrs at 280mA then kapow...then others

set at 205mA then last 1 hr. So the last one I had set at 195mA lasted a while longer

not to sure of approximate time , but died eventually... the one's that last the

longest or both set under 190mA's one at 189mA 208mW then the second at 185mA's

and not tested for mW's ,but burns very well and as bright to the eye as the other...

Funny thing though I have had a PHR set at 150mA for a while now it doesn't burn as

nice as the 6x's of course... the beam profile though is much more defined and

schweet as could be. One day I'll make a horse swap deal to Jay for one of his lenses

that would be even schweeter.

for me

 

[Tech_Junkie]

I know efficiency and if its on a kink have a lot to do with the setting. Obviously your diode running 189mA 208mW is very efficient. Milos's 216mA 178mW was not so efficient. That's why I posted that a setting under 200mW would be the best setting. I don't think anyone can put an exact range because each diode has a different efficiency. Setting it on a kink is another story.

 

[Milos]

setting below 200mA is of coarse safer, but i thnk there is more to it.

The firs GGL 6x diodes behaved differently and none of them died on me for many hours set at 205-230mA !

second batch i had only one failure, although cause was 99% due to abuse and high current setting by my customer who admitted he played with sensitive pot on Flex drive V3 without measuring with multi meter.

Then we had a pause and announcement that no more of these sleds will be available. Instead, new sleds came claiming same diodes SF-AW210. Those were all different exibiting performances of PHR, 4x and GGL6x.

Now we got GGL 6x back, and in my honest opinion, i think diode inside might have been changed to be the same as the one inside SF-AW20.

i could be wrong- of coarse, but i'm almost certain it is not same diode as it used to be last year insid GGL 6x sleds.

 

[Tech_Junkie]

I hope you are wrong. Igor has a new batch from the same people we got ours. We will have to wait for his report.

 

[alx]

I am dissapointed too about GGW diodes. I brougt 2 on May, this year (here is the thread: http://laserpointerforums.com/f55/ggw-sled-gb-phrs-lpcs-low-12-ea-39833.html) and set it up:

first at 180ma/185mw
second at 160ma/170mw

Booth are aged now (less than 30-40mw) in less than 50-60 minutes usage (not continuos usage - 5 minutes on, 1 hour off, 3 mintes on, 3 days off, etc)! The second diode, intentionally has been setup, for long lasting than first one. Start aging quicly after I keept on 10minutes. After I stoped, I saw that I lost 20mw...still only 150mw. Start again after 1 day, another 10-15minutes. goes more down...near 110mw....!!! And so on...Now, still working but has maximum 30mw output...

Personally I think that better than test HOW MUCH HIGHER can be pushed a diode, most important is to see, HOW LONG can survive at 100ma, 150ma, 200ma. If at these rates, diode will not survive minim 100hours (more than 4days), I think it cannot be considered SAFE current. Normally, we should get 1000hours (more tha 40days), for a resonable life of a diode (like PHR diodes, 3 months for an average current 100mA/100mw)!

1 hour for 50-100USD/diode seems to be very expensive, and in my opinion not worth... I saw a lot of posts saying here "safe current"... but not quoting it in time (how many hours)...so, i suggest to define some limits for this attributes, to not confuse users ... And for newcommers, really safe current for a diode is the current named "Operating Current" by manufacturer and for we can get 10.000hours (over 416days) lifetime!

...10 minutes lifetime but high output power, could be considered super safe for someone... depending by its reference system. why to not write one here to define: "safe", "resonably", "last long", etc....if we cannot use the already existing one (I have no doubt, what is safe for a laser diode manufacturer, is not the same for us)...

Alx

 

[Cenobite9]

My first 6x was a GGW that put out ~225mw at 200ma with no lense. Unfortunately the driver shorted against the host and killed both the diode and the driver. My replacement was a SF-AW210 that put out ~300mw at 230ma with no lense (260mw with an LSP Blu-ray AR lense). That one lasted a couple months and then LED'd suddenly while playing around with it in a night club (the beam was awesome in the smoke from the smoke machine especially after the smoke disippated a bit).

 

[Tech_Junkie]

I am dissapointed too about GGW diodes. I brougt 2 on May, this year (here is the thread: http://laserpointerforums.com/f55/ggw-sled-gb-phrs-lpcs-low-12-ea-39833.html) and set it up:

first at 180ma/185mw
second at 160ma/170mw

Those are good numbers. My first GGW diode peaked at 156mW at 200mA. My second 187mW at 199mA.

You need a good heat sink if you are using a linear driver. With three full Li-Ions, the efficiency of the driver setup is around 44%, increasing slightly as they go towards empty.

What this means is, that 56% (and dropping) of all the power coming out of the batteries will turn to heat.

(Thanks goes out to IgorT for supplying this info)

So if not heat sinked correctly the diodes will burn up quickly.

 

[robjdixon]

My GGW gets 120mW at 170mA with an acrylic lens - I'm getting 140mW with a Aixiz 405 lens though. Still disappointing

 

[Tech_Junkie]

Igor told me that 15% of the GGWs are low efficiency.

 

[robjdixon]

Yeah. For some reason, i was expecting like 200mA, but reading around, I guess I was being a little naive. Oh well. Next up are 2 of the SF-AW210 diodes - one at 204mA and one at 185mA. Hope to get some proper power out of these bessies - as long as they aren't inbred like some other SF-AW210 diodes