GGW-H20L vs. SF-AW210, which one is a better value?

ive had 4 SF-AW210 diode's go LED in the last 6 month's . they were all set @ around 160ma . only 1 of them lasted more than a few week's. i'm now using GGW-H20L and so far so good .

spectral532 said:

I've read that GGW-H20L diodes are more powerful than SF-AW210 sleds. But with GGW-H20L sleds priced around $70 and SF-AW210s priced around $30, is the extra $40 mark up worth it?

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For long life, I recommended 192ma for the SF-210 and 202ma for the GGW.

At that power, you should be over 210mw.

For the value, I would go with the SF-210.

It is subject to damage over that current level.

LarryDFW

robjdixon said:

Having only owned one of each diodes, I have been a bit unlucky with the GGW diodes. When I run one at 170mA, I get 120mW with acrylic lens, which is crap, frankly.

My AW-210 however, give me 240mW at 214ma with an aixiz acrylic lens. Its awesome

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Some GGWs are really low in efficiency, i posted a plot of 61 a couple of times, but haven't managed to prepare a GGW batch testing thread yet (will get to it when time permits).


But when it comes to GGW vs. SF-AW, i'd always go with a GGW.

SF-AW's seem to be rated for a lower current, because they display a kink at around 180mW and setting diodes above a kink usually doesn't end good...

GGWs go without a kink up to 300mW! And if they are high efficiency diodes, they can even survive that much raw power (as long as they reach it at 200mA or less, that is - less after lens of course!).


The majority of GGWs will survive 190-200mA for a year or several of normal use. Unless you are really unlucky and get a very low efficiency one. My first was an average one and survived a year of heavy abuse!


SF-AWs on the other hand are very inconsistent diodes, which is usually not a good sign - the higher the power rating of a diode, the more consistent they become.


As for the price.. Who sells them for $70? They recently dropped in price, and as far as i know you can now even get efficiency tested GGWs for $50, and make sure you don't get a bad one! The low efficiency ones will be sold off at a lower price.

Scopeguy and FlamingPyro were working on that...

I paid $56 a piece for a mix of very good, normal and very weak ones, and would still pay that, because i know that once i weed out the weak ones, the rest are very reliable.


If Scopeguy and FlamingPyro are still offering tested GGWs for $50, i'd say go with that!




Brtaman: Your GGW was a "cherry picked" super-freak! Came from a v3 sled version which contained nothing but longer wavelength freaks.. What power did you get again, and what was the current?

IgorT said:

Brtaman: Your GGW was a "cherry picked" super-freak! Came from a v3 sled version which contained nothing but longer wavelength freaks.. What power did you get again, and what was the current?

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Yo Igor, whatsup?

The diode was set to 193 mA IIRC (definitely in the 190-195 mA range). At first I was going to run at 200ma but the power was off the charts so I scaled it down.

Power was/ 208 mW no degradation, well it is reading 205 now but the lens is getting "foggy", damn acrylic. Need to invest in some glass. :san: What's the situation with the mediums?

pwnstar said:

Thanks for this thread. I have been wondering the difference myself too.

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I'm glad someone else is benefiting from this information.

IgorT said:

SF-AWs on the other hand are very inconsistent diodes, which is usually not a good sign - the higher the power rating of a diode, the more consistent they become.

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Yeah, after reviewing everyone's responses on this thread it seems that the capabilities of SF-AW210s are quite varied. Is there a minimum safe current for SF-AW210 diodes? What is the expected power output at this current?

IgorT said:

As for the price.. Who sells them for $70? They recently dropped in price, and as far as i know you can now even get efficiency tested GGWs for $50, and make sure you don't get a bad one! The low efficiency ones will be sold off at a lower price.

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The $70 I quoted was from Laser Surplus Parts dot com (I cant post the link for some reason, it keeps getting starred out like this: www.*****************.com). For $50 the GGW-H20L does become more enticing. But the price is still a bit high for what I'd like to spend. Do you know of any sellers that are willing to efficiency test SF-AW210s?

Hi,

My SF-AW died at 172mA with less than two hours of use.

David

Not sure where to post this so it is going here. I ran my GGW up to 280mA last night. Looked like an 8X diode in terms of visibility. It died after 5 minutes of use.

The price and performance difference of the two really balance each other out. All you can hope for is that you get a freak, as a freak sf-aw is almost similar to a good ggw. From what Ive heard getting a ggw sled is taking more of a bet, because they vary alot more in power and efficiency. There are more bad ones, and more good ones.

Time ago i bought from Jake21 a Microchrome host in which he fit a SF-AW210 diode, set at 180mA - 225mW; before shipment, I asked him to reduce the P.O. to 200mW. I played a lot with it, till one day it suddenly died (I was supposing it). I sent it to Igor, and he found that it was still living, but with some heavy assembly/soldering problems. Igor made a more than gorgeous work :bowdown:, cleaning, resoldering, etc. I have just received it to-day, resurrexed to a new life and, as you can see in the annexed (bad, sorry) pictures, its P.O. is still 271mW with a LarryDFW lens.....




Just my two cents. :yh:

Igor T has an excellent graph of 75 GGW diodes and their efficiency. Give him some weeks, and he will have a good SF-AW one as well. They will make a great comparison.

Has IgorT posted his graph of 75 GGW-H20L sleds yet? I can seem to find it on this forum :thinking:. Either way, I'll be looking foward to a SF-AW210 graph. Hopefully it will help clear up why some people killed their SF-AW210s at 160ma, while others run them at 210ma with no problem.

spectral532 said:

Has IgorT posted his graph of 75 GGW-H20L sleds yet? I can seem to find it on this forum :thinking:. Either way, I'll be looking foward to a SF-AW210 graph. Hopefully it will help clear up why some people killed their SF-AW210s at 160ma, while others run them at 210ma with no problem.

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Im surprised he has not yet put it in the forums, though he did only complete it a mere 2-3 days ago. He sent it to me to look at, ill go ahead and post it right here. Of course that blue diode at the top is his primary laser ^_^



I repeat, Igor is the man.

Wow, nice graph. Do you know if the measured mw output is the raw output of the diode, or is it measured though some lens?

Edit: The mw power output was measured through an Aixiz acrylic lens

FrancoRob;

FrancoRob said:

Igor made a more than gorgeous work :bowdown:, cleaning, resoldering, etc. I have just received it to-day, resurrexed to a new life and, as you can see in the annexed (bad, sorry) pictures, its P.O. is still 271mW with a LarryDFW lens.....

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That is a substantial power output from the Sanyo diode (it must be the AR lens :beer.

Can you estimate how many hours you have on the laser ?

LarryDFW

LarryDFW said:

FrancoRob;


That is a substantial power output from the Sanyo diode.

Can you estimate how many hours you have on the laser ?

LarryDFW

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Well, I replaced the TR10440 protected battery four or five times (let me assume four times for conservative reasons) so I think about two hours or something more.... next time I replace the battery I'll try to write down the burning time (Dave teaches :yh: ). Merry Christmas to all members!