My 8X at 440mA

I don't remember who's, but I did read of a couple that died in that area...

Maybe Dave remembers the details. What say Dave?

In the "8x BR DIODES" Thread, you'll see that dieselmarine suffered of a LG BH08 death; it was set at 365mA...

FrancoRob said:

In the "8x BR DIODES" Thread, you'll see that dieselmarine suffered of a LG BH08 death; it was set at 365mA...

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Also (damn I cannot remember who it was) one of the members built one for his boss. His boss' laser died as well.

**EDIT** Also both of DAoO's died. Of course one of them was definitely built with an S03 diode.
MisterWilling lost one, but it was set at a very high current (400mA?)

Peace,
dave

It may be pseudolobster you were referring to? I'm not certain but it certainly rings a bell...

Yobresal: What LG drive is your diode from?
Slipstream: What drive is your 8x diode from?

The 8x LG burner internal Bh08

LG WH08LS20 BLACK SATA LIGHTSCRIBE 8X BLU RAY WRITER with Software (OEM)

yobresal said:

Maybe you should cheap out on the tires and buy an 8X. I think i spent $500 for all 4 of mine. Unless you are driving a truck or racecar.

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06 Corvette so I'd rather not go cheap on tires... tax season is coming so my return will get me an 8x or 12x if they turn out to be worth it. I would love to see 500mw+ with my own eyes (as long as its not in my eyes... lol).

Yeah that would quality as "racecar" very nice. Makes my Benz look like an old man car.

Current was at 410mA but I used a different diode. It was from a Panasonic Drive which no one else really used besides me. It also didn't completely die, it just suffered degredation and a dark spot on output.

How much on time would you estimate it had before it died?

So maybe LG drives are superior to others or at least Panasonic in terms of high ma endurance..

Yobresal: Was that the drive you got for $140 including shipping/handling and Cali sales tax? They raised the price back up to $180 I think.

Not very many, probably about < 3 hours

ZRTMWA said:

So maybe LG drives are superior to others or at least Panasonic in terms of high ma endurance..

Yobresal: Was that the drive you got for $140 including shipping/handling and Cali sales tax? They raised the price back up to $180 I think.

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No that was the Mwave one that I bought for $160 taxed & shipped a few days before newegg came out with the $129 sale.

MISTERWILLING said:

Not very many, probably about < 3 hours

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Wow. Did you leave it on constantly for an extended period of time?

Nope always under a minute or two. It was heatsinked very well. I did turn it on and off alot though. I think the Panasonic diodes just aren't as good as the LG.

yobresal said:

By the way, how much % more output do you think a violet laser gets with the window removed? I can't imagine it is much more than a couple percent?

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The amount of power you will gain by removing the window is very low. The window is 0.25mm thick and is AR coated on both sides. My guess with the bulk style coating they have on them that you would gain maybe 1%. Removing them can be much worse than the worth of an extra 1%. The 405nm diodes are packaged with dry nitrogen in the can. When you remove the window you expose them to the water vapor and some other gases in the atmosphere which degrades the diode facet very quickly. In a test I did with a PHR diode, the threshold current went up from about 30mA to roughly 37mA after 24 hours of on time at various currents. The power also dropped about 34% at 65mA. This is probably why you noticed the drop in power after a few minutes of on time. With the lens in front of the diode it will more or less seal the diode from the outside atmosphere, but the water vapor that was in there to begin with probably already did its damage so as long as the diode stays sealed there shouldn't be any more degredation. The 405 light drives the reaction so it happens quickly. There is a paper on this that I can show you if you send me a PM.