My New 6X Build - SF-AW210 - Not What I Expected

Success! My new 6X Ehgemus build works! But I was expecting a but more actually. It is only slightly brighter than my PHR build and I clocked that at 90mW back when I had my LaserBee. I set my BoostDrive to 195mA and According to this:
http://laserpointerforums.com/f38/sf-aw210-piv-plots-lifetime-thread-44858.html
I should be getting over 200mW! I bought the diode from L*S*P (not knowing about High Tech Deals had them) and it definitely was a SF-AW210. But now that I look here;
405nm SF-AW210 Blu Ray Laser Diode [SF-AW210] - $36.98 : High Tech DealZ, Simplifying the LASER Hobby!
and see that their graph showing the diode doing 110mW at 195mA, which is where mine is right now.

Well I'm stoked that my laser build came together ok and works, even though soldering the jumper on the boostdrive was a FREAKING NIGHTMARE!! I though I was good at soldering until I tried precision SMD soldering. It's not pretty but it works.

So whats the deal, should I have gotten more from this diode? I might as well have bought a PHR. I can burn white paper and light white matches with ease, but so can my PHR.

Pics;

This is for the - connection to the case, because the two - connections on the BoostDrive are not continuous.



Nice and clean!


Looks Like hell!!!! (but works )


Dummy load calibration.


Looks good to me.


+ spring, and - case ground


Action Shot.


-Tony

sweet congratts welcome to builders square

Diodes vary, as do lenses.

Also, you cannot tell anything about power output by visual comparison or burning ability, especially with bluray (violet) diodes. A shift of just a few nm can significantly alter how "bright" the beam or spot "looks."

It is difficult to "see" the difference between my 200mW 6X and my 600mW 12X!

Peace,
dave

You know I think you're right Dave. Now that I play with it a bit more I realize that it really can burn paper and matches WAY better than my 90mW PHR Build. But that so weird how they look almost identical. I personally don't really care about burning stuff. It's cool, yeah, but I really only care about the "apparent brightness" of my lasers. I guess I'll just have to keep tinkering with diodes until get one thats on the longer wavelenght end of variation. Also now I really want my LaserBee back, hahaha!! I sold it and some of my lasers back in the day to get into RC, but now I'm back.

-Tony

You can buy tested freak high wavelength Blu-rays from a couple members IIRC. Igor for one but hes awfully busy most of the time & might be on a break atm.
Have you ever sold high wavelength freaks Dave? Would you know about how much they cost from those that sell em?

Love the host btw!

HaloBlu said:

You can buy tested freak high wavelength Blu-rays from a couple members IIRC. Igor for one but hes awfully busy most of the time & might be on a break atm.
Have you ever sold high wavelength freaks Dave? Would you know about how much they cost from those that sell em?

Love the host btw!

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Yeah I'd be interested in that too. Like I said, I don't really care about how many mW it is if it appears to be brighter than one of the same power output.

Ehgemus makes the nicest hosts I've ever seen. Really, what's the point on spending 40-50 bucks on a flashlight, heatsink, and module, when you can have one made to fit the part for the same price.



-Tony

Xplorer877 said:

Ehgemus makes the nicest hosts I've ever seen. Really, what's the point on spending 40-50 bucks on a flashlight, heatsink, and module, when you can have one made to fit the part for the same price.

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Couldn't agree more! I hope Ehgemus continues to charge prices that keep them within anyones reach. Hell, I have a lathe & I'm still tempted to buy a Ehgemus host! :crackup: Just can't help but appreciate great work.

Xplorer877 said:

You know I think you're right Dave. Now that I play with it a bit more I realize that it really can burn paper and matches WAY better than my 90mW PHR Build. But that so weird how they look almost identical. I personally don't really care about burning stuff. It's cool, yeah, but I really only care about the "apparent brightness" of my lasers. I guess I'll just have to keep tinkering with diodes until get one thats on the longer wavelenght end of variation. Also now I really want my LaserBee back, hahaha!! I sold it and some of my lasers back in the day to get into RC, but now I'm back.

-Tony

Click to expand...

You can increase your odds of getting a "longer wavelength" diode by running your lasers at more conservative currents. The harder they are pushed, the farther they tend to shift toward the UV.

Peace,
Dave

HaloBlu said:

Couldn't agree more! I hope Ehgemus continues to charge prices that keep them within anyones reach. Hell, I have a lathe & I'm still tempted to buy a Ehgemus host! :crackup: Just can't help but appreciate great work.

Click to expand...

Hit him up for one man. They're sooo worth it! I was expecting 60 or 70 for each host but he quoted me $46 shipped! So I bought two! Haha.

daguin said:

You can increase your odds of getting a "longer wavelength" diode by running your lasers at more conservative currents. The harder they are pushed, the farther they tend to shift toward the UV.

Peace,
Dave

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Yeah I've heard of that too. I'm running this one pretty conservatively I think. According to Dr. Lava's tests this diode can go up to 320+ mW. If mine is where I think it should be it's about 210-240mW (at 195mA). Hopefully I get a good long life from it.

-Tony

Xplorer877 said:

Hit him up for one man. They're sooo worth it! I was expecting 60 or 70 for each host but he quoted me $46 shipped! So I bought two! Haha.



Yeah I've heard of that too. I'm running this one pretty conservatively I think. According to Dr. Lava's tests this diode can go up to 320+ mW. If mine is where I think it should be it's about 210-240mW (at 195mA). Hopefully I get a good long life from it.

-Tony

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195mA is not conservative. That is above the recommended current for an SF-AW210. Larry runs his at 185mA. I keep mine below 180mA. Those are NOT conservative currents. They are the top of where we run them. A conservative current for the SF-AW210 would be down around 170mA or lower.

I do not know what drlava's resolution was for his test, but there is a very distinct kink around 180mA with the SF-AW210. Here is it shown in one of my tests


The recommendation is that a diode should be run below its first kink

Peace,
dave

Well we'll see how it goes. I still don't think I'm in the "danger" region, from what I read here. http://laserpointerforums.com/f38/sf-aw210-piv-plots-lifetime-thread-44858.html All diodes very in their endurance. I'll let you all know if and when it fails. Then I'll make an 8x.

-Tony

Xplorer877 said:

Well I'm stoked that my laser build came together ok and works, even though soldering the jumper on the boostdrive was a FREAKING NIGHTMARE!! I though I was good at soldering until I tried precision SMD soldering. It's not pretty but it works.

Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more. I went crazy for about 45 minutes trying to bridge the resistors on my FlexDrive. Damn solder wouldn't stick, flow, glob on, nothing. I finally tinned a tiny piece of wire and was able to bridge the gap with that. Position, tap with iron, done.

proud2deviate said:

Couldn't agree more. I went crazy for about 45 minutes trying to bridge the resistors on my FlexDrive. Damn solder wouldn't stick, flow, glob on, nothing. I finally tinned a tiny piece of wire and was able to bridge the gap with that. Position, tap with iron, done.

Click to expand...

That's exactly what i had to do! I used the thickness of a tiny wire to make the gap. I used a pretty sharp iron but I think my problem was that I was not using rosin free solder. I have that rosin core stuff from Radio Shack. The rosin would pool up on the circuit and prevent the freaking solder to adhere to the contacts. It almost screwed it up big time. The solder was going where I didn't want it to go and once I heated the SMD resistor too much and it completely removed itself from the board. But I managed to get it back in place but it's not pretty. Haha. Now that I know how to do it my next build should go abit smoother.

-Tony

Chalkboard said:

Hi Dave,

Do you know why this is?

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I do not know. You will have to ask PullBangDead if they are starting to understand the physics behind it yet. However, they have noticed it and are studying it.

Peace,
dave

I wanted mine to last around 100 hours
others have posted an early death at over 200ma drive current
I'm getting 258mw @ 189ma with the Jayrob lens
With about an hour of use I lost 4mw and now it seems to have slowed down
and is very consistent in power out measurements on a flex drive
The power meter is the only real test, with that lens I can light a match at 16 feet
You get what you pay for and to try to overdrive the diode to get
more than that is just foolish!
My next 405nm will be a 12x then I should be able to get 550mw with a similar
risk/reward factor

Jim

I ran an AW210 at 230ma and got 260mW from an Aixiz Blu-ray lens but the laser died after about 5 hours of total use (spread over 2 months). Now I have 10x @ 485mW and a 12x @ 555mW to play with