I just got a response back from Susie and she said that they are now selling the Nichia diodes one at a time...

Nichia diodes: http://www.o-like.com/b2b_cpinfo.asp?id=914

These have been tested by Igor and are similar to a 6X in power. See here for his graph and comments on a side by side comparison with a 6X:
http://www.laserpointerforums.com/fo...867955/120#132

Just thought I would pass this information on in case anybody wanted to know...
Jay

Wow Awesome!

Thanks for passing this information on to us!

hmm, i could have sworn that igor wasnt too happy with these..
are there any reliability or longtime-run tests yet? almost any bluray-diode can put out 230mw.. most will die in the first few minutes, though.
if there are any numbers like "it will live for some hundred hours at xx mA with an output of yy mW", it would easily be the first choice higher-power bluray diode around here.
perhaps susie would donate a few diodes, or make a nice discount, if someone tests them at defined mAs for runtime? selling numbers would easily tenfold with such data!

manuel

I read to the end of his thread...

I posted the link above where it starts getting good. Where he makes a graph and starts comparing them with 6X diodes.

It doesn't say whether he did a long term test on them, but he talks highly of them in the thread. Very comparable to 6X. But a different diode.
Jay

So the next best thing is here. But has Susie been to ESD school yet?


--John

so if we order these they are ready to go now?

Yes, she says that she has them, and will sell them even one at a time!

The only test that I am aware of, is that of Igor's. But this is the only high power blu-ray diode that we actually have a data sheet on...

We need more testers! :
Jay

Well considering I just killed a 6x that I was building for someone (damn 18650's and their + and - looking the same... and the no polarity protection on the flex drive) I may be forced into buying one ;D ;D ;D Cant really test it as it has to last, but I can get some I vs P info.....

That would be great just knowing if you get the same power per current in comparison to Igor's graph with AixiZ acrylic!
Jay

I purchased one of those Nichi'a's from Susie about a month ago. It has since died an untimely death, but I got a graph or 2 left. Here is the Current/Voltage/Power for the one I had - Power is After the acrylic lens:

Looks a lot like a 6X alright...

Seems that Igor got one that was a little 'hotter' as far as mW's vs mA's fed. but we have found this efficiency variation in the 6X diodes as well.

Thanks for posting the graph!
Jay

Looks almost spot-on for the 6x....

How did it die? :-?

Well, $80 shipped is $20 more than a 6x was. Almost seems like its more worth to wait for the 8x to drop price. I mean if a 8x inside a working drive is $200, then the sled would easily be half that price, if not the same as one of these.

is there a price on sleds at all? i guess only, if they are sold to companies to repair drives, like the phr for example (i guess). the 6x sled were, if i read and remember correctly, more or less junk a single person got off the factory, randomly deciding on a price for his customers (shops), who in turn added some amount on that price. so what we paid for the 6x sleds was more or less random (or what people thought would be the maximum they would get). i dont expect that we will be lucky again to find such an obscure source, so we may have to wait until those 8x sleds show up on the official paths. which may be a long time, which may be much more expensive. not even the 6x sleds showed up the regular way yet..

manuel

Yeah... I'm pretty sure someone was damaging the sleds to get them 'thrown out'. And then sell them to us.

We see the same scenario with the SF-AW210 sleds.

This Nichia diode is surely a 6X diode. Just not the same brand as the GGW-H20L sleds. Which we have not identified. It would not surprise me if Igor's guess that it is the Sharp diode is correct though.

We do have a data sheet on this Nichia diode though...
Jay

I had a dumb moment and chose a conductive tweaker to adjust the current and shorted out something... else I would probably be still using it :-[

I will be receiving mine on 4/14 or so. *You never know exactly when you will get something when it is being shipped from China. *I will post as to how they turn out.

I guess the ultimate question for me is, what current should I set it at? I plan on starting it out at 175mA

I like to run my GGW-H20L 6X diodes around 190mA's for longevity. Some are pushing them much higher.

I would imagine that this Nichia diode would be very similar. But not much testing has been done on them...
Jay