problems with BDR-S03

alright, so i'm having ALOT of problems with these 8x diodes.

last night i put one in an aixiz. set it at 330mA on a flex drive - powered up, the dot is pretty dim, i had suspected it was dead on arrival as it had been harvested by someone other than me.

TODAY, harvested another, this oen is set at 324mA, on a completely different flex drive, powered it up, and same at last one.

this second one really confused me though.... i am PRETTY SURE the diode is fine, as i can see the output changing, but it never reaches full output, it prob stays around 5-15mW, with some flickering.

i measured the voltage across the diode and it's between 5.8 and 5.9v

anyone know whats going on here?

Check the current of the flexdrive while it's running.
Also, it's possible that the flexdrive can't handle the voltage.

everyone else is running them on flex drives just fine.

how do i measure the current while on the diode? does the 1 ohm have to be between the flex drive and the pos pin?

alright yeah, something is definately going on.

I just tested my third BDR sled and it's the same, and i even used a new flex drive.....
i'm testing them with CR123 batteries at full charge....


i'm glad i decided to wait before popping that first one out of the aixiz...seeing at it's probably still perfectly fine.

The flexdrive is the problem...it can't boost the voltage up high enough. Use a rkcstr driver or something.

Styropyro has the idea.. If I recall correctly the flexdrive can only push up to around 300mA with the 8X sleds. The diodes all vary, so it's possible that you got a few that use a bit more voltage.

Edit: Also, to measure current put a 1-ohm resistor in series with the batteries and driver, and measure the voltage drop across it.

I had the same problem with my PHR.. maybe not the same in this case but my diode was flikering too.. I was using one cr123 battery and its discharge was too low. I replaced for 2 new litium AA batteries and it stoped flickering and became very bright!

hope that helped! -Adrian

i just tried a rkcstr driver with 2x CR123 battery set @ 300mA, same results, i then bypassed the mosfet and hooked it up to 3x CR123 batteries, same result.

Did.. You..
Check the current???

Mohrenberg said:

i just tried a rkcstr driver with 2x CR123 battery set @ 300mA, same results, i then bypassed the mosfet and hooked it up to 3x CR123 batteries, same result.

Click to expand...

With the 203BK and the S03 (both) and a Rkcstr, I had to go up to 12V on my bench PSU.

I've had another person PM me about "dim" light from some of these S03 diodes.

Welcome to experimentation

There is another thread somewhere asking about whether we can still use the dummy loads that we already have with these diodes.

I can't wait to get home to see if mine still works

Peace,
dave

yes...i checked the current.
On the flex drive.....it was crazy, current was way below what i had thought it'd be at (around 100mA instead of 300 plus, originally set at)
but changing it made no difference.

The rkcstr on the other hand measured fine (it's a fixed output)
.......
i'm at a loss....i'm not sure what to do at this point. two of these 3 were sent to me for builds. I've got $300 worth of diodes here that are not operating correctly....and someone will be held responsible....probably me.

i'm not worried about "mine" as it was a risk i was willing to take when i paid for it (and also bought it in case something happened with one of the two i agreed to build), but never imagined all three would not operate!

Through multiple PM's it is becoming apparent that no one else has achieved the results I did with my first test diode. WE NEED others to do a slope test with theirs. They do not seem to be able to take a direct "hit" with 300mA. This may be even less. I would hate to see everyone burn out a diode that was capable of less by trying to equal my results.

If you have one of these diodes (s03), you are de facto part of the experiment. Treat it as such. So far we only have ONE slope test. I believe that EVERY OTHER diode has failed at high currents!

If you have one working at high current, please let everybody know.

I am going to repost this in the review thread

Peace,
dave

yes this is becoming very apparant to me as i have THREE diodes here that will not ouput correctly.

and i think it's highly unlikely that all three were ever damaged due to harvesting, as they require minimal effort to harvest and we all harvested by cutting the ribbon and never with a soldering iron.

now granted it lights up and i can shine the dot across the room, but it seems like it's only around 5mw.
so either these are outputing very little power OR they are still pretty bright when LED'd.

i guess at this point i need to find out from the two owners of these diodes what they wish to do, and if they feel i owe them a new sled.

i'm ready to turn my back on the BDR-S03 sled.

This may seem like an over-simplistic approach to the problem, but I feel it has enough merit to mention. Let's consider that the sleds of any type we are buying tend to be QC rejects (which from what I understand is the case). Now, assume the PHR and 6X sleds (which tend to work well as BR diode sources for most people) had production troubles regarding optical alignment, abberations, etc, that would result in a high success rate with these sleds regarding the harvesting and reuse of the BR diodes, right? (let's be honest, who here has ever tested a 6X sled in it's designed capacity as a whole assembly by putting a sled into a BR burning drive that was problematic?) ...

Now, being as this is the first generation of QC reject BDR sleds to hit the aftermarket (which I believe it is), what is the possibility that the optics, mechanics, etc on the sleds are just fine, but the trouble with passing QC lies in faulty or inconsistant BR diodes? That would definitely quantify the limited success rates, varying voltage and current scenarios, slope differences, etc, right?

Just a thought, probably as I said "stating the obvious" but if the whole thing is looked at from a manufacturing standpoint, when the "reject" sleds are sold off, I'm assuming there is no guarantee as to their suitability for use in ANY application (let alone the originally intended one which at this point has been a confirmed failure).

IMHO, Matt, you shouldn't neccesarily be held liable for the diodes (well, except mine - THAT one you can pay for, just kidding) - I feel that whomever marketed them as suitable for use in our application should ultimately hold the liability to the end purchaser, and from there they should take up the problems with THEIR vendor (at least that's how it works in the rest of the business world). If you had said "send me X amount to build you an 8X" and outsourced all the parts, diodes, etc then yes, this would be your problem but as you are only the assembly portion of the process, your liability only extends to providing a quality assembly process, which it appears you are fulfilling.

I can't believe I just somehow talked myself out of getting my $110 back, oh well, it is what it is ...

another thing here is that you bought all of those as sleds from the same place. They were not purchased as new blu-ray disc drives. Meaning they may have not met quality or may have been defective. I just got my sled in this morning from the same group buy. Im going to attempt to ramp it up to 300mA. I dont have a meter so I cant report the power output but we'll see what happens.


...to the laser work shop for now