WTF!?!? Freak PHR Diode

First, some background info... So, as many of you know, i've been out of the laser hobby for a while. A good two years. All this time I had a PHR-803T diode laying around. What got me back into the hobby, was my buddy going camping, and asking me if I could build him a laser to take along. I knew I had a diode laying around, and my pocket mini host that used to have 6x in it (set at 190mA), but it LED'd a while back. I thought "screw it" and put the PHR diode in there, without changing the current. It was my little experiment, and I didn't really care if it died. Well, he comes back in a week (today), and returns the laser. I asked him it if died, and I expected him to say "Yes", but he didn't. He said it worked fine, under heavy use every day. A few minutes ago, I measured the output on my LPM, and this little PHR was outputting 220mW :O
This is very strange, and it is VERY efficient for a PHR! Almost too efficient... Looks like I got a freak

Awesome! Welcome back to the community! As you can imagine powers are being pushed like never before. Even though freaks like your PHR still exist, they are greatly shadowed by the new standard of 12X's and 445nm; a movement which quite detracts from the core of the hobby.
On the other hand, I love your enthusiasm for the occurrence! If only people would understand how rare this would be just a few years ago...

Jimmymcjimthejim said:

Awesome! Welcome back to the community! As you can imagine powers are being pushed like never before. Even though freaks like your PHR still exist, they are greatly shadowed by the new standard of 12X's and 445nm; a movement which quite detracts from the core of the hobby.
On the other hand, I love your enthusiasm for the occurrence! If only people would understand how rare this would be just a few years ago...

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You said it! This new generation of laser hobbyists are spoiled!
This kind of power a few years ago was UNHEARD of for PHR diodes, and you'd have to spend $200 on a 6x burner to get that kind of power, and even they weren't as efficient as this PHR I have :O

maybe it's not a phr?
just saying

Silvershot said:

maybe it's not a phr?
just saying

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I have definitely considered that possibility, but it has to be. My only 6x diode LED'd on me a while ago, and the beam profile of this one is exactly that of a PHR.

I remember your vid lighting a smoke bomb with one of them 6x. The GGW still puts out one of the prettiest beamz.