Rough day in laserland

EDIT: updating this to reflect that it may be another data point on the question about whether the benboost driver is having a problem with the 12x diodes for some reason.


I've been very proud of my initial builds. I've dodged noob mistakes and been very happy with my first few builds.

Last night and today were humiliating and humbling.

Fried three 12x bluray diodes in a short amount of time. (Those are some finicky SOB's) one was a known working diode that I had in an earlier build that I stole the driver out of and decided to rebuild with a Benboost.

To be fair, I really brought it on myself with a foolish heatsink design for the driver that wreaked havoc on what should have been an easy (re)build.

But it just goes to show you that even a seasoned pro like me can have a bad day. :crackup:

One GOOD thing, I was taking a lot of pics and really trying to document the build in GREAT detail for noobs as a good reference for building (no offense, but a lot of build sheets skip over things that are obvious to the experienced members but have me running to the search function to figure out how to do something) so when I do finish it up, I will have a good build guide INCLUDING what NOT to do.

One question...

How do you guys get your battery terminals soldered into the pill so well? (Moh, you would be a great one to answer this, you always do a great job!) No matter what I do, it seems like the solder will not bridge the gap from the outer ring to the edge of the pill OR I get solder on the threads of the pill.

Ok, let's make it two questions. Where is a good source for a bunch of "positive battery terminals" to use on the backside of a pill? The usual suspects like DX or Dinodirect?

Thanks for listening to me vent. Jake, call me a waaaaambulance.

Don't cropped up the feelings. Let it flows and you will feel much better.
Sorry for your losses.

ps even I got some bad days, http://laserpointerforums.com/f44/last-night-bad-night-58139.html

Yeah, I just ran out of blu rays so now I have to order more. I was even wearing an ESD strap! Oh well, just one of those days/builds.

Weird, how did you fry the 3 diodes?

I don't even know right now. I had been running one at 478mA and I was using a 496mA driver for this build. My best guess is that I was trying to cram too much in the pill and created a short somewhere.

It is very hard to fully appreciate the tight spaces you are working in with some of these builds! I had added a heat sink to the inductor that was really too big and was squishing stuff. I don't know for sure though.

Yeah we all have bad days. I don't do a ton with 12x or 445nm diodes, save a few special builds, so my mistakes don't sting too bad.

Last weekend, for example, I killed an 826 and a 16x along with an ancient 4x 650nm diode all because I kept improperly shorting the caps on drivers so they held a charge.

And today I butchered the pill on a C3 trying to drill it out. Luckily I ordered too. So a replacement should be on the way soon.

Oh and then there was that time I was testing a DDL and Flexdrive in the same sitting. 7V right through the Flexdrive.... $25 up in the air. Especially when they've pretty much become extinct.

But it all just serves as a reminder. There are no corners that should be cut.

When it came time to do my 12x build I basically handled it like I was holding a vial of ebola made of eggshells that was pressurized and atomized inside. Lol, almost, anyway.

Did you remember to ground out your soldering iron tip and discharge any cap on the driver?

I was discharging the caps via touching the two wires together before soldering them to the diode. Is that not enough?

My soldering iron says it is ESD safe.

Ouch, that would really hurt:wtf:!!

Wow that is a nice soldering station!

Hrmm, no idea what killed them then. Did you test the drivers to see if they are ok? Only other thing I can think of is thermal death.. soldering the leads present any difficulties?

tsteele93 said:

I was discharging the caps via touching the two wires together before soldering them to the diode. Is that not enough?

My soldering iron says it is ESD safe.

Click to expand...

When soldering the battery terminal initially get a few short beads. Let it cool a bit. Then since you have a nice set of solder tips, use one of the flat tips. Get it hot and smooth out the solder. I know you should use a third hand, but during this i like to use a gator clip that i hold in my hand. That way i know if the pill is getting too hot from me not working quick enough. Moh has some great videos on youtube of him soldering a boost driver. He shows you how he lays the initial solder to connect leads, then he uses a flat tip that helps clean up the welds.

Sigurthr said:

Wow that is a nice soldering station!

Hrmm, no idea what killed them then. Did you test the drivers to see if they are ok? Only other thing I can think of is thermal death.. soldering the leads present any difficulties?

Click to expand...

No problems with soldering the leads.

Good question about the driver. I did not test it. Maybe I did something bad to it, and then kept connecting good diodes to a bad driver and wiping them out one by one. :thinking:

Off to hook it up to my test load! Thanks, that is a good place to look. Because I know that one diode was working for sure before I hooked it up!

tsteele93 said:

I was discharging the caps via touching the two wires together before soldering them to the diode. Is that not enough?

My soldering iron says it is ESD safe.

Click to expand...

How do you like that soldering station? I just ordered one from ebay, and I hope to assemble some BenBoosts with it using solder paste and the rework wand

PersonGuyDude said:

How do you like that soldering station? I just ordered one from ebay, and I hope to assemble some BenBoosts with it using solder paste and the rework wand

Click to expand...

Yeah, I think that I ordered it from eBay or direct from them too. I like it a lot, but I have never had anything other than the standard $10 wand with a cord on it before, so this thing is heaven to me.

I LOVE having the hot air for the shrink tubing.

Plus you get a LOT of spare parts.

I have no complaints so far!

Sounds great, I'm really excited. Mine should be delivered in a few hours