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- Sep 22, 2010
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If you build your own lasers sooner or later you will have to face a potential "diode disaster." Last night I faced my worst to date and thought I'd share how I got past it. So first some background.
In preparation for building my 12x in the next couple days I decided to extract the diode from my 12x BDR-S06J sled. The extraction went super smooth. The heatsinked diode popped right off the sled with only a little prying from the side. Next using the solder blob method the ribbon came off instantly. I've never had one come off that easily. Finally it was time to free it from the factory heatsink. The heatsink is a lot like that of the PHR-803t in that it's soft enough that you can grab it with two pairs of pliers and with a gentle twisting motion snap it in a minute or so. Then I noticed it. The positive pin was bent completely over touching the back of the with the tip of it bent slightly upward. Ah *^$%*) now what do you do? Well this is what I did.
1. Calm the hell down. Step away from the work area. Get a soda, have a smoke, get some nookie
or whatever. Stop what you're doing because you're likely fuming that you just more than likely ruined, in my case, a $52 diode and anything you do will likely make things worse.
2. Assess the situation and figure out your options. In my case the best outcome would be that I could carefully bend the pin back enough that I can press the diode into a module. The worst case is the pin snaps off and then what? After thinking about that for a minute I realized all hope was not lost. Since the host I'll be using has a former driver board where the leads to the microboost will be soldered to I realized I could bridge the positive connection to the case making the diode case pin positive since I don't need it to feed the batt- input. The module would have to be isolated from the heatsink to prevent shorting. A couple wraps of tape should do if you don't have any of the specific tape like you see in laptops for example. Just make sure the setscrew doesn't punch through whatever insulation you used.
3. Take you time in whatever option you choose. I decided to try bending the pin back first and slowly bent it back to a position where I thought the pins would fit through the back of the aixiz module and into my diode press. Luckily it fit both fine and I was able to press it without issue. I decided not to press my luck any further and straighten the pin anymore since everything fit fine. Crisis averted.
Sorry for rambling but I've seen several posts recently along the lines of "HELP! Is it dead/fixable/salvageable/whatever" and thought I'd share one method of working through a potential problem. We all know this hobby comes with the risk that you may ruin a pricey diode. It's just one that nobody ever wants to face but sometimes it just happens.
In preparation for building my 12x in the next couple days I decided to extract the diode from my 12x BDR-S06J sled. The extraction went super smooth. The heatsinked diode popped right off the sled with only a little prying from the side. Next using the solder blob method the ribbon came off instantly. I've never had one come off that easily. Finally it was time to free it from the factory heatsink. The heatsink is a lot like that of the PHR-803t in that it's soft enough that you can grab it with two pairs of pliers and with a gentle twisting motion snap it in a minute or so. Then I noticed it. The positive pin was bent completely over touching the back of the with the tip of it bent slightly upward. Ah *^$%*) now what do you do? Well this is what I did.
1. Calm the hell down. Step away from the work area. Get a soda, have a smoke, get some nookie
or whatever. Stop what you're doing because you're likely fuming that you just more than likely ruined, in my case, a $52 diode and anything you do will likely make things worse.2. Assess the situation and figure out your options. In my case the best outcome would be that I could carefully bend the pin back enough that I can press the diode into a module. The worst case is the pin snaps off and then what? After thinking about that for a minute I realized all hope was not lost. Since the host I'll be using has a former driver board where the leads to the microboost will be soldered to I realized I could bridge the positive connection to the case making the diode case pin positive since I don't need it to feed the batt- input. The module would have to be isolated from the heatsink to prevent shorting. A couple wraps of tape should do if you don't have any of the specific tape like you see in laptops for example. Just make sure the setscrew doesn't punch through whatever insulation you used.
3. Take you time in whatever option you choose. I decided to try bending the pin back first and slowly bent it back to a position where I thought the pins would fit through the back of the aixiz module and into my diode press. Luckily it fit both fine and I was able to press it without issue. I decided not to press my luck any further and straighten the pin anymore since everything fit fine. Crisis averted.
Sorry for rambling but I've seen several posts recently along the lines of "HELP! Is it dead/fixable/salvageable/whatever" and thought I'd share one method of working through a potential problem. We all know this hobby comes with the risk that you may ruin a pricey diode. It's just one that nobody ever wants to face but sometimes it just happens.
