I hope it is possible to save but doubt it...

I have two diodes that i had in minimag flashlights and while focusing the positive and negative pins touched.... i got smoke and burning smell and now they will not work the same,..... they will put out an ETREMELY low amount of light.... You would think I would have learned my lesson after the first, unfortunately, it is not the case....

It is as if some people can't read even if it's red 30pt font.

instead of just saying negative stuff you could have answered his question in as many or less words...

in short your laser is burnt up. the little bit of light you see is ir and i would advise not looking at it

No its not IR. A red diode does not emit any IR dude

a_pyro_is said:

It is as if some people can't read even if it's red 30pt font.

Click to expand...

I have seen that thread and the damage is not from a spike in current but rather from the positive and negative pins touching.

It's from both, actually. Because you had no regulator in the system, shorting the pins together (even for a fraction of a second) resulted in a sudden spike in current. When the short was broken, the flow returns to normal, but not before doing its damage in the few ns to ms time found on the trailing edge of the pulse.

Simply put, the lasers were fried by a current surge caused by a temporary short.

Spectrum said:

instead of just saying negative stuff you could have answered his question in as many or less words...

in short your laser is burnt up. the little bit of light you see is ir and i would advise not looking at it

Click to expand...

While I was very terse, and borderline sardonic, I think the thread I linked to was the best answer.

I think it is better to have someone direct you to where the answer may be located than to spoon feed you an over-simplified answer like 'your laser is burnt up.' as that way you have a chance to learn.

I understand that I sometimes may come across as condescending and/or demeaning, but that is not my intent. I do try to arrange my words so that they will not be taken as condescending and/or demeaning, but I am far from perfect and am sometimes just grouchy.

I don't remember if I was just in a bad mood, tired, drugged up, pressed for time, or whatever else I may or may not have been at the time of my post; but please remember I am human, I do make mistakes, and if this time I offended someone then I am sorry for the offense, but not for my answer.

I hope in this, that I have made my intent more clear.

And now, back to lasers.