I think i may have killed my 6x

I think i may have killed my diode. The sled was actualy damaged when received so i am not sure whos fault it was. Anyway, i had a rockstar driver that i set aside because i was not sure how to discharge it and i had two others to work with. those since sport new homes in a couple of awesome lasers. I went to work on building the 6x and forgot about the driver not being discharged. Basicaly i need help to understand exactly how to discharge a rockstar driver. These diodes are a little too spendy to keep making mistakes with. There is absolutely no light coming from the diode. Not even a dim one. I have checked the driver and is putting out 203 ma. I have tried the search option but may be putting in the wrong key words.

Thanks, Skylight

To discharge the driver, short the pins.

I always use my soldering iron on both pins simultaneously to discharge the caps on the board.

That's always a shame to hear... I'm sorry for your loss.

i take a medium segment of solder wire (or any wire for that matter) and short each cap independently. Just make sure a full circuit has been made completing a connection between both sides of each cap individually. The caps on the rockstar drivers are the six black bars lined up along side each other.


Also, did the diode produce light at any point? Like you mentioned, the diode might have already been damaged. Do you have a microscope or powerful magnifying glass?

Sorry to hear that man, I will be soldering the wires onto my 6X tomorrow. I might try using my diy driver, before the flexdrive arrives. I'm getting two sets of the harbor-freight jewelers clip-on loupes that are on sale for $2.88 each. When the wires/solder are as large as a ten-story building then it goes a little easier. Just a super fast touch with my Hakko 936 ESD safe iron.

TheGr8Revealing said:

i take a medium segment of solder wire (or any wire for that matter) and short each cap independently. Just make sure a full circuit has been made completing a connection between both sides of each cap individually. The caps on the rockstar drivers are the six black bars lined up along side each other.


Also, did the diode produce light at any point? Like you mentioned, the diode might have already been damaged. Do you have a microscope or powerful magnifying glass?

Click to expand...

No the diode did not produce any light at all. I kept a careful watch for anything to happen. I do have a couple of magnifying glasses but not exactly sure the power. What would i be looking for? The test load i believe has six components side by side but not the driver. Can i just short the output pins of the driver or each component on it?

When the sled arrived there was no damage to the box but the sled looked as though something was already harvested from it. The pcb was fractured on one corner and some of the casing was hanging from the wire very loose. I remembered reading in one of the threads that somebody was probably damaging the sleds at the factory so they could not be used and on to us so i never gave it another thought. After closer inspection i noticed that the pins pf the red diode were mashed over.


Thanks, skylight