What happened to this laser?

Alright, so I bought Jayrob's Stainless Steel 18650 -kit + a diode w/ leads from DTR.

I soldered the drivers leads to diodes, and then I put the laser together. Host was Aurora SH-032.

I hooked up the laser with a cheapy 3000mah rated 18650, but the dot was dim, and it couldnt turn on always.

The dot got suddenly dimmer, after some time, and now it looks like this



Then I ordered high quality 18650 from LarryDFW
Tried it, no change. And it still turns on just sometimes :undecided:

Anyone know what is the problem?

Diode: A140
Driver: V5 Flexdrive

Thanks

Well I am not an expert, but the dot pattern is strange. It sounds like you LED'ed the diode though.

What lense are you using wiht it, because that one looks like it may be blocking part of the beam to me, and if so there could have been enough heat retained in the module to kill the diode.

When you connected the diode did you take ESD precautions? Short the connections on the driver before connecting the diode? Use an ESD safe soldering iron? Not put to much heat to the diode or leave the soldering iron to it for long?

The diodes are sensitive little creatures and any of the above can kill them, and I should know because I have LED'ed a couple myself on my early builds.

It sounds to me as if you hooked up the diode to the battery directly.

445nm diodes directly driven by Lithium ion cells are somewhere between 50-200mW output depending on the battery charge level etc.

Try re-checking your connections, if you're unsure you can take a macro picture of the setup so we can take a look?

Let us know how it goes.

mark-in-dallas said:

Well I am not an expert, but the dot pattern is strange. It sounds like you LED'ed the diode though.

What lense are you using wiht it, because that one looks like it may be blocking part of the beam to me, and if so there could have been enough heat retained in the module to kill the diode.

When you connected the diode did you take ESD precautions? Short the connections on the driver before connecting the diode? Use an ESD safe soldering iron? Not put to much heat to the diode or leave the soldering iron to it for long?

The diodes are sensitive little creatures and any of the above can kill them, and I should know because I have LED'ed a couple myself on my early builds.

Click to expand...

This kit:
http://laserpointerforums.com/f64/fs-stainless-steel-18650-kit-polished-perfect-445-a-52159.html


I use AixiZ 445 glass lens..
I cant remember did I short the drivers connections... Stupid me.
And I only soldered two wires together, I didnt solder the diode directly..


And the laser could burn matches etc - but Imo it wasnt outputting ~1.2W
Then just one morning, the dot has turned to that (picture in OP) :cryyy:

Now the laser wont even turn on...


@Eudaimonium
Alright, I'll make a picture of the build soon.

I will check the connections. Thanks

Edit:
Okay heres some pictures of the build

It goes like that



Here is my driver pill soldered to diode (sorry for bad quality)





And this might help too




Everything looked okay from inside.

Where is the negative of the driver input connected to?

ped said:

Where is the negative of the driver input connected to?

Click to expand...

What you mean?

The driver is connected to a spring, which touches the battery

TuhOz said:

What you mean?

The driver is connected to a spring, which touches the battery

Click to expand...

And the other input of the driver?

I see the case pin of the diode is not used, so you must be using the outter ring of the contact board...

Wait, that is a contact board, right?

What driver is this using? I hope that 17mm board is not actually the driver, because if used as case positive, it's connected backwards.

And I have not seen many case positive 445nm builds, they are very uncommon.

TuhOz said:

Alright, so I bought Jayrob's Stainless Steel 18650 -kit + a diode w/ leads from DTR.

I soldered the drivers leads to diodes, and then I put the laser together. Host was Aurora SH-032.

I hooked up the laser with a cheapy 3000mah rated 18650, but the dot was dim, and it couldnt turn on always.

The dot got suddenly dimmer, after some time, and now it looks like this

Then I ordered high quality 18650 from LarryDFW
Tried it, no change. And it still turns on just sometimes :undecided:

Anyone know what is the problem?

Diode: A140
Driver: V5 Flexdrive

Thanks

Click to expand...

Thats exactly what mine now looks like!

Eudaimonium said:

What driver is this using? I hope that 17mm board is not actually the driver, because if used as case positive, it's connected backwards.

Click to expand...

He's using a flexdrive, so he states in his OP.


The driver should have a + and - connection on the input, just as it does on the output, if your relying on the output "-" , then you may have a problem, unless as has been pointed out, its case positive, which would be unusual. The driver has a "-" input , solder a wire from it, to the outer ring of the battery contact board. 445's draw a lot of current, and relying on one "-" to carry through one small gauge wire may be the problem.

I'm trying to get my head around how these connections work :thinking:

So does the + input to the driver connect to the host casing to make the circuit? How has that been done...Is it soldered to the pill or just bare threads from the lead in the pill threads connecting to the host casing?

Is it the original battery orientation for the flashlight host that decides this or has this been altered by jayrob when building the kit for some reason that I am as yet unaware of?

ped said:

The driver should have a + and - connection on the input, just as it does on the output, if your relying on the output "-" , then you may have a problem, unless as has been pointed out, its case positive, which would be unusual. The driver has a "-" input , solder a wire from it, to the outer ring of the battery contact board. 445's draw a lot of current, and relying on one "-" to carry through one small gauge wire may be the problem.

Click to expand...

Btw the battery in one of my pictures is backwards... oops.

The pill/driver, I only see two wires coming from it, that I've connected to the diode.
And a spring, that touches the batterys positive head. Like in one of the pictures


I will point this thread to Jayrob, I think he knows this better than me..

But there's one thing that I dont understand, the laser used to be pretty bright, 200-300mW @ TEM02 (if I remember righ), but then it suddenly changed to like that, to a perfect dot with a halo.


:yabbem:

Thanks for help everyone

If you got the kit with my 'Hot' option, then the driver is getting it's connection to the host (battery negative) via the pill...

So you don't need to use the diode case pin if it was a 'Hot' option kit.

There is a warning in my instruction sheet to be careful not to install your battery before the diode is connected and installed. Because the driver will get damaged if powered without a load. (plus you will load the drive cap with voltage that can kill your diode when you connect it)

Off the top of my head, I do not remember what setting you ordered either. But from the looks of the pill, it looks like a thermal glued option. Meaning you probably ordered it with a 1 Amp or more setting. Possibly a 1.5 Amp setting?

If so, the most common problem, is the battery quality. I recommend AW brand. As is mentioned in my thread and my instruction sheet.

Battery capacity (or claimed capacity) is not what you look for. You need a high quality battery that can deliver a consistent current draw of over 2 Amps, and also the current draw will increase as the battery drains. (voltage drop)

The FlexDrive uses extra current to boost voltage demand. So this is why your battery must be a high quality battery.

I know Larry sells good batteries. But I still have seen many batteries fail. But never an AW battery:
AW 18650 Protected 3100 mAh Rechargeable Lithium Battery

The second thing you always check obviously, is the lens. To make sure it is not dirty or something. Or possibly even got loose. (the optics / retaining ring)

Third. Inspect the tiny diode window to see if it has gotten something on it. Or perhaps a loose diode window??

And finally, if all those things check out, you then must check the driver output with a test load. And/or the diode...

@jayrob

Yeah, I ordered the Hot option @ 1.2A


I use Larry's Sanyo/Samsung 2700mah battery, and I think it should be good.


As I've sayed, the laser used to output like 200-300mW. I think that was becouse of bad batteries.


But somehow the dot turned to a perfectly circular dot with a halo. Dont know why it did that.

Could the driver be damaged, or the diode led'd or turned to a zombie?

Could you provide us a photo of the dot when its unfocused to about 2 feet? That will give us some clues..

Meatball said:

Could you provide us a photo of the dot when its unfocused to about 2 feet? That will give us some clues..

Click to expand...

Without lenses






And the laser gets really warm if I keep it on ~50 seconds

It doesn't look like there is any lasing going on there at all. The diode is either way over used/burned up, or way under threshold current, but if you say the diode gets hot then there must be some significant current flow through it..

This tells me that the diode has LED'd. Its a dead diode.

Now, you said it was working previously. So why the sudden death?

The one thing left that is even likely at all is that the connection between the diode and driver is flaky, which caused the driver cap to spike across the diode when briefly re-connected.

That is my theory.