X-drive current jump

I searched around and could find anything like this, so I'll throw this out there.

I recently started a new 9mm 445nm diode build. I took the 1.8A fixed x-drive from my Trustfire A8 build and put it in a skyray with a new diode. It was working fine, till the third time I fired it up. It came on for about a second, then out.

So I took out the driver and put it on a variable test load. Set to 5 diodes, reading ~6.4V drop, I got a reading of 2.6A. When I dropped down to 4 diodes, I got 2.8 to 3.+A, very unstable.

This driver was fine in the first laser. I was getting a stable laser output of 2.29W. After transplanting, it worked briefly, then apparently went AWOL and likely killed my diode.

So, has something similar happened to anyone else? Or have any idea what could have happened?

I hate to think that I did something when resoldering that reset the current. Any thoughts are appreciated.

only time I have seen that is with the bridged contacts on the board. Can you take a picture of the board?

Here are a couple of pics.





I took these quick, so if their not good enough I can get better ones.

How about the other side?

I was afraid you might ask that..

I use this sugru hacking putty to insulate solder joints, and its a pain to remove. I did manage to get it pretty clean and took these:







The orange bits are the putty. I did have one side of the inductor, I think, covered with it. Not sure if that would have an effect, as it never got very warm.