12X Diode Life

TheDukeAnumber1 said:

My 12X diode randomly LED'd this afternoon, driver is working properly pushing 450ma and it wasn't even warm when it died. Needless to say I'm pretty pissed my EDC laser is dead. Worth noting for the past couple days I had switch from a 3 element lens to using a 9mm stock lens, and the power increase was amazing.

Anyone have experience with the longevity of 12X diodes?

Thanks,
Kyle

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Always a bummer to loose a nice diode...

Many people are really pushing the 12X diodes, but personally I like to keep them at 400mA's in hopes of better longevity.

It would still be a class 4 laser (over 500mW's) using a 405-G-1 glass lens.

See this compilation chart showing what others are running the 12X at: (good information here)
http://laserpointerforums.com/f38/12x-br-diodes-46798.html

i'm hoping a driver with a soft start - the one i got from lazeerer keeps my latest diode healthy at a higher (520mA) current. so far so good...

Cool, please keep us updatd on your runtime and if it ever gives out. Aren't they pulsed in the disk drives though? And do we know at what amperage?

This happened to mine as well, I have a post about it in my sig. In addition I"ve had 4-5 people contact me about the same thing. I honestly think the problem is with the micro boost. I have a sneaky suspicion that when you attempt to power it with an almost dead battery the driver is not cutting off the power as it should and you are LEDing the SOJ6 by UNDER POWERing it. Maybe I'm wrong, but I believe it is the case because we were all using a micro boost at a variable power setting, and we all were using a 12x SOJ6. And they were all working properly and then while cold, burnt out. Bust so far most of us have verified the battery was almost dead.

i don't know enough about driver circuitry to judge, but the micro boost has been a proven driver of these diodes. i'm not too sure about underpowering a diode to death...

cheech226 said:

i don't know enough about driver circuitry to judge, but the micro boost has been a proven driver of these diodes. i'm not too sure about underpowering a diode to death...

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I might be mistaken. I honestly don't know crap about electrical engineering. I do know that I've seen this same complaint many times about the micro boost / SOJ6 combo... and ONLY that combo.

I seem to remember something about it being important to cut a battery off when it is providing a minimum amount of voltage for some reason though or else the driver wouldn't regulate it properly and it can harm the diode. I wish I remembered where I heard it so I could look it back up...

Under powering the diode was a poor choice of words on my part. Its under powering the driver and it not working properly. But even so I don't know if that is the issue.

Perhaps below a certain Vin, the ripple becomes unacceptable or out of the indicated bounds? I find it hard to believe that accidentally underdriving a diode is the cause of death. Also, isn't LED-ing supposed to be mainly optical/physical damage due to too much power output?

JL dropped the 800mW from their offerings because to the same issues and now do not even want to mess with any 405. I lost one too.

@ wannab.. I don't think the diodes are soldered into the sled and few, if any, use an iron to harvest them IIRC. But of course the ribbon is soldered to the diode pins but its done by machine with little or no chance of overheating the die.