my PHR-803T died (LEDed) :(

Hey all,

I've got a PHR mounted in a case, etc. etc. driven at 107mA and I only keep it on for 1 min at a time at max but yesterday when I turned it on I noticed there was about a second lag between the time the switch was turned on and the laser beam getting to it's brightest.

Today it has completely LEDd

What could have caused this early death? I've only been using this for 2 - 3 weeks now with an average of 3 mins usage a day.

Could it be ESD? I don't see how ESD could have gotten to it since it's already properly mounted in a case.


Think I'm gonna wait for my LASORB to arrive before swapping the diode with a new one.

can you give us a picture where you mounted it? is there a proper heatsink?? 3 minutes duty cycle?? if there is no heatsink it will kill the diode...

not 3 mins duty cycle. I don't leave it on for 3 mins at a time. At most 30 secs.

PHRs can be unpredictable at anything over 80-90mA.. it's hard telling what happened. Many people have very good luck at 100-120mA, but others have PHRs die almost instantly at the same current.

I've thought I've had a dead diode in the past, but before swapping out the diode I changed the batteries and to my surprise it was still living. The flexdrive gives this illusion the most, but it can happen with any driver/battery combo.

Driving a PHR at 107mA for even an hour will not make it nearly hot enough for heat to be a concern. My LPC-815 red at 420mA randomly died the other day as well after running normally for almost two months. Sometimes diodes just die without an explanation. For something as cheap as a PHR, I wouldn't put forth too much effort into finding the cause of its death unless the same thing just kept happening over and over.

better yet please provide us a picture of your set up.. thanks!