Spot on my diode (phr)

Have a look at the picture. The big dark spot in the center is on the diode, it doesnt move when I turn the lens. Could I try cleaning the diode with a fine soft cloth? Or should i just leave it? I know diodes are extremely fragile and im unsure about touching it. Opinions?

That's some grit on the window of the diode. You can remove it using compressed air, just make sure you spray a little air out of the can before you spray the diode. That will run any impurities out of the air tube that could make the problem even worse.

If that doesn't work you can use a q-tip, but use very light pressure.

Be VERY careful and gentle with the window of your diode. Not only can you leave more crap on the window than you have now, but it can be broken or dislodged.

Also, there is the very real possibility that this "dark spot" is actually on the face of the crystal itself.

WITH THE BATTERIES REMOVED -- look at the diode window under some magnification. I use a 10 power jeweler's loop. If the window is clean, don't mess with it!

. . .and hope that the dark spot isn't "growing."

Peace,
dave

i did the qtip method. had to wipe it for a min straight to get it off! baked on goodness! definitely cleaned up the beam a lot! I was getting worried, thought it wouldnt come off or the window would break

Nice, i no using cotton buds is more useless than its worth, sometime you can get lucky with a lense cloth thats shipped with your safety goggles ( You should have them ) that generally is nice to clean optics with, but as draguin said "Carefull with the window"...

q-tip with a little rubbing alcohol always does the trick for me

Looking at the picture, it just looks like its a spot on your lens. The raw spot that a diode emits has much messier looking edges than this spot has. Most lenses come with small imperfections and bubbly images.

i had a diode that had terrible spotting (probably due to an unclean work environment), the spot constantly looked blurry and out of focus.

A q-tip and rubbing alcohol worked great. Also, I found that after cleaning the diode, let the diode sit (in its module) face down. this keeps any additional ipurities from pooling on the window.

Using the q-tip method it took me several tries to figure this out. After cleaning the window when i turned on the laser the alcohol would evaporate but leave additional spotting. So remember to clean, test to see that it is clean, and then leave the diode alone for an hour or so to completely dry.