DEAD GB DIODE?? MAYBE NOT!

if your using the Dorcy JR. mod and get to a point where your laser just stops working almost instantly or goes from bright to dim in the blink of an eye, remember one very important thing.  The dorcy uses a circuit that continues to put out a consistent output until the battery is dead.  I mean dead.  So when your laser goes *poof* don't automatically assume that the diode is dead and time to throw in a new Diode.  

I was happily burning away at a peice of electrical tape when like has always happened when my laser diode dies it went to 1mw and you get that sinking feeling in your gut.  So, I do what I've always done, and harvest another diode and pop out the old.  Then I put it all back together and it's still not working.  Now i'm thinking to myself.  Self, did you go to slow on the soldering portion of this repair and fry the new diode with heat?  or maybe it's shorted when I resoldered everything back together.  So I grab my 2AAA battery holder and test it and WOW.  LIFE!!

So if you think it's dead, take 1 minute out of your rampage and self cursing and change the battery first.  

I was able to pull the supposedly dead diode out of the trash, remove the can (since I broke the glass removing it) and get it to work again full force.

for what it's worth. The Dorcy Jr. circuit is putting out a consistent 350ma-365ma

Kenom --

Good info here -- There's been many posts about boost circuits which won't "take off" with low cells --especcially the old Elly.

Mike

Makes me want to test the last diode I took out of the Dorcy mod... No clue which bin it's in though... ;D

Thanx for sharing;
DDL