One Hardy Diode

This is sort of out of the blue, but I have to say how impressed I am about this red laser diode (RLD65PZB5) I say its hardy because for one I'm direct driving this puppy. I'm over currenting maybe 50-100mA off of two AAA in series directly to the diode. I don't have my multimeter with me to check how fresh the batteries are, but I'd say they are near new. As a housing I'm using a mini, mini mag carcass. Ya a small version of a minimag that takes AAAs and used to have a filament light before I put a much brighter "light" in it. Second, these diodes are idiot proof. I reversed the polarity by accident by putting the batteries in backwards. And didn't realize it for at least 3 seconds. I was pretty ticked when I found out that I did this because it was my last diode from the batch I ordered. Well I put the batteries back in and, what do ya know, it wasn't phased. It was lasing perfectly fine, at full power. In fact the batteries during the reverse polarity where the ones heating up slightly. I'm not saying that these would survive a fresh battery reverse but still. Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure these diodes don't like being abused like I'm doing to this one.

All and all, if you want to make your first laser that is of decent power (somewhere around 150mW and could be pushed to 200mW probably) this is definitely the diode for you

Glad to see that you did not pop the diode.

You have measured nothing, and yet you're making claims about current, battery charge, and output power? Why do you think that's okay?

Incidentally, it's a standard specification for laser diodes to be rated for reverse bias voltage up to about the same as their forward voltage. Your diode is not remarkable in that respect.

I would like to say that I did measure the batteries and they were 1.3 each. A look at the datasheet (I'm sure you didn't look at it...) shows that the max reverse voltage is 2 volts. I'm pushing 2.6 through it. That should be plenty of overvolt to blow it. And the measured current was less than I have said but still enough that the diode should not be alive. The current was 234-236mA. I rest my case

1.3V under no load, sure. 2V reverse rating doesn't mean it is guaranteed to die at 2.1V; don't be goofy. Neither does driving a 200mA-rated diode at 230mA guarantee its death. Most people overdrive diodes at twice their rated current or more around here.

This isn't hardy; this is par for the course.