Blown diode?

can anyone tell me if a diode is blown will it still put out faint light? I just put together a red diode and it is only a very faint light, could be a bad connection, but just wanted to know if it could be possible that I fried the diode. thanks!

It's very possible. Blown diodes are referred to sometimes as "LEDs" because they still glow a bit, just not coherently like a laser.

That is also what a diode will appear like if it is on the lasing threshold in which case you would need to provide more current. It is more likely however that the diode is dead.

are you sure its a red diode? IR diodes will have a faint glow to them when you look at it (as it etches your retina)

And make sure you don't do anything kipkay says, without a driver your diode is sure to LED quickly.

By the way this is in the wrong section!

I am using a Rkcstr driver set @300mA @about 7v. it`s the 16x red diode from the GGW-H20L sled. the pin-out is the same as most other red diodes , (Unless I am mistaken). looking at the "diode side" of the sled, It was the "middle" diode, the one on the left is the 6x blu-ray, and the far right is the IR. unless that is incorrect. I checked the connections and they seem to be good. I think it LED`D. oh well, that was the first one I fried,:tired: and sorry about posting in the wrong place.. thanks for the response. and BTW what is a good current to run the GGW blu-ray diode? :thinking:

Wrong section Sparky. We have separate sections for each color, plus help, and tutorials, multimedia, ect. This section is for general forum messages, and not lasers.

sparky said:

I am using a Rkcstr driver set @300mA @about 7v. it`s the 16x red diode from the GGW-H20L sled. the pin-out is the same as most other red diodes , (Unless I am mistaken). looking at the "diode side" of the sled, It was the "middle" diode, the one on the left is the 6x blu-ray, and the far right is the IR. unless that is incorrect. I checked the connections and they seem to be good. I think it LED`D. oh well, that was the first one I fried,:tired: and sorry about posting in the wrong place.. thanks for the response. and BTW what is a good current to run the GGW blu-ray diode? :thinking:

Click to expand...

You have used the ir diode. The red or 650nm diode is the far right.IIRC:thinking:
I am still searching for the pic in these I am certian of this though.