9mm diode zombified

i had planned on a thread highlighting lazereer's fine work done on my ultrafire g4 host. he made a massive heatsink and focus ring for it. and since i wanted to drive the diode at 2.1A, i went with his x-drive.
everything was looking good. with an aixiz lens the diode pegged my laserbee a Quick. the way the numbers went by on the display i felt it would have hit 2.1W easy. i bought a housing for the lens included with the diode from dave on pl. the lens is said to allow more power than the g1. it did burn quicker up close than with the aixiz, but i like the spot and beam of the aixiz lens more.

my diode just joined the zombies
i mean just now. as i was getting ready for pictures
weirdest zombie i've seen, it starts bright and then dims.
i double checked everything and indeed the diode is undead.

so....back to the work bench. i have an m140 diode in another host i'll transplant to the g4. hope it likes 2.1A...........

back with pix in a bit

Ouch, a 9mm diode went to laser heaven. That must have hurt. :yabbem:

You said at 2.1A it dies ? And the measured output was 2.1W ?

i ran it for about 30 minutes all together at 2.1A. i never was able to measure the output exactly. pegged my 2W laserbee quick, so i guessed at 2.1W with the aixiz lens. prolly 2.5 or so with the aspheric lens.

That's gotta sting Cheech.

I was planning on running my 9mm 445 @ 2A on the nose , might re think it now.

NOOOoooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooOOOO!!!!!!!!!! So crappy to hear this cheech, so sorry man......

i'm not giving up! i believe in these 9mm diodes and i will scrape up cash to get another. i'm undecided about running an m140 at 2.1 tho. gonna watch tennis and drink beer for a while

Don't do it. Set the M140 at 1.8A max !

NONO - DEFINITELY DO IT!!!! and by that I mean drink beer, watch tennis & set it to 1.8! 2.1 will definitely kill a M140 so I second Blords recommendation :beer:

I wonder if it was the current or the aixiz lens that killed it?

Edit:
2.1 isn't guaranteed to kill an m140, but it probably will.

Hold on. You say it goes bright then dim. If so it may not be dead. Do you have an alternative way to test the diode? Bench power supply perhaps? Flashing can be a sign of a power issue. Maybe a weak connection in the host or batteries or driver. I would not rule it out just yet.

Yeah, that sounds like the driver is overheating, the batteries suck, or the batteries are low on juice.

Either way that doesn't sound like a zombie diode to me. They just have low output period...

Are you sure it's KO ? The behavior is strange. Try to direct connect to 3 fresh non rechargable AAs ..

I would start by looking at the batteries. What kind are they? Are they fully charged?

Then I would bypass the tailcap by using a piece of metal to make the contact from the batteries to the host body, then try powering the driver still connected to the diode directly off a power supply or the batteries without it running though the host. If all that fails I would disconnect the diode from the driver and test it directly if you have a bench power supply that works for direct driving diodes.:beer:

I Hope its Not the Diode.

I dint know that he said it was bright then dim before this thread. Thanks for pointing that out In the other thread to me DTR.:beer:

I sent him a Pm about this asking him if he tried it with something else to make sure its dead or not dead. But this was before i seen this thread and waiting for a response.

Sounds to me that its a Power Issue as well now.

DTR pretty much nailed it exactly what i would have said so i wont repeat it. Hopefully we can get this Working for you again.

It does not sound like the diode. Though I must say it does sound similar to this in a one way:
http://laserpointerforums.com/f51/445nm-laser-problem-74364.html

Where it was a LED diode at the end.

Also Cheech if your un able to test certain things ill be more then happy to have you send it to me and ill have a look at everything.

Le Quack said:

Yeah, that sounds like the driver is overheating, the batteries suck, or the batteries are low on juice.

Either way that doesn't sound like a zombie diode to me. They just have low output period...

Click to expand...

No way the driver is overheating. And if it was It does not Pulse/Flash. IT has a Built in over heat protection that slowly drops in power till it gets stable Rather then flash. IF it gets to the point where it Overheated then it will cut off let itself cool again then turn back on all on its own. I can show you a video of what the Built in Overheat protection is on the driver.

But iam 150% sure its not overheating.

Not to mention i pre tested his setup and the driver/Pill barely got warm after 5 minutes of being on.

Sounds to me like bad protection Circuit cells.

My guess goes to old/bad battery. What brand you using?

i tested the diode/driver setup with aw 18350's and aw rcr123's with the same results. in a bit i'll try the diode with a known good 1.8A driver to see what's up. i hope y'all are right and the diode's ok. just got home.

i hooked the diode up to a 1.8W driver from a c6 build and it lit up but the beam/dot are distorted - didn't notice it start bright and then dim as it did before. thanks so much for all the help and suggestions. more testing later.