Recent content by Javalin

This is what I would consider a major update. This morning I woke up and at some point in the night the laser had gone out. Unwilling to accept the death of what both my wife and I consider to be our 3rd wheel at this point, surgery was needed. I ripped everything apart right there on the...

It's just a simple current limiting resistor. 100Ω so assuming a 2.2V Vf on the diode and rounding to 25mA... that's 0.115W. Multiplied by the 87,625 hours that's 10KWhrs.

87,625 hours! We made it 10 years! I'm not sure what I expected when I started this, but I never thought I'd be writing this post. Ten years, so much has happened in that time. Even though most of my laser projects were placed on hold, this gave me a reason to come in here and check up on...

That is the measured Vf of the "other" diode of the same type. And correct me if I'm wrong but won't the Vf change with temperature? I'm admittedly not well versed in the voltage characteristics of laser diodes, ohms law I've got down, but I thought they didn't obey ohms law as they aren't...

I guess I should clarify. These don't have driver circuits. Because they are so cheap, they only have a 92Ω resistor. The Vf of the diode is 1.834V and I'm running it from a 5V constant voltage source. When I said the rated 5V, that's because that is how they advertised it. I don't have any...

So March of 2025 ish? Maybe that will be the next update lol

It's been nearly 10 years, what am I going to do, stop now?! I said that after the first year, then 3 years, then when it outlived styro's. I'm kind of committed to it now lol.

I'm running it at the 5V rating.

It was so little power to begin with that it's hard to really tell. In a daylight lit room, on a wall 15 feet away the dot is still easy to see. My power meter didn't even register this thing years ago when I tried. Since quantifiable data aren't available, and given the 10 years that it's...

It's that time of year again. And by that time I mean, I have finally decided that is time to update on this little diode. The photo is too big to upload, but we are still plugging along. 80,592 hours, crazy to think that we are coming up on the 10 year mark!

I'm not sure why the site won't let me add the photos, but the diode is still running strong! OP updated with total run time. 72,166 hours and counting!

I'm traveling, so this post will be short. But yes the diode is still shining on!

I'm really glad you asked about the diode. It's been a long year, and not just for the obvious reason... In November 2020 we experienced a 13 day power outage. The diode was placed in my travel battery bank, the same one I have been using since starting this experiment. It allows me to swap...

Still going strong! I am really starting to think that I may have to pass the diode down to my kids someday. Edit, I have a lot more to write, stay tuned!

Thanks guys! I might have ordered from them back in I don't know, 2013 / 2014. But a lot has changed since then, and I was supposed to have had these ordered last week! I just wanted to see if the virus had an impact on their business and if I should expect the same great service. I didn't...