[igor]
dont forget that this is the first time we just use diodes from working drives! they were all tested good and reliable before selling. with sleds, they may be spares, rejects, prototypes or known bad diodes, who knows.. and, if i'm not wrong, all other diodes ever used were from sleds, be it LOC, PHR, 4x, 6x, or the stranger ones which we couldnt even identify..
It's almost as if you were referring to the theory i proposed in another thread (i think FrancoRob's thread about the 8x i made for him), that the GGWs i got from the Chinese varied so much in everything from efficiency to wavelength (and sleds showed version progression), that i started thinking those sleds were prototyping rejects, and not really QC rejects..
But you are incorrect when saying, that this is the first time we are getting diodes from drives!
I got my first GGW from an LG 6x drive, as did MANY other members of this forum long before me!
GooeyGus was a serial GGW drive killer at that time already (and he extracted my first GGW for me)!
Before that, other members purchased 2x and 4x writers.. Jayrob still has one (either a 2x or a 4x from a writer - don't recall) in a laser...
I am not sure if i explained this here (too many threads open at once and too busy)..
- Diodes from so called QC Reject sleds (61 of which i plotted so far - in attachment) vary in efficiency from super freaks to many diodes so weak, that they could not possibly work in a 6x drive for ANY amount of time!
- Diodes from drives we have tested so far, always seem to have an efficiency i call "normal" (or average from the multiple plots), OR BETTER! In fact i define "normal" efficiency for GGWs by the first GGW i ever got - from a drive.. And funnily enough it turned out to be almost directly in the middle of the efficiency spread i found in sleds. I have not seen a low efficiency diode from a working drive yet!
The only way i could explain this incredible efficiency variation in sleds, and lack of it in drives was, that the sleds i was testing were prototyping rejects... Many of them were possibly even made while the diode manufacturer was still perfecting their manufacturing process (so they could
consistently make good diodes), and they simply sent the sled manufacturers prototype diodes, so they could perfect the optics and do various tests, preparing everything for final manufacturing...
This is also the reason why i said i don't expect to get low efficiency 8x's from drives. I do expect efficiencies to vary - the first two diodes i tested varied almost by the maximum i've seen in other plots - but i expect even the lowest ones to be GOOD DIODES... Much unlike the low efficiency GGWs i found in sleds, which often die in a few hours when set to 190-200mA!
So yes, you are right, and i agree.. Diodes in drives HAVE to be thoroughly tested, first before even being sold to the sled manufacturer and then at multiple stages during sled/drive production. A bad diode would never pass the inspections...
If i did a 6x murder experiment similar to this one here using low efficiency (low for reject sleds, not drives) diodes, the experiment would be completelly useless. The diode would crap out in a few hours and wouldn't tell me anything about the "normals" or higher efficiency ones...
If you look at this multiple GGW sled plot, and now imagine the same plot was done by testing 61 GGW DRIVES instead, the plots would start at what i marked as average or normal, and only go up! (Obviously, drives would then have their own different averages, highs and lows..)
I am assuming all this of course, because it is impossible to make similar statistics with drives, but i am assuming it for good reasons..
For GGWs for example, i don't think any diode that measured in at less than 170mW @ 200mA could work in a drive! And in a drive i would not expect to find diodes with less than 180-185mW @ 200mA either.. (I'm talking about powers after plastic lenses here, and the plots were made with plastic lenses - the testing started quite a while ago)
If we were doing this experiment during the GGW times, killing two lowest efficiency GGW diodes from drives, we would likelly be killing one that peaked at 183mW and another at 187mW @ 200mA. It's unlikelly that it would be less.
And from experience i know those diodes are good, and survive a LONG time of abuse..
That's why i proposed to test the two lowest efficiency 8x diodes, because when it comes to drives, while some may seem "weaker" in comparison to the higher ones, they are all still very good, tough diodes...
Otherwise, i got a package today. An 8x diode from itw3ak i mentioned before - the one that developed the kink at the power it was set to... He gave it to me for the cost of shipping (THANK YOU itw3ak!)..
The 8x's from the mini-GB should also come this week. Need to finish work quickly, so i can start playing with them as soon as they arrive..
