Sigh. The diode on this one popped yesterday, after between 3-4 hours of use I estimate. It lasted < 3 months.
So I swapped in the diode from my first prototype (the last surviving of the 2 I got from the first group buy), thermal glued it into place, and dropped the current to 175-180mA. I'm hoping to have a diode with a longer life this time.. try to keep track. It lases nicely, deep cherry red and very speckly. Just powerful enough to do some burning tricks, will pop balloons out to 20 feet, though it can take a few seconds .
Neat project,
It looks like that Meredith module was a good investment
I was looking at the burning pictures from your project link.........................I was hoping to see one of you burning a hole in that Casio watch!!!