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Burner diode report - sort of...

danq

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Sep 18, 2007
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Well, I finally broke down and ordered a 20x burner for the diode - a Sony NEC Optiarc 20X AD-7190A

The diode was amazingly easy to get out - no pressing needed, just pried it out with an exacto blade!

It's an open-can, so needed to be a little bit careful - but got it right into a housing (from a DX cheap red).

Hooked it up to a variable regulated current supply, and slowly brought it up... it was lasing at about 50mA, but didn't increase all that much after that - I wondered if it was going to flat-line like that, until it got to about 120mA, when it just suddenly got really bright. I took it up to 200mA, and it seemed pretty stable there.

I brought the power down to 50 and focused it on a candle's wick. Brought it up to 200mA again, and the wick began to smoke - much more vigorously than with my other burner diodes. So I just thought I'd push this baby up a bit...

I thought I'd just gradually increase the current, keeping an eye on it for signs of instability or heat or other obvious distress - risky but hey, it was an experiment ::)

Went to carefully slide the control up a bit, and the candle wick immediately started to act like it was going to ignite :eek:

which distracted my attention, and my current-control hand slipped, and... well, I got a glimpse of the current meter going past 350, there was a bright flash, and I had a $27 red LED. :(

But for the few moments it was operational, it looked like a good candidate
- worth more experimenting, maybe by someone with a TEC and power meter and deeper pockets. ;)

DanQ
 





Gazoo

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I wonder how far past 350ma's you went. These diode should be able to handle up to 700ma's and even more...but only for a short period of time. 350ma's is nothing to an open can.
 

danq

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700mA? wow - I suppose it's possible it went that high, but not likely; and if so it was less than a second. The control is a slider pot, which works really well - except when I get shaky (mild Parkinson's) if I'm not looking at my hand it doesn't always stay put, which is what happened here.

Interestingly, it seems to still lase, just at a much lower output power
 

rkcstr

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I just got one of those same burners the other day... $23.99 with free shipping :cool:

Unfortunately, Newegg raised the price since.

Anyway, I've been running mine with about 4ohm resistor on the driver, which should put out about 312ma. It's been running with no problems, I'm very happy :D Was able to light up a match at about 9 feet, didn't try any farther, though.
 

danq

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rkcstr said:
I just got one of those same burners the other day... $23.99 with free shipping :cool:

Unfortunately, Newegg raised the price since.

yeah, they were up to about $27 by the time I looked again, plus shipping!
:( :mad: :( :mad: :(
 
Joined
Jul 20, 2007
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you should not turn a pot while the laser diode is powered because some pots have problems and may turn temporarily to 0 ohms while turning which could have get your diode too much current. I don't know if this caused your diodes death :)() but it could.
 

danq

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paper183 said:
you should not turn a pot while the laser diode is powered because some pots have problems and may turn temporarily to 0 ohms while turning which could have get your diode too much current. I don't know if this caused your diodes death :)() but it could.
That could be a problem with some pots - I have a nice linear pot around here somewhere, smooth as silk, full 360 degree turn, and exceptionally well-built. Except for one thing: - it has no stop, so goes round and round, at one point from 10K to 0 in a flash. Must be good for something...

But I don't use that one for lasers.

What killed my diode was definitely lack of control, and pot had nothing to do with it ;-)
(I'm blaming poor feedback in my right neural network - see my second post above)

But you do point out a good reminder: know thy parts!
:)
DanQ
 

Skram0

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Aug 25, 2007
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I'm trying the Samsung SH-S202J: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151161
Damn, I thought this one was cheap when I bought it @ 24.99. They must have been out of stock on the 23.99 one, else I would have purchased that one. :) I got some experiments to do when it arrives tomorrow. It's gonna be sacrilege to open up this new drive and rip out the diode and probably throw away the rest. It's amazing to think of the price these things used to be just a few years ago and slower too.
 

IgorT

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Skram0 said:
I'm trying the Samsung SH-S202J:

Did you buy the Samsung? What kind of LD did it have?

The first i bought was a Samsung Writemaster 18X, but it didn't have any kind of can, just the laser chip, on a flat black square..


I'm asking, because NewEgg doesn't ship internationall and the Sony is more than twice the price in my country.. I can get Samsungs very cheap tho..
 

Gazoo

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IgorT said:
[quote author=Skram0 link=1200633213/0#8 date=1201052705]I'm trying the Samsung SH-S202J:

Did you buy the Samsung? What kind of LD did it have?

The first i bought was a Samsung Writemaster 18X, but it didn't have any kind of can, just the laser chip, on a flat black square..


I'm asking, because NewEgg doesn't ship internationall and the Sony is more than twice the price in my country.. I can get Samsungs very cheap tho..[/quote]

Igor,
Take a look here.

http://www.laserpointerforums.com/forums/YaBB.pl?num=1200364161/15
 

IgorT

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Gazoo said:
Igor,
Take a look here.

Thanks..

That's what i was afraid of. It's exactly the same thing i found in the 18x Samsung... Damn.. Looks like there's no cheap solution for me..
 
Joined
Jan 11, 2008
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I got mine yesterday and it works great! ;D But I'm having a little trouble measuring the current going through it! :( You're supposed to measure the current by putting the multi meter in series with the laser diode right? Whenever I do that, the brightness goes WAY down on my laser diode! This makes me think that I am not measuring all of the current. Am I? When I tried 150 mA's, the laser diode got really hot really quickly so I stopped, but I don't think that it was JUST 150 mA's. Any suggestions? :-?
 

Gazoo

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The safest way is to measure between the power supply and the driver. There are a ton of different DMM's. But yes, to measure the probes should go in series, and you will want to use the 10 amp setting on your DMM if these is one.
 

danq

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Sep 18, 2007
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Gazoo said:
The safest way is to measure between the power supply and the driver. There are a ton of different DMM's. But yes, to measure the probes should go in series, and you will want to use the 10 amp setting on your DMM if these is one.
or if you want to measure smaller currents more accurately, put a 1- or 10-ohm resistor between the driver and power (in series), and measure the voltage across the resistor. If it's a 1-ohm, then 1 volt measured = 1 amp; if 10 ohms, then 1 volt = 0.1 amp. This will give you far more accurate measurements than your meter's current settings in most cases. Measurements taken with the 1-ohm may better represent how your driver acts alone, at least at higher currents.
:)
DanQ
 




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