Hi, I bought an 18650 kit from jayrob and an xj-140 diode and installed everything, then installed the battery not realizing that the switch was on and nothing happened. i took the battery out and found out that the cables connecting the diode were twisted and the diode leads were touching. I untwisted it and put some heat shrink tubing on it and now it's pretty much an led. it will project a small beam for about 2 feet and thats about it. Did I fry the diode or the driver? It's a flexdrive btw.
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Dead Diode
- Thread starter berguno
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On one of my first lasers I twisted the wires and it just blew the driver. I would try a different driver and see if your diode is still alive.:beer:
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Come by this weekend and we can work something out....
daguin
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It could have blown either, neither, or both.
You are on the right track to figure it out though. You can test your driver with a test load before buying a new one.
If the driver works with the test load, you will probably need to replace the diode.
If the driver does NOT work, then you have to replace it, but you still do not know if the diode is blown as well, or not. Unfortunately, you can only test the diode with another power source.
You CAN test the diode with a partially discharged battery before you buy another driver. Use one with a lower mAh rating (e.g. 800mAh) to protect the diode a bit, but the 445nm diodes will usually withstand direct drive from our "normal" batteries. DO NOT try this with red or violet diodes!
By testing the driver with a test load AND testing the diode with a battery, you can get the parts you really need at the same time rather than replacing the driver only to find that the diode was also blown (or vice versa)
Peace,
dave
You are on the right track to figure it out though. You can test your driver with a test load before buying a new one.
If the driver works with the test load, you will probably need to replace the diode.
If the driver does NOT work, then you have to replace it, but you still do not know if the diode is blown as well, or not. Unfortunately, you can only test the diode with another power source.
You CAN test the diode with a partially discharged battery before you buy another driver. Use one with a lower mAh rating (e.g. 800mAh) to protect the diode a bit, but the 445nm diodes will usually withstand direct drive from our "normal" batteries. DO NOT try this with red or violet diodes!
By testing the driver with a test load AND testing the diode with a battery, you can get the parts you really need at the same time rather than replacing the driver only to find that the diode was also blown (or vice versa)
Peace,
dave
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2008
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When u get back, I have a flexmod that we can use to test the diode and a test load we can use to test the Driver you have.