Duty cycle

[khurrle]

What should the duty cycle be for my 50mW 405? I love my greenie but this one is quickly becoming my favorite and find myself playing with it all the time. I certainly don't want to burn the diode out due to overuse.

Its just a 5.00 ebay pen.

Thanks

 

[lasersbee]

If the head gets warm to the touch turn it off to let it cool down...

Jerry

 

[khurrle]

that's it huh? Its never become noticeably warm, I have just read about duty cycles and wasn't sure if it was pumping out enough power to need 1 minute on and 30 seconds off or something.

Thanks a lot

 

[Sigurthr]

It's hard to tell sometimes, but generally Jerry is right; once you can feel it get warm, turn it off.

I had an Amazon "10mW" 405nm pointer that burned itself out though because the diode was pressed into a plastic housing, which insulated it from the host, so it got VERY hot after 1min, but the case remained cold. I haven't heard/read of any others like mine though, and I wish I kept the parts to take photos. It is no longer available from Amazon though.

 

[Benm]

That would be a very bad design indeed.

50 mW of 405 doesnt produce that much heat - it should have unlimited runtime in a decent metal pen-sized host... as long as they chose not to mount the laser diode in plastic or something idiotic like that.