Re: 6x Blu-ray SLEDS GB! GET EM WHILE THEY LAST
Looks like mine will be here on Tuesday.. I'm anxious to hook two up to my diode tester, and let them run continuously at 200mA.
I was torturing my 6x in the meanwile, but it looks like that was kinda pointless now. Luckily it is still holding up, putting out the same power as before after many long runs.
Otherwise, why are some of you so worried about duty cycle? It's not like we don't use heatsinks.
If you have a properly heatsinked laser with an over-overdriven diode, but use it with a 1 minute duty cycle, it will just take longer in days, for you to realize you killed it, simply because you force yourself to use it less. The number of hours will still be the same, or it could even be shorter, because of more power-up/down related stresses. In fact, a cold diode can actually die at a lower current, than a warm diode, because it will put out more power, and it's their output power, that kills them.
The idea of a short duty cycle comes from green laser pens, where a 0.5W pump has to work with barelly more heatsinking, than an AixiZ module. There the diode can actually overheat.
If you want to learn how long a diode will survive a certain power, you have to leave it on, even better, with a circuit, that turns it off and back on every once in a while, to stress it more.. It's the only way to learn what will happen up front, without waiting for lasers to start dying.
The entire test took just over 30 minutes from first lase to LED
