How Many Diodes have you killed?

[pullbangdead]

Title says it all, how many have turned into very expensive LEDs? Any of particular stupidity/ingeniousness? Any special memories?

Discuss

Me personally, I'm a very low-volume laser maker, and pretty lucky. I've made exactly 3 DIY lasers: a Blu-Ray from psxboy sled, and 2 Senkat 16x reds in fairly nice flashlight hosts, and I'm batting 1.000 so far. I'm a huge believer in reading a ton and going super slow in making these things. I sit down and do it all at once for 1 laser, but I'm extremely slow and careful. And after preparing by reading everything on here, I've yet to make any costly mistakes (I did get fairly lucky though, snapped a pin off one of the red diodes. Luckily, it was the ground pin, and I rigged something up for it). I'm sure I will though, it's only a matter of time. But it's also kind of essential for me: on my student budget, I am budgeting myself 2 lasers per semester, and I can't afford to blow my budget by doing something avoidable and killing a diode. How about you guys?

 

[chido]

Just one so far, but it was a diode from SenKat's bad batch so I wouldn't really count it as a "kill" I was driving it at only 150mA with a duty cycle of around 1 min on 1 min off and it died after 30 min of total on time. :'(

 

[JLSE]

These are the ones I could find :'( I sacrificed most of mine when trying different host modules, and the max current for each. So they didn’t die in vane

 

[freshert]

These are the ones I could find :'(   I sacrificed most of mine when trying different host modules, and the max current for each. So they didn’t die in vane

thats a lot RIP poor diodes :'(

 

[thebucketmouse]

LOL@wannaburn. Way to take one for the team man ;D
I've only killed two, but they were both blu ray diodes :'(

 

[Things]

killed about 16, about 13 of them were reds, and 3 IR's :-/

 

[robjdixon]

5 :
snd i have only built one laser

 

[Kage]

My 'Killed" baggy has 9 in it, so far.
1 - Red DX 100mW - too much current
1 - Red Aixiz "200mW" - exceeded 425mA and fried it (just over 250mW output)
2 - Red Sony DVD 20X OC - Physical damage 1 from cleaning the adhesive and poked it's innards, 1 bent during removal
2 - IR from Sony DVD 20X - Power glitches (these are very sensitive)
1 - Bluray from a PS3 sled - PS leads shorted while testing at 20mW out
2 - Misc - can't remember - (fried brain cells?)

 

[JLSE]

"LOL@wannaburn." I like that one, a good giggle first thing in the morn. My wife read it to me and my coffee almost exited through my nose

 

[wickedALEX]

2x500mw ir
4xcd player ir
12x5$ red laserpointer

 

[Chad]

6...
5 16x diodes from Greg, and 1 BR.

 

[Scriabin]

I made a stupid error connecting lm317, which resulted in a 0 ohm resistance...it was the drive for my blu-ray, but for safety reason(and really, for God sake) I tried first with a red diode..which burned immediately!!

 

[Hemlock_Mike]

I have LED's all over the place.  I sent my bad 6x Blu to DrLava for analysis      That's how we learn.

Mike

 

[Things]

man i'd hate to kill a 6X blu, ALOT of money into a LED.

 

[Kage]

man i'd hate to kill a 6X blu, ALOT of money into a LED.

Definitely! LOL I remember being pretty pissed about the PS3 BR diode. A 6x might make me start throwing things.

 

[Ace82]

Quick picture of my laser bone yard! :

1. working DX 5 808nm
2. killed DX 5 808nm
3. Killed ps3 405nm
4. destroyed 650nm 140mW
5. destroyed sony Nec Opttiarc 650nm open-can
6. destroyed Aixiz diodes (don't count! ;D)
7. Working drivers: DX 30 (X2), DX 5 and working 808nm DX 150 uncollimated.