How to tell if a Blu-ray is dead?

[Things]

Hi all, I want to know how to tell if a blu-ray is dead. I heard from drlava, that if its over 35ma and it doesn't lase, then its dead. I saw somewhere else, someone seeing a yellowish colour in the diode, also heard on #laserchat by drlava, its normal. No i haven't killed the diode mike, im just seeing what happens when they do die. Anyone else notice this?

 

[rog8811]

someone seeing a yellowish colour in the diode

I certainly reported that on my first blue ray build, it was down to not enough volts into the 7305 driver circuit so not due to death by multi ma.

I seem to remember at least one person reporting that his LD did not start to lase until he reached 40+ma.....they seem very variable.

Regards rog8811

 

[Hemlock_Mike]

As I recall, the first Br diodes started to lase at ~35 mA but later ones are sometimes reported to be ~38 to 40 mA. They arent real bright but put a nice spot on white paper.

Mike

 

[Abray]

I don't know when my blu-ray starts to lase, but right now its at ~36.6 ma. In my opinion, its pretty bright, but I don't have any other laser to compare it with! besides 5 mW reds.

 

[knimrod]

The LD I got from the group buy started to lase at ~35mA and I set the operating current at 45mA. While it worked okay at first, it didn't last very long. The LD developed some kind of heat problem where after first powering it up, it would lase but dim to an LED over 5-10 seconds. I'm waiting on another GB LD at the moment but I did send the faulty diode back to Daedal for a post-mortem.

 

[Things]

well i quickly tried it at a higher voltage, and its not there anymore, i think it was because i was JUST over its lasing point. I'm loving the colour, but i have to wait for my driver before i can use it for any kind of time. Its sitting on my shelf, its gonna be hard to resist not touching it till next week LOL Maybe i should put it in a safe and make my parents put a code on it? LOL