Welcome to Laser Pointer Forums - discuss green laser pointers, blue laser pointers, and all types of lasers

Buy Site Supporter Role (remove some ads) | LPF Donations

Links below open in new window

i feel like an idiot

D

davio2011

0
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
Messages
28
Points
3
after telling myself repeatedly that i wouldn't go over the duty cycle (30-60 seconds for this laser: www.rayfoss.com ) i accidentally did when i was video taping it. i just completely forgot about the duty cycle : / now i feel like one of those stupid noobs who doesn't know what he's doing with his laser and ruins it on the first day he tests it out. the good news is though, that the laser dot and beam looks exactly the same as when i first turned it on. my question is did i get lucky cus the laser still looking fine, or do you need to go over the duty cycle multiple times for it to be bad, or did i just decrease the life of my laser significantly by doing this. i cringed looking at how much time i had the laser on when i was watching the video and it was on for a total of 97 seconds, 37 seconds over the recommended duty cycle. :(. i tested it again today and everything looks as good as new and i attached some pics of the dot if any of you wanna see it. lastly, i know mode hopping is one direct effect of abusing the duty cycle, what are some of the other consequences, is a decrease in power one? do you think my laser will start having these problems?

for the pictures: the first one is of the dot focused to infinity and the second one is focused for burning. the wall was about 15 feet (or 4.6 meters) from the laser.

thanks for any thoughts!
 

Attachments

  • IMG_6450.jpg
    IMG_6450.jpg
    19.8 KB · Views: 117
  • IMG_6447.jpg
    IMG_6447.jpg
    26.9 KB · Views: 150





Posting the same Thread in multiple sections of the Forum is
considered Spamming and is frowned upon...

Jerry
 
i know, i didn't mean to do it, i'm sorry, blame my stupid internet, it wasn't loading and i eventually stopped it from loading so i don't know why it still posted!!!!! so then i went on a different computer and realized i might as well put it in the green lasers section! the general laser post shouldn't have posted!! and i even doubled checked and then a couple minutes later it randomly showed up. can't you guys just delete one of these?
 
photonaholic said:
Its fine.......

A few seconds over will not fry a good quality laser.
Click to expand...

ok thanks for the reply, although i think 36 seconds is a little more than a few and i thought these diodes aren't the best quality. but if you say it's fine, that's good cus you know a lot more about lasers than i do!
 
The duty cycle is the recommended on time for maximum life. IE: diode facets never reaching critical degradation temperature.
Which is between 150 and 400 degrees C., depending on the diode.
I have never heard of a duty cycle failure (that could be proven) on a newer LD, IE: under 1 hour.
It has more to do with the LD's total lifetime hours.
So in summation; you did not kill the diode, or harm it.
If any harm was done it would be very minor, shortening lifespan by .03 seconds.
Just pulling this out of my as$, I have no idea the actual time or damage done. If you had left it on for 10 minutes, that might be a different story.
Also, a sturdy LD could take 10X that with no problems, whilst a poorly made one could suffer.

Just don't make a habit of running over the duty cycle, young man!!:tsk: J/K
 
thank you so much Greenmechanic! i wish i could give you +rep but i have none to give :(

so people who constantly abuse the duty cycle are the ones who experience mode hops and a decrease in power?
 
davio2011 said:
thank you so much Greenmechanic! i wish i could give you +rep but i have none to give :(

so people who constantly abuse the duty cycle are the ones who experience mode hops and a decrease in power?
Click to expand...


Do some reading on the stickies doing so will save you alot of time posting questions and us a lot of time answering. ;)
 
davio2011 said:
thank you so much Greenmechanic! i wish i could give you +rep but i have none to give :(

so people who constantly abuse the duty cycle are the ones who experience mode hops and a decrease in power?
Click to expand...
Yes, in the long run. If you stick to the duty cycle and your buddy does not, guess who's laser will last longer and be more stable????..............Right!
 
With DPSS lasers, I've gone over duty cycle - and for the most part, they get dim or go TEM(somethingodd) until they cool down.

Then when they cool down *usually* they're back to where they were. Unless you do it a lot, you're probably fine.
 
I feel like going over the duty cycle will harm you power-wise but it would have to be way over 30 seconds over the duty cycle limit. I recently had a massive power drop in my rayfoss (I am careful to respect the duty cycle) but they said that the most common reason for my 400 to 70mW drop would be going over the duty cycle.

Just be careful though and it should be fine! Buy a power meter from Jerry if you want to see if there was any power drop.. It's a very recommended investment if you like lasers!
 
thanks aryntha, swimminsurfer, and killrB for the thoughts and advice. i was thinking of buying a power meter sometime, but first i was gonna buy a nice pair of goggles to replace my cheap $7 focalprices ones.
 
davio2011 said:
thanks aryntha, swimminsurfer, and killrB for the thoughts and advice. i was thinking of buying a power meter sometime, but first i was gonna buy a nice pair of goggles to replace my cheap $7 focalprices ones.
Click to expand...

It's definitely a good investment. And a very good pair of goggles is even better. If you're dealing with over 200mW lasers I'd definitely go with the boblasers glasses. They don't let literally any of the ~400-450mW of green on my Rayfoss through (shining it through the goggles you literally can't see the dot on the wall on the other side). Looking through the glasses at the dot it just looks like a (still quite noticeable) faint yellow dot. Ask for a sample it'll be $29 total including shipping! Protects from 200-550nm or something like that. Blu-rays and green. Perfect!
 
aryntha said:
Swimminsurfer -- was your power drop permanent?

And was it from going over the duty cycle only once?
Click to expand...

It was permanent. It was still in the first month of having the laser though so I sent it back to them and they repaired it free of charge.

They said it was most likely from me going over the duty cycle but I usually am pretty good about things like that so I don't know...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


Back
Top