I give up!

[john_lawson]

i too have had this happen ex

at least 6 from overheating the diode pins fell apart
several from butchering them up in the sink
using wrong driver lets just leave it at that
but Dave and Ace82 kept me talked into continuing building and
look at me know my wife is soo close to leaving me i'll soon have the whole house to my self -lol

 

[mfo]

Let me help sir... this is somewhat like a jogger hitting that wall.

Get yourself a constant power supply that can run between 3.0v to 12.v 1amp stable.

Turn the pot on that driver counterclockwise and leave it there. There is no capacitor to discharge on that unit, but you should practice it anyhows. Power supply should be set on 9volts min.

Put your DVM in the mA mode with the + end of the meter on the + end of the power supply.
then put the - end of the voltmeter on the + side of that driver. Then use the neg on the power supply to the module shell.

At this point you should be seeing a reading of about 50mAish on the meter. The diode should appear as a dim LED slowly turn the pot up clockwise until you get
around 100mA give or take. Take you time on the ramping up of current set and use nimble fingers. This might not be the most conventional way of doing the driver current set, but after 30 of these same diodes I haven't fried a PHR yet.

this should get you through your first couple of builds, and is only good for linear type of drivers.

I hope that this helps and please fellow forum members add to my reply to help this new member.

Will give that a shot. I see what you mean about the nimble fingers because the slightest turn on the pot gives it like 100mA more.

two seconds with the soldering iron? what power is your soldering iron? I think a normal 40W soldering iron will kill your diode in 2 seconds

I think it's either 15W or 20W.

If you dont have a PSU use a new 9v battery. 2 10440s may not be enough if they are under charged. Its recommended to use 3 10440s and a SI diode to keep the driver in regulation. Also, like others said, start off low and work your way up. Stepping up the currant in small increments has also been rumored (not proved yet) to lengthen the diodes life.

Will give that a shot and see if it works also. I've tried the new 9V approach and no dice.

Thanks for the help & encouregement guys. I'm slowly getting the desire back....I'm going to look into a new soldering iron with a tiny tip (My tip isn't tiny, but it's workable). How many watts do you all typically use?

 

[Tech_Junkie]

my wife is soo close to leaving me i'll soon have the whole house to my self -lol

That not funny John...:tsk:

Remember 1 thing. Your laser does not have lips.

 

[mfo]

my wife is soo close to leaving me i'll soon have the whole house to my self -lol

Not funny, sorry to hear that =(

 

[mfo]

If you dont have a PSU use a new 9v battery. 2 10440s may not be enough if they are under charged. Its recommended to use 3 10440s and a SI diode to keep the driver in regulation. Also, like others said, start off low and work your way up. Stepping up the currant in small increments has also been rumored (not proved yet) to lengthen the diodes life.

Tested it with a 12V DC power supply. No dice (Still LED)

I decided I'm not going to give up, I'll keep going until I get this right!

I need more tips though. Like how many watt soldering iron you guys use? etc.

 

[Flaminpyro]

I can't beleve you said that, not funny. 40 lashes with a laser beam ! :spank:

@MFO I use a 40 watt temp-controled Weller WTCP series so depending which tip I put on I get more or less heat. and then there are may different tip styles. flux can make all the differance in a crapy or fine job I have some of the best ava if you are interested PM me, solder is pretty important also I use 5 core resin. ERSIN in england makes the best but it's very hard to source so I buy this one it's CW SN63 PB37 from amerway.com give these things a try and you must practice after you get some good solder and flux and and a iron get some copper wire and practice soldering it together, when you get beter get two different sizes of wire and practice on that, only practice will make you better.

That not funny John...:tsk:

Remember 1 thing. Your laser does not have lips.

 

[mfo]

I can't beleve you said that, not funny. 40 lashes with a laser beam ! :spank:

@MFO I use a 40 watt temp-controled Weller WTCP series so depending which tip I put on I get more or less heat. and then there are may different tip styles. flux can make all the differance in a crapy or fine job I have some of the best ava if you are interested PM me, solder is pretty important also I use 5 core resin. ERSIN in england makes the best but it's very hard to source so I buy this one it's CW SN63 PB37 from amerway.com give these things a try and you must practice after you get some good solder and flux and and a iron get some copper wire and practice soldering it together, when you get beter get two different sizes of wire and practice on that, only practice will make you better.

Thanks for the information. I will definitely bear this in mind. I'm going to practice on a few pieces of wire I guess. Funny, I thought my soldering was fine. I've been soldering stuff since I was 15. That was ten years ago. Maybe I over heated the diode somehow. That is the ONLY explanation that I can think of.

 

[Archienj7]

Use a wrist strap too, don't let there be a chance to let static kill it. Also, I've always used just enough voltage, under 9 volts everytime and it works fine. 5 for the diode and 2.2 or 2.5 for the driver, something like that, anything else is excess. Depends on your build and the requirements, I've ran PHR's with a rkcstr with only 7.7 v with no problems and it burned really well.

I've never had any problems making them and them working, taking them apart and trying to fiddle that's another story.