If you just killed a diode 'read this'

[spaceman_hux]

ok thanks ;D

how would i go about focusing my bluray well

 

[lamborgini8]

I built one Red laser which worked until the driver died, I have a blue ray build in progress and I have a red diode in aixiz which some fool soldered some components to in the past which I have run for 5 mins straight before and it was fine.

I have never blown a diode I guess im lucky.

 

[MarioMaster]

ok thanks  ;D

how would i go about focusing my bluray well

It helps if you can have two people to focus it - either you or a friend can focus the laser, and the other person watches the dot on a wall several feet away. If you have it focused to a somewhat small dot (not pinpoint or anything), it should be fairly closely collimated to infinity. Bluray lasers aren't very good at pointing though because the luminous intensity is very low

 

[pseudonomen137]

I once killed not one, but two WL pulsar units in a row on account of trying to work on them at 4AM with next to no sleep. Kept making stupid errors like forgetting to turn down the voltage on my power supply before turning it on. Long story short - two very nice soon-to-be-focusable red lasers were turned into scrap metal in less than an hour. I'm still haven't made it past the stages of mourning...

 

[Mohrenberg]

Well recently my awesome bluray diode died RIP :'(  and it was the only one to light a match. Its like the 5 diodes i got were all not cut out for burning.
Anyway this thread is for people who have just killed their diodes and want to feel better by reading an even worse story than theirs, so i hope this takes off.

SO post your stories of dead diodes and lasers now

Have fun

;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

hmm....i know when i first started with lasers i went through prob 15 diodes and prob got 3 to work properly.
now i would say it's a 1/20 failure rate (while being built)
usually once they are assembled and they work....they keep working.

my biggest error was always forgetting to short out the caps before i soldered the diod to the driver....that killed alot of em.

 

[Jimmymcjimthejim]

I blew 2 PHRs when they were $33 each, 2 when they were $27 each.. Wish I waited a few months before getting into the PHR craze.
Post 800!

 

[laser83]

I'm starting to amass a good total.   My record is great for starting this only a about two months ago. First it was the didla I bought that got me into this hobby. I thought it would be a good idea to pot mod it when I had no real clue what I was doing.

Next ,I got a laser here from like it bright but lost the spring. I replaced it with a new spring but that ended up killing the diode. Glad that's being repaired for a reasonable price. That hurt the most.  :'(

Finally I sent the dilda to get get repaired by a person offering. Ended up killing it because I didn't have CR2s on me and wanted it to have full power NOW. Over voltage burnout.

I feel better now though. My loses are probably a little over $60 but to lose $330  :'( I'd drop dead. Finally learning how to build myself. Might take a while though...

This is in memory of lost diodes: Requiem  :'(

 

[T_Warne]

I'm still very new to the hobby, but in that short time I've managed to destroy two PHRs and a LPC. My first PHR died from stupidity... I cooked it trying to remove the ribbon cable. The second died because one on the pins fatigued and broke...I assume the means of death was a voltage spike. The LPC died because I kept turning it up, and up, and up... [smiley=evil.gif]  

Good thing theses LD are so cheap!

On that note:  I have the greatest respect for guys like Daguin who are the true pioneers of this hobby. They shell out the big bucks for diodes just to test them to destruction for our benefit.

 

[Xplorer877]

I killed my first PHR Diode by getting it too close to a negative ion generator. Really stupid...

Then my 22x DVD burner 650nm died for no reason. That was a while ago. But I still haven't touched it. It's still a 200mA dim led.

And recently my 532nm 25mW greenie that I have had for years is now only 3-4mW average.

...it's an expensive fragile hobby.

I'm trying not to spend anymore money on lasers nowadays.

-Tony