is my Diode Damaged?

[AbsoluteZedo]

My friend was playing with my PHR-803T laser in a flashlight housing set at 120 mA. All of a sudden the beam is gone, so, under close examination we discover that there is infact light, its just really distorted and very very dim, Battery replacement did not fix it so its not a power source issue. I'm not sure if the diode is damage, i'm not sure if a diode would work if it was damaged, i'm not sure if it is a driver issue. It is not a lens issue because i removed the lens and the beam was still significantly dim.

 

[lasersbee]

Your Laser Diode has (what is commonly called) LEDed...
it has been damaged and will no longer function as it did...:cryyy:

Time to change your LD....


Jerry

 

[AbsoluteZedo]

What is the reason for it, Is it impact damage or like...Over-use damage.

 

[lasersbee]

The PHR803T Laser Diodes are being over driven from their intended use...

At 120mW you are decreasing the life of the diode.... you get a great
powerful beam at the expense of lifetime...

You need to remember that all PHR803T LDs are not created equal...
Some may have a longer or shorter lifetime being overdriven at 120mW...

I have a PHR803T set at 50mW and it has been going for over 7 months
now with about 3-5 hrs use per week...

Look at it like this... you run your Honda Civic at no more that the posted
speed limit gently accelerating and you will probably run your engine to over
500,000 miles...
But if you run your Honda Civic at over 100mph and acccelerate like you
were doing the 1/4 mile drags... you would probably need to replce your
engine at 100,000 to 150,000 miles if not sooner...


Jerry

 

[AbsoluteZedo]

I understand this, xD, I was just curious how it died, and you indirectly answered it by telling me, It was pushed to its limit. I was just suprised it happened so fast, i'll just order a new diode and shove it in, no biggie

 

[cyclonite]

could have been ESD.

why not invest in a blu-ray LASORB to protect your next PHR so you can be sure it isn't ESD doing the damage? LASORB also trims of power spikes.

 

[cyclonite]

LASORB protecting a blu-ray diode:

YouTube - LASORB protects BLU-RAY diodes

 

[bobhaha]

@Laserbee.. he said he was running the laser at 120ma

but same problem.. without sufficient cooling you are running it to its limits! 120ma isn't extremely high but its not low either.. so if you wanna keep running it at that current, expect a few dead diodes through out its life time!

hope that helped! -Adrian

 

[lasersbee]

@Laserbee.. he said he was running the laser at 120ma

my bad....

but as you explained the problem is still the same...

Jerry

 

[Elektrotechniker]

Wait, no heatsink?

 

[Crossfire]

This thread establishes 90mA as a safe current for PHR's, as an experiment was run at 90mA in a labby heatsink and ran continuously for ~4,600 hours.

I used the same current in a Jayrob Pocket Mini and it's doing just fine. The laser housing only gets a bit warm with extended (>5 min.) burns.

As always, USE HEATSINKING! Non-heatsinked PHR's will die unless the current is extremely low. An AixiZ module alone does not provide sufficient heatsinking.

 

[dr-ebert]

Somehow this topic keeps cropping up recently... as I keep mentioning, I'm running my PHR@120mA in an Aixiz without further heatsinking, and the module warms up only slowly when it's on. No problem running it for two minutes or so, and I don't really feel the need for more so far. The red LPC heats up faster so I limit it to about a minute, but it's still no big deal for me. YMMV.

Of course I have plans for getting a "real" heatsink, but it's not a must-have.

For clarification, with Aixiz I mean the head with the diode plus the body with the flexdriver inside screwed together.

 

[matrixcs]

thats right your diode is dead.. it is the LED Effect... hehehhe well just order na new PHR 803-T