Since its my birthday I thought it would be a good time to solder up my diodes for my 635 build. Sadly the Laser gods were not forgiving. The laser gods wanted to punish me for using a 60w iron on a poor 300mw mitsu.
The diode failed to work @ 400ma, so I cranked the driver to 1.1a, the diode had LED'd then a few seconds later went completely dead.
Are these the characteristics of a diode that has been overheated? or was it esd damage? Both? Probably.... Argh... The pains of being a noob
I know how you feel, just a couple of days ago I put a my newly arrived 405nm into a C6 host switched it on and it lasted all of 1 sec and then nothing. Have no idea why maybe some just do that, not sure as it is the first one I have had do that! Well I guess these two little Piggy's will be going to market- to get new diodes! Like you say the pain of being a noob is we don't even know why so what do we do different next time!?
Why did you go to 1.1 A? Thats quite a bit over the recommended max of 700 - 750 mA for this diode.:thinking:
If it makes you feel any better about a year and a half ago, back when they were $ 100 a pop, I shorted a mits 500 in a host... So its not just noobs that screw up!
When soldering and handling any diode make sure you are grounded! Dont touch the soldering iron tip to the pins for more than a second and let them cool before soldering again. Before wiring up a driver to the pins make sure it has been discharged ie short the cap on the output. Lastly make sure the diode is in a heatsink before doing any soldering, or before testing it. If wasnt in a heatsink at 1.1 A when you tried it, it would die almost instantly. :beer:
I didn't get any output at 400ma, and it worked when I tested it by just wrapping the diode pins around the leads... Probably my sloppy soldering. Next time I'm just going to use conductive epoxy.
Also got a third degree burn on my arm from dropping my iron when soldering a driver. I guess I'm just unlucky with lasers.
Ah you should be really careful doing that. Make sure you have a very good connection to the diode before switching it on. If you dont want to solder to test use a pair of croc clips. Just make sure you touch the ends together before cliping them on. Conductive epoxy is a very bad idea, the resistance of the bond will be too high.
A couple of tips for soldering diode pins:
1) Pretin the diode pins - this means get some fresh solder and touch it to the pin to be soldered. It should turn from gold to silver.
2) Pretin your leads - add solder to the end of the leads to be soldered and add a tiny very tiny little blob extra. By tiny I mean around the size of a pin head!
3) Short the leads!
4) Hold the tined wire a few mm from the pin and touch the soldering iron to the wire
5) when the solder has melted touch the wire (with soldering iron still on it) to the pin - it will istantly flow together
6) remove iron immediately ie in under a second.
7) Let the solder cool
This will take a bit of practice, so use a dead diode to attach and remove the leads. Try to keep everything to under a second. Removing leads is harder but you can do this by tinning the tip with a little molten solder before touching to the wire attached to the pin.
Thanks for the pointers. I'll buy a way lower powered iron with a smaller tip than my current 60w beast with a huge tip. Should make me fumble much less. If I kill my m140 I will be so mad with myself... Then buy a module with leads from DTR
