Laser diode turns on but slowly dims and turns off

[JeffAlmighty]

Hi there, first post and also my first laser build. I decided to go straight in with a 1.6W laser as the lower power ones are not the most impressive. I bought a driver that matched the current rating of the diode and connected it all up. The laser turns on, but then slowly dims to nothing. My first thought was the driver giving it too much current so i turned the potentiometer down, but this did not fix the short period of time it was on for. Really just looking for any pointers as to what I could have done wrong.

 

[Giannis_TDM]

Hi there, first post and also my first laser build. I decided to go straight in with a 1.6W laser as the lower power ones are not the most impressive. I bought a driver that matched the current rating of the diode and connected it all up. The laser turns on, but then slowly dims to nothing. My first thought was the driver giving it too much current so i turned the potentiometer down, but this did not fix the short period of time it was on for. Really just looking for any pointers as to what I could have done wrong.

What driver was it?

 

[paul1598419]

I wonder if you may not have enough of a heat sink on your host for this build. Does it seem to get warm to the touch? The driver wouldn't be my first idea for your problem.

 

[WizardG]

Yeah, that sounds like either the diode is heating up or the battery can't take the load rather than a driver issue, unless the driver is running WFO. Picture of your build? What are you using for batteries?

 

[Giannis_TDM]

I wonder if you may not have enough of a heat sink on your host for this build. Does it seem to get warm to the touch? The driver wouldn't be my first idea for your problem.

Driver comes to mind cause I have seen more than a fair share of drivers recently exhibiting such behavior and have personally experienced that too when they were sold under spec and were overheating rapidly. boost drivers I have found out are even more susceptible to this since due to the nature of the topology they are less efficient.

 

[RedCowboy]

Sometimes it's the simple things.

Are you using a good enough battery and is it charged ?

Have you ruled out your switch by testing with a bypass/jumper ?

 

[Unown (WILD)]

Might be another fake thread. We get so many bots and spam it's ridiculous.