Laser Malfunction.

[ElektroFreak]

I too built my first laser yesterday. It worked great for a bit, then while I was playing around with it I went to turn it on and...nothing. I had an LED.
I was using a PHR-803T, DarkHorse heat sink, and a Dr. Lava drive.
I ordered the Dr. Lava preset to 110ma.
I remade the laser this morning and it works. I am just afraid to play with it now.
I think a connection came loose last night causing the fail. Everything is solid now, but I am still scared. I hate that feeling you get when all of your hard work goes down the crapper.  :'(

It really helps to double check your circuit with a dummy load even if it came from someone else. That way you can see if there are any problems before you hook up the diode.
Also, I don't know if your finances support it, but while designing and building your laser it really helps to have a few extra diodes laying around, since it's pretty easy to blow them.. That way if your circuit fails and you find the problem, you still have a laser to mess with and you don't have to be so nervous about using it.

 

[Elyk456]

Yeah I mean, I still have the host, the awesome heatsink from darkhorse, and the flexdrive. Im gunna buy a dummy load and set the flexdrive to 100mA and order about 2 more Phrs...from what I understand, I won't even be able to tell the difference of 100mA and 120mA, visually.

It has been heavily foggy ALL week :'( :'( :'(

I MUST HAVE A WORKING LAZOR! ;D

 

[rocketparrotlet]

I have had my laser set at 120mA. It has been given hours and hours of usage, with excellent results! It is putting out 118mW (wow!) and burning things just fine. It is well heatsinked and has withstood some very heavy on/off clicking, as well as long runtimes.

I'm not trying to say that this will always happen (it won't), but maybe you just got very unlucky. I have heard not to exceed 100mA, and not to exceed 160mA. It's all up to personal choice. Would you like a brighter, more powerful laser with a much shortened life, or a dimmer, less powerful laser with a fairly long life? The choice is up to you. I chose to have mine set in the middle, what I consider to be a good balance between power and long diode life.

Also, if you really want a higher power and a brighter beam, consider looking into 6x diodes. They are more expensive than PHR-803T's, but they are also about twice as powerful.

Good luck!


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-Mark