now im about to give up with building lasers

[sciullo779]

i really wanted a decent blue laser, i have another 803 in the mail and 2 815's in the heatsink in the mail, i fried the blue one somehow, dont know how, basically i was using a ddl driver i made and soldered together, the 1.25v ref was perfect, and i had a reading of 80mA with my home brew test load that calculated out to a 4.5 volt drop with my dmm, i turned the driver down to about 60mA took the 9v off shorted the cap, soldered the diode in, (butane powered iron btw) hooked the 9v back up diode was bright and just needed focused, 3 seconds went by, it went dim and is now a led, the axiz module was also very hot..... i ahve no idea what i did wrong there, i heard the lm317 regulates current so using a 9 volt was fine, i hooked my dummy load back up and it read 60mA but at 6.97v which i think is way too high, but i dont know what i did wrong,

it was this circuit
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/2142/0921091501.jpg

with the 1 ohm resistor in place, did the resistor fry it? or what?

because im ordering a groove driver for the red altiods laser i wanna make, but for my 803, i was thinking about just using a ddl, but it needs to work first..... help


oh and can i just push the 815's out of the heatsink or how should i do that

 

[ElektroFreak]

Could you post some detailed pictures of your completed circuit so we can see if there are any errors in assembly?

 

[iskor12]

Come on now...we all blow diodes...that's a part of the game. Just like my mother always used to say to me...Practice makes perfect.

 

[sciullo779]

but i want to know why, i wanna know if it was because my dummy load was draawing 7v or what i did wrong, and in the pics, it may look like some joints on the 317 are touching, but they arent, i verified all of them, and when i make another, im giving myself more room

any my dummy load was a 1 ohm resistor, and multiple diodes that i added the measured voltage drop across them to get 4.5v so it was like 7-9 diodes

Imageshack - 0925091512

Imageshack - 0925091511

 

[Jimmymcjimthejim]

(butane powered iron btw)

Anyone else have input on this? :thinking:
Radioshack soldering irons are like $10, get a 15 Watt iron. Laser Diodes are very sensitive to temperature, you only need enough heat for a few seconds at most to solder the wires in.

oh and can i just push the 815's out of the heatsink or how should i do that

Several people have their preferred method for this, including using hacksaws, dremels, etc. My method, which is a little difficult to preform, is basically using the "two pliers" method, where you grab both sides of the heatsinks with pliers and twist in the opposite direction. However, for this you really need to squeeze firmly, and twist only enough so the heatsink very slightly bends. Once it bends you can wiggle out the diode from the leads of the diode. If you can't follow this, then don't do it.
Here's a picture of the heatsink, note you can barely tell it was even bent:

 

[bryce007]

I second the plier/twist method. Although many have had success doing it, the dremel method could damage the diode with the vibrations. What I do is:

Extract heatsink/diode from sled with pliers

Run a razor blade down the pins to remove the solder and the PCB (carefully, making sure not to bend the pins)

Then use the two plier method and twist.

 

[nikokapo]

If I had left industrial engineering when I failed the first Physics I exam then I'd have many regrets. It's just one rock on your path.

 

[bryce007]

Don't give up. You will be extremely satisfied once you get one working properly.

 

[sciullo779]

i cant just push the diode out? and what about my driver problem? i really dont have the money for a rckstr or anything else atm, also my iron let alone any iron is really hard to solder with just the tip, and mine has a very fine tip but i really only use the sides, also i use rosin core rather thin solder

 

[ElektroFreak]

Don't allow yourself to become too frustrated. That will mess you up for sure..

I already told you to post a detailed picture of you driver, front and back, so we can see it. It's impossible to tell if there's a problem with you driver if we can't see it..

 

[bryce007]

Push it out? You mean push against the can to get it out? You'll damage it that way. Take two sets of pliers, or some locking pliers, and twist until the diode becomes loose and falls out

 

[blue lasers]

Come on now...we all blow diodes...that's a part of the game. Just like my mother always used to say to me...Practice makes perfect.

agree. i have blow more than ten phr's and reds.is not reason to give up,keep trying and you will make it.and practise makes you better not perfect.

 

[Flaminpyro]

I have never hurt or blown a diode out but extracting it from it's OG heatsink. I clamp them in a machinest vise and take a jewelers saw to em when I get almost to the diode I stop and turn it over and saw again on the other side there are pic's in my pictures and albums, then it turn it 90 deg and clamp it in the vise and stick a small screw driver in one of the cuts I just made and give a twist and half the HS pops off, then grab the diode and put it in service. never lost one this way and have done more than 100 LD's like this.
You say your iron tip is fine and then you say you dont use the tip but the sides if it's a fine tip what is it doing with sides is it a cone or flat? I have a fine tip and it comes to a point about .030dia and is a cone shape or round, do you not use the tip maby because it dosn't solder well maby because it dosn't tin well or hold the solder ? why don't you use the tip it's much smaller and if you hold every thing still and in place with helping hands befor you heat it up, put on solder paste and use good solder and a 25 watt iron or a temp controlled iron your job will be easer. practice with some wires, get some fine wire and practice, get some wire of different diameters and solder them together do this over and over till you get better at it, soldering isn't hard to do and since it's not hard to do it's not hard to do right ! most people just wont or can't take the time to practice but till you get it down that is what it's going to take.
and it shows, most people on here think you need to use a low wattage iron to solder semiconductors and that just isn't true the key is not to over heat your part you still have to melt the solder and heat the base metel hot enough so the solder will stick, the way to not over heat your part is to control the amount of time in contact with the iron and it's total heat matters also thats why a temp-controlled iron is best. I have a good old temp controlled iron (Weller) and when I solder laser diode leads I'm on em for only 1-2 seconds at max if that didn't work I put on a heat clamp and wait a few seconds then do it again till it's right , that's usuly the first time now, it's not realy the low heat iron thats going to work best we just think so because the are cheep to buy and of course you can't use a 6000watt iron on a LD at any time LOL...
some good solder flux can even make the worst solder work, I have bought in quanity and do have ava the best it's what I use and I been soldering more than 30 years and I have it ava in 1ml syrenges with stainless steel aplicator tips just PM me if interested.
So you need a good temp-cont iron w/spounge tray ($65.00)
good solder, I use 5-core rosen (amerway.com)
good flux, I have some realy good stuff
helping hands
little spring loaded heat sink clamps

hope this helps you to solder better that will make you better builds..

BR Pyro... :eg:

i cant just push the diode out? and what about my driver problem? i really dont have the money for a rckstr or anything else atm, also my iron let alone any iron is really hard to solder with just the tip, and mine has a very fine tip but i really only use the sides, also i use rosin core rather thin solder

 

[sciullo779]

Don't allow yourself to become too frustrated. That will mess you up for sure..

I already told you to post a detailed picture of you driver, front and back, so we can see it. It's impossible to tell if there's a problem with you driver if we can't see it..

i put links to them on my second or third post bro, my camera takes crappy lo res photos but good high res so there are links up top