PHR-803T batch testing.. Windowless 803Ts?

[IgorT]

Oh, and about the brightness.. I noticed the beam profile varies a little among the diodes. Some have a flatter beam than others..

When i rotated both lasers so, that the beam was the thinnest with both, maybe the 161mW one had a slightly thinner beam in that axis, meaning a higher power density. Maybe the difference was not enough to ne noticable in the thickness, but in brightness perhaps?

 

[daguin]

Hehe, yeah, well, the mistery is solved, and it's good news.. It was not the diode being unable to take the current i set.. Not with the first freak, and not with the second one... It was the regulator. It crapped out, so the current was not what i set it to....
EDIT: Wait! After a diode dies it's not a diode anymore, and the Vf changes (drops)! That's why the current changed - the Vf of the diode was below the input voltage. Maybe there is nothing wrong with the driver, and it was just too much power..
Need to test on a dummy load. If the driver is ok, 170mA may not be safe either. Now i almost wish it was the driver..

Igor . . .I love you, Bro . . . . but you're making me crazy.

Peace,
dave

 

[IgorT]

I'm sorry Dave..  :

There are so many factors to be considered here.. I need to check them all, to make sure what happened. The sad thing is, that in both cases, it'll be good news as well as bad news..

I will report back in an hour or so. I need to test the driver on a dummy load, and i also have to hook it up to a scope, which i don't have here....



Another possibility is, that the super high efficiency diode was unable to handle the optical output combined with reflections, so it started deteriorating.. Once damage occurs, the effect is exponential, untill it fails completelly from COD.

This would also explain the dropping power... Maybe the freak high efficiency diodes are less stable, than the average ones.

 

[daguin]

I'm sorry Dave.. :
There are so many factors to be considered here.. I need to check them all, to make sure what happened.

Here's my mental image of you right now:

You are in your dungeon workshop.

Torches flicker on the stone walls.

Tesla coils and Jacob's ladders crackle and hiss.

You are running frantically between at least five different "experiments" that are going on at the same time.

You are talking to yourself or nobody most of the time.

Chained to wall is your sex slave that you use to release any tension that builds up when the experiments get too frustrating


How close am I?

Cummon . . . .you can tell us . . . we can't report you . . . . we're on a different continent . . . (and, for some reason, we speak in the plural when we refer to ourselves)

Peace,
dave

 

[thejunkmonger]

[quote author=IgorT link=1214268330/24#34 date=1215362200]I'm sorry Dave..  :
There are so many factors to be considered here.. I need to check them all, to make sure what happened.

Here's my mental image of you right now:

You are in your dungeon workshop.  

Torches flicker on the stone walls.  

Tesla coils and Jacob's ladders crackle and hiss.  

You are running frantically between at least five different "experiments" that are going on at the same time.  

You are talking to yourself or nobody most of the time.

Chained to wall is your sex slave that you use to release any tension that builds up when the experiments get too frustrating


How close am I?  

Cummon . . . .you can tell us . . . we can't report you . . . . we're on a different continent . . . (and, for some reason,  we speak in second person plural when we refer to ourselves)

Peace,
dave
[/quote]


LOL no Dave that's me ;D

 

[daguin]

[quote author=daguin link=1214268330/24#35 date=1215363137]

Chained to wall is your sex slave that you use to release any tension that builds up when the experiments get too frustrating


How close am I?

Cummon . . . .you can tell us . . . we can't report you . . . . we're on a different continent . . . (and, for some reason, we speak in second person plural when we refer to ourselves)


LOL no Dave that's me ;D

OK. So the question I have is . . . . . "Is your sex slave a purchased Nubian or did you capture some hapless local?"

Inquiring minds want to know . . . .

Peace,
dave

 

[thejunkmonger]

[quote author=thejunkmonger link=1214268330/36#36 date=1215363420][quote author=daguin link=1214268330/24#35 date=1215363137]

Chained to wall is your sex slave that you use to release any tension that builds up when the experiments get too frustrating


How close am I?  

Cummon . . . .you can tell us . . . we can't report you . . . . we're on a different continent . . . (and, for some reason,  we speak in second person plural when we refer to ourselves)


LOL no Dave that's me  ;D

OK.  So the question I have is . . . . . "Is your sex slave a purchased Nubian or did you capture some hapless local?"

Inquiring minds want to know . . . .

Peace,
dave
[/quote]

Hapless locals are cheaper

 

[IgorT]

My sex slave loosened the chains and got tangled up between a Tesla coil and a Jacob's ladder.. It does look Nubian now. :-[

But my workshop is not as clean as a dungeon.. :



Testing the driver now....

 

[daguin]

My sex slave loosened the chains and got tangled up between a Tesla coil and a Jacob's ladder.. It does look Nubian now. :-[
Testing the driver now....

You probably had to open a window after that one, eh?

Peace,
dave

 

[IgorT]

Ok.. So, the driver is rock steady. I tested the entire input voltage range and let it run for half an hour. The current was the same the entire time, no matter what i did, and the output is very clean.

So good news: It wasn't my driver..
Bad news: It wasn't my driver..


The reason for the current shooting up before, was the diode not being a diode anymore, and it's Vf dropping below the driver input voltage.

The diode died at 169mA immediatelly after a power-up because of the power-up related stresses, combined with an unusually high optical output, and not because of a fresh battery causing a higher current.


When i first made this one, i set it to 180mA, and it was doing 180mW. I was scared the optical power alone would kill it, so i lowered it to 170mA, where it started out at 169mW.

169mW after a plastic lens means a lot more behind it. And maybe all this optical power, combined with reflections from the lens, could be the reason, or at least a part of the reason for the slow deterioration and death.


Your high current diodes have a slightly lower efficency and put out less power. Maybe the lower optical flux at the die is what's keeping them alive..
My other 170mA diode is also not showing any signs of deterioration yet, and it also has a slightly lower efficiency. Maybe the average diodes will turn out to be a tiny bit sturdier. But it did go through less use.. So i guess we'll see.


I will suspend the high current experiments for a few days, and then start again, with the AR coated lenses..
Or maybe i should run one without a lens..... Only use a lens to measure the start power, and then once every day, to check for any deterioration..

 

[daguin]

Or maybe i should run one without a lens..... Only use a lens to measure the start power, and then once every day, to check for any deterioration..

If you suspect that reflected light is to blame, this would seem the most prudent course. That way the only reflected light would be caused by the can itself.

Something just struck me. Are you running these diodes constantly (100% duty cycle) at these inputs?

Peace,
dave

 

[IgorT]

Not just reflected light, but the total optical flux at the die (output power + reflections). Because the two freak diodes that died were the ones with the highest power among 23. The third best still works.


And no, i didn't run them continuously.. The freaks went into lasers. I used them a couple of times every day. In the evenings, often long enough for the head of the laser to get luke warm (which takes a long time even at these currents)..

But i do have one diode, that i broke one leg off. It has a good efficiency, but it's closer to average. I will solder the broken leg to the base so that i can power it. But then i can't use it in a laser. So i will run that one continuously yes. But i wanted to run it at 180mA..

At the moment, i think i'll run it at 160mA for now, and see what happens. If it survives, i will increase it to 170mA.. Without a lens of course, to simulate the optimal scenario with the AR lenses.


This way, at least the broken leg diode will be put to good use, and i'll also see what happens to the normal ones - so far i only experimented on the super freaks and the low efficiency ones.

The super freaks could have killed themselves because of too much optical power, and the low efficiency one could have had imperfections in the die from the start....

 

[IgorT]

Now that i started playing with the 162mW diode a little more, after the other one died, i think it started degrading..

I already lost 2mW... I don't know, if i should put it away for a few days, or just keep going to see what happens.
I need to measure it again in the evening, when the temperature is a bit lower..

But if it really started degrading, my third and last freak is probably gonna die, and there is not much i can do about it, even if i lowered the current.

 

[john_lawson]

If you guys keep posting these 150+ findings i'm afraid what i'll do to my perfectly good working blurays  :'(
more power more power MORE POWER MORE POWER

 

[daguin]

If you guys keep posting these 150+ findings i'm afraid what i'll do to my perfectly good working blurays :'(
more power more power MORE POWER MORE POWER

What did those poor little diodes ever do to you to make you want to torture them so?

Peace,
dave

 

[daguin]

Now that i started playing with the 162mW diode a little more, after the other one died, i think it started degrading..

I already lost 2mW... I don't know, if i should put it away for a few days, or just keep going to see what happens.
I need to measure it again in the evening, when the temperature is a bit lower..

But if it really started degrading, my third and last freak is probably gonna die, and there is not much i can do about it, even if i lowered the current.

All of mine are holding steady. I am through with the "testing" phase, so they only get checked once a day now, but they had at least 10 burns a day before that. Curiouser and curiouser . . . . .

Peace,
dave