Pliers turned magnetic, is this bad for diodes?

[pseudolobster]

Re: Pliers turned magnetic, is this bad for diodes

There's a few ways to demagnetize things... As mentioned, you can partially demagnetize things by shock, but not very thoroughly or easily.. You can demagnetize things by heating them to their curie point, though that's approaching their melting point, which for iron, is hotter than your oven can get to on its self cleaning cycle, which would undoubtedly melt any kind of handles on them anyways.

Probably the easiest way would be to put an AC current through a coil of wire... This is called a degaussing coil. You can buy them premade or you can make your own with some heavy gauge wire and a light socket. Be careful. Read up a whole lot before you try that.

There's also this thing... Which is supposed to work, though I've never tried one. I have a bulk VHS eraser I found at a garage sale... it's basically a fancy degaussing coil in a little handheld thing.

If you heat a magnetic material past it's curie point, it will loose magnetism. Keep in mind that this could also ruin the temper of the metal...

If someone heated me up to my curie point I'd probably lose my temper too.

 

[Benm]

Re: Pliers turned magnetic, is this bad for diodes

I seriously doubt magnetized pliers could damage a laser diode in any way. In fact, i'll bet that even clinging them on a Nd magnet would harm them, even if some part of the case alloy is ferromagnetic.

The concept that strong static magnetic fields easily interfere with electronic devices is mistaken. Most electronic devices will survive a trip through an MRI scanner, provided you can hold onto them.

 

[Hemlock_Mike]

Re: Pliers turned magnetic, is this bad for diodes

The induiced magnetic field has to create a current through a closed circuit. We aren't talking an EMP here.

Mike

 

[Benm]

Re: Pliers turned magnetic, is this bad for diodes

Well, in a completed circuit that could happen, though i dont see how it would be likely to work in an unconnected laser diode. In any case, with a static field you have to move pretty quickly to induce any sizeable current, even in big fields.

I seriously doubt its possible to damage a laser diode even with a full tesla magnetic field, let alone handling one with magnetized pliers.

 

[phoenix77]

Re: Pliers turned magnetic, is this bad for diodes

Even in a BR sled there are a couple of VERY strong magnets set in close proximity to the diode & they don't seem to do the diode any harm