SF-AW210 up and running. . .

[proud2deviate]

I got my diode from the first round of AMK's group buy. I'll say this for it; it's a tough little bugger. This is the first diode I managed to break the window on. Fortunately, I broke it well enough that I could shake out the glass. I did a test run. Still lases. Cool. So I proceed to replace the PHR in my Pocket Mini. I screwed the pill up into the head and hit the switch. Nada. Damn. So I take it back apart, and I see that the pins are all twisted up into a double corkscrew Dammit, I didn't feel myself slip. I ever-so-gently straightened the pins, and assembled. Voila! Hard violet photons streamed across the basement.

I'm running it hot at 190 mA, and it's putting out a steady quarter Watt (250 mW) after a 405-G-1 lens. Much better than my crap GGW diode (I didn't get to meter that one, but it took it forty seconds to light a sharpied match when focused to infinity. This one does it in two.) I hope it lives long enough to observe the degredation from the missing window.

Am happy

 

[yobresal]

It sounds like you had a very productive learning experience. Congrats on the build. I have done that with the diode window once before as well. Sucks when it happens but it does. I am VERY careful with the windows now that it has happened to me as I am sure you will be as well. I decided to glue the pill of my mini to the heatsink to prevent any accidental twisting in which either the top or bottom part twist and the other does not.

 

[charliebruce]

When they work, those SFs certainly have a very nice slope efficiency - mine was around 180mA and put out 280mW - and lasted about a month of medium-heavy usage, give or take a few weeks (I don't keep good records).