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stonetek diode dim
- Thread starter jake21
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What are you powering with? If you are using ddl's driver I am having the same problem..... worked fine in minimag jsut to test though.... If you are not powering with a driver and are giong directly to batteries, chances are you killed it...
jake21 said:
Make sure you are using a circuit. The DDL circuit works great. If you are using a circuit, put a 1 ohm resistor inline and measure the mV across the resistor. If it's less than 80, then you need more current. It should start getting pretty bright about 160 mA, and can even burn at that current, but slow. Once around 220 mA and up it starts getting painful to look at the dot. If you have already hooked it directly to batteries, you may have already killed it. Or if you powered upa circuit without the diode attached, and you didn't solder the capacitor to the LD, you probably smokled it when you attached the LD if you didn't discharge the cap.
Hope that helps!
amkdeath
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jake21 said:
i dont understand what ur asking man
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I always ask the question -- How many mA are you driving the LD with ?? A previous post provides good working ranges.
Mike
Mike
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jake21 said:
At 160ma you have by far enough current to not be dim.... I think it is afe to say that you killed your diode :'(. But just to be sure, are yopu able to post pics of your circuit?
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jake21 said:
I think I figured it out, when you put the arctic silver on the diode there was moisture connecting the anode and the cathode together (conencting + and -) thus completely frying the diode. :'( Still, post pics of the circuit and the diode but I would bet money that I am right on what happened as with 170ma you diode should be running fine. :-/ So even though you were smart about using a driver, you forgot that arctic silver would conduct current
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jake21 said:
I do not suggest using arctic silver, but if you want to put it on the module not the diode, only on the sides too not the bottom where the diode is though. A heatsink in your circuit would work much better though
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jake21 said:
Another rule of thumb I have learned is always have a spare diode to avoid chronic boredom! So order 2 this time
amkdeath
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JAKE THERE IS STILL HOPE!!
what is ur input voltage, and post pics of ur driver.
rule of thumb, stay away from minimags, unless u like killing diodes.
dont give up!!
BTW, up ot to 250mA, 160 is too low.
what is ur input voltage, and post pics of ur driver.
rule of thumb, stay away from minimags, unless u like killing diodes.
dont give up!!
BTW, up ot to 250mA, 160 is too low.
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amkdeath said:
Wow I completely forgot about input voltage, try that and tune your pot to around 220 or so then report back
If you are using AA then you need 6 of them to get the right amount of mA and volts. If you are using button cells like I was, throw them away
. If you are using cr123 or rcr123 then 2 is good.Spinout, it's better to use rcr123s because their voltage is 3.6v per cell compared to the 3v of the normal cr123s. DDl's driver needs at least 6v to power the diode, so as soon as the cr123s start to drop, the LM317 won't deliver enough current to the diode and so it will start dropping out.
