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FrozenGate by Avery

What diodes are these?

Speedy78

Speedy78

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Destroying an old DVD burner to harvest out the diodes for more of practice than actually needing them. My question is what are they? I assume one is IR and one a form of red but who knows. brand is HL Data Storage Model number GSA-H30L. Couldn't find anything about it other than it possibly having the above diodes. It for sure has 2 of them. Will post pictures once (or if rather) I get them out.

Speedy78

Edit: Here are the pictures.

20130325_215656_zps426a535c.jpg

Both are the same height. Distance from camera makes it look otherwise.

20130325_215744_zps2c4f6416.jpg

Not sure if you can tell from the picture but the one on the left is shiny and the other one is the dull look I'm used to with the few diodes I have seen.

20130325_215911_zps9a045d09.jpg

Shiny closeup. Don't mind the tool marks on the can :(

20130325_215846_zpsec58a26f.jpg

Not shiny.

Id prefer to refer to them as shiny and not shiny since other than the texture of the can they are, to me, identical.
 
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Correct. One is 780nm and one is 660nm. Power each up to 400mA. If it dims or dies, it wasn't worth keeping (in my humble opinion).
A 250mW 660 diode is like $4 these days, so it's rather foolish to spend a lot of time on a 50mW diode or whatever it may be.
 
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Do you know which is which? I would prefer to not power up anyyhibg IR as I dont have any protectiob for that yet.
 
The only way to know is to hook it up to a low power driver and look at the dot without the lens. Ir is almost invisible and the red diode should give a noticeable red color.
 
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20130326_160839_zps50b1d3ea.jpg


Here it is running at 410mA at 3.5V. Not sure what the voltage of this is so I just guessed. At least it ran. Didn't test the IR one past the point of me finding out it was the IR one because I honestly could care less haha. Ran like this for 3 minutes while I stacked things to get it in line with the Ophir and then get it focused. Worth saving? What voltage should I be running it at?

Also don't you worry about that Arduino in the Nospin. I will make that thread once I get some parts in :)
 
Looks like a regular LCC red diode to me. What lens did you use ?
 
AND its gone... Tried to use a 450mA driver I had laying around. had it all in an empty host ready to go. Was working fine while I was turning it on and off slowly adjusting the focus on a lens I found in a drawer (not the G2) with out the little knurled end. Had a nice dot to infinity going. Got my meter out and had the laser sitting in my tripod, turned it on. LED Hmm 450mA was probably too much, or it was all the on off. Oh well I had nothing invested in this and it was a nice learning experience.
 
Speedy78 said:
AND its gone... Tried to use a 450mA driver I had laying around. had it all in an empty host ready to go. Was working fine while I was turning it on and off slowly adjusting the focus on a lens I found in a drawer (not the G2) with out the little knurled end. Had a nice dot to infinity going. Got my meter out and had the laser sitting in my tripod, turned it on. LED Hmm 450mA was probably too much, or it was all the on off. Oh well I had nothing invested in this and it was a nice learning experience
Click to expand...
A little tip... Look inside of the window of the laser diode and count the number of bond wires. If there is only one, that is a very good indicator that the laser diode was likely designed to be run at less than 250-300mA CW. There are quite a few dead laser diodes in my gold scrap bin that were sent to me by others for analysis. The greatest majority were killed by overdriving to the point of COD (Catastrophic Optical Damage). Relatively few were driven to the point of bond wire failure, which typically occurs at over 500mA per bond wire. When a laser diode "LEDs", that is a common sign of COD. It can occur suddenly from extreme overdriving, or more slowly from driving any laser diode at more than about 20% beyond the manufacturers maximum CW rating. When laser diodes degrade from being overdriven, that is typically when they are showing the signs of Optical Damage. The common hobbiest trend of pushing their laser diodes to just under their failure limits is rampant. So many then wonder why their lasers die ;-)

Bob
 
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