Wicked Lasers Arctic Dissected

[designedfor1]

Many of these posts exceed my screen width. I can't or won't read them.
Stop posting in HDTV Please.

HMike

I resized them for you and whoever else needs 800x600.

 

[Eudaimonium]

You did not find any caps to short?
I'll ignore the two I see on picz and ask you a question:

What would have happened if instead of + and - of 405nm diode , you connected a piece of wire? :na: That's one perfectly good PHR down the sh*tter.

On other hand, I can see why it took them so long to deliver the arctics.
You see a piece of black wire connecting a pin on IC on the PCB of driver?

They actually had to reuse some old drivers I guess. Took them a while to reverse-engeneer them and re-engeneer them to fit 445nm diode applications.

 

[TheGr8Revealing]

If you had access to the output connections of the driver couldn't you have used a resistor across the positive and negative output to drain any remaining current from the caps? You shouldn't have needed to directly short each cap on the driver, right, or am I misreading something? Anyway, sorry to hear that it died so soon.

I shorted the positive and negative terminals for both the diode output and battery input multiple times. I assumed as much as you did in terms of shorting the caps, but it may be that we've never dealt with this type of driver.

 

[TheGr8Revealing]

You did not find any caps to short?
I'll ignore the two I see on picz and ask you a question:

What would have happened if instead of + and - of 405nm diode , you connected a piece of wire? :na: That's one perfectly good PHR down the sh*tter.

On other hand, I can see why it took them so long to deliver the arctics.
You see a piece of black wire connecting a pin on IC on the PCB of driver?

They actually had to reuse some old drivers I guess. Took them a while to reverse-engeneer them and re-engeneer them to fit 445nm diode applications.

No there was no issue with locating the caps, but they were 3 or 4 inches down into the host. I had no access to them because of all the wires jammed in there. I was trying to do this while everything was still in the laser. The components on the small driver was completely unreachable until I pulled it out, ruining it. Also, I did short the positive and negative terminals for both the diode-out and battery-in multiple times with a wire. That is why I assumed it may be ready to go, but played it safe with a PHR, but with no success.

 

[Eudaimonium]

No there was no issue with locating the caps, but they were 3 or 4 inches down into the host. I had no access to them because of all the wires jammed in there. I was trying to do this while everything was still in the laser. The components on the small driver was completely unreachable until I pulled it out, ruining it. Also, I did short the positive and negative terminals for both the diode-out and battery-in multiple times with a wire. That is why I assumed it may be ready to go, but played it safe with a PHR, but with no success.

Well if you shorted the terminals to where you connected the PHR , the caps connected there would be drained.

I am having a really hard time visualising the situation and everything ...

 

[TheGr8Revealing]

I don't know enough about the electronics to form a reasonable argument as to why shorting all the terminals didn't work. However I do know that I shorted them many times prior to to attaching any diodes, and that I have enough experience with my own builds to know what I was doing. I didn't skip any steps or take any short cuts. Now I also know that when a normal boost driver is shorted it will still put off extremely low voltage, usually between 0.002 and 0.005 volts. But even after shorting the Arctic driver multiple times, both the diode and battery terminals, my multimeter indicated that the driver was still putting off voltage in a range from 0.020 to 0.080 volts. Enough to essentially destroy the diode I am guessing. As to why this was happening, your guess is as good as mine unless you have a better understanding of the circuit schematic of the Arctic driver.

 

[Eudaimonium]

I don't know enough about the electronics to form a reasonable argument as to why shorting all the terminals didn't work. However I do know that I shorted them many times prior to to attaching any diodes, and that I have enough experience with my own builds to know what I was doing. I didn't skip any steps or take any short cuts. Now I also know that when a normal boost driver is shorted it will still put off extremely low voltage, usually between 0.002 and 0.005 volts. But even after shorting the Arctic driver multiple times, both the diode and battery terminals, my multimeter indicated that the driver was still putting off voltage in a range from 0.020 to 0.080 volts. Enough to essentially destroy the diode I am guessing. As to why this was happening, your guess is as good as mine unless you have a better understanding of the circuit schematic of the Arctic driver.

Boost driver shorted is the end of that same driver, usually.

First, hooking up a diode that dies at 150mA to the driver designed to output 1 A maybe more is generally a bad idea.

Second, if you shorted the output prior to attaching the diode, then removed the diode immediately after attaching, and it ended up dead before the driver was even fired up is just technically not possible.

I bet you powered the PHR with that driver.

 

[StardustSprinkles]

I had some doubts that this was a POS, not now. :tsk:

 

[TheGr8Revealing]

Boost driver shorted is the end of that same driver, usually.

First, hooking up a diode that dies at 150mA to the driver designed to output 1 A maybe more is generally a bad idea.

Second, if you shorted the output prior to attaching the diode, then removed the diode immediately after attaching, and it ended up dead before the driver was even fired up is just technically not possible.

I bet you powered the PHR with that driver.

Why is hooking up a diode that dies at 150mA a bad idea then? It shouldnt matter to the least as long as the driver has been shorted, according to your own logic. Are you telling me that if I hooked a PHR to an unpowered shorted dr. lava boost driver designed for a 445nm diode that it would fry the diode? No, because it wouldnt. It shouldnt matter as long as the the driver is shorted, and remains powered down.

I am having trouble with your perspective and ungrounded assumptions on this one because I was there, I was the one working on it, I'm not making up stories in attempt to troll my own thread. And no, I didnt fire up the pointer with the PHR-803t, there was no battery in it. In fact, the battery end cap wasnt even attached at this point.

I am simply conveying my experience. In attempt to resolve the unknown complications.

 

[Meatball]

Hey did you ever test the actual output current from the WL driver? I'd be curious to know what they actually supply in terms of current...

 

[TheGr8Revealing]

Hey did you ever test the actual output current from the WL driver? I'd be curious to know what they actually supply in terms of current...

Unfortunately no I didn't. Thinking of it now I absolutely should have hooked up my dummy load and done that. I only got a direct voltage reading on it. It was hovering around 3.7

 

[Eudaimonium]

Ehh wait, I am lost.

Did you or did you not power the diode with 1A driver?
If , presumably, not, at which point did the diode die?

If the driver is shorted and the diode is connected, there is simply no possible way for diode to die , there is simply no energy which can be used to power (and destroy) a diode.

Are you even sure it's dead? :thinking:

BTW, I did not mean to be offensive, I humbly apologise, I am trying to understand what exactly did you do and why did your diode die.

 

[TheGr8Revealing]

My apologies for getting defensive. I am as baffled as you are as to why this happened and I will try to elaborate more specifically the sequence of events which led up to the diode becoming fried.

To answer your question. No, I did not power up the the PHR-803T diode with the 1A Arctic driver. It was only attached after I shorted the Arctic driver because I was still getting voltage readings from the powered-down driver with my multimeter and I didnt want to risk LEDing a good XJ-A140 diode. I could not rationalize in my head why I was still getting moderate voltage readings from the Arctic driver even after shorting it multiple times. The driver was putting out some 0.020 to 0.080 volts even while powered down, and after it had been shorted multiple times from both the diode-out terminals, and the battery-in terminals. There was also no battery in it at this time, so accidental powering up can be ruled out.

I agree with you that there is no way a shorted driver could LED a diode. And I am 100% certain I shorted it multiple times. But what makes this situation different is that even after shorting, there was still moderate voltage emanating from the driver. Which in my mind, although the source of the voltage is unknown, it is enough to LED a diode.

This is equally puzzling to me, but I am reporting only what I experienced. Do you think it is possible that residual energy from the smaller battery indicator driver could have some how done this? Like I said earlier, my understanding of the electronics is lacking. Are all boost drivers (including the Arctic driver) created equally? ha.

And sadly, yes I am sure that the PHR-803T is dead. I've grown very accustom to its pale dim violet light after popping more than my fair share of them when I first started building lasers some 2 years ago. I am also certain that the 445nm diode I pulled out of the Arctic is dead, but I cant even get it to lase any light. Which I have never experienced before.

 

[Eudaimonium]

My apologies for getting defensive. I am as baffled as you are as to why this happened and I will try to elaborate more specifically the sequence of events which led up to the diode becoming fried.

To answer your question. No, I did not power up the the PHR-803T diode with the 1A Arctic driver. It was only attached after I shorted the Arctic driver because I was still getting voltage readings from the powered-down driver with my multimeter and I didnt want to risk LEDing a good XJ-A140 diode. I could not rationalize in my head why I was still getting moderate voltage readings from the Arctic driver even after shorting it multiple times. The driver was putting out some 0.020 to 0.080 volts even while powered down, and after it had been shorted multiple times from both the diode-out terminals, and the battery-in terminals. There was also no battery in it at this time, so accidental powering up can be ruled out.

I agree with you that there is no way a shorted driver could LED a diode. And I am 100% certain I shorted it multiple times. But what makes this situation different is that even after shorting, there was still moderate voltage emanating from the driver. Which in my mind, although the source of the voltage is unknown, it is enough to LED a diode.

This is equally puzzling to me, but I am reporting only what I experienced. Do you think it is possible that residual energy from the smaller battery indicator driver could have some how done this? Like I said earlier, my understanding of the electronics is lacking. Are all boost drivers (including the Arctic driver) created equally? ha.

And sadly, yes I am sure that the PHR-803T is dead. I've grown very accustom to its pale dim violet light after popping more than my share of them when I first started building lasers some 2 years ago. I am also certain that the 445nm diode I pulled out of the Arctic is dead, but I cant even get it to lase any light. Which I have never experienced before.

Puzzling indeed ... I simply cannot figure out why would unpowered and previously drained driver kill a laser diode.

Oh , by the way, I am very oftenly getting reading 20-80mV when touching probes with nothing but my fingers when my DMM is in mV mode.

I can take that as the driver would not give any voltage what so ever. LEDing a diode in such circuimstances is impossible.

There is simply more to it.

Your diode did not die from unpowered driver.
Chances are, you somehow killed it with ESD while handling it and reconnecting it.

I would not trust my diode to Wicked's driver under any circuimstances. I would build my own.

I could help you there, if you are familiar with tiny SMD soldering and PCB etching I see no reason why you could not assemble your own boost driver and have a kicka$$ build.

 

[Tech_Junkie]

I would like to reverse engineer that host if you could lend it to me for a few days. I'd even buy it if you wanted.

You'd be better off making a cast instead of trying to machine multiple parts. Then you wouldn't have to take it apart.

 

[BShanahan14rulz]

R8 and Q2 are all jumbled up, there's a post-build "engineering fix" on the back, this driver looks awful! On the bright side, the driver looks bigger than any of the ones we use here, you at least have a nice host.