Re: help with new diodes.
Ok, I figured it out.. The pinout seems to be similar across different brands, or at least mostly so.
Here's the deal. When you find one with two pins soldered together, the side with the two soldered together is the photo/ground side. The side that is by itself is the laser side. What I'm not really sure of, is why they do that...
At any rate, one of the lasers is EXTREMELY BRIGHT.. Although it does not seem to want to pop any balloons, or light matches, it is by FAR the brightest laser I have personally harvested thus far. It seemed to be some kind dual head thing. Usually when I look at the can of an LD I see a little pin, which is the cathode I'm guessing, and a another thing under it which is the lasing crystal I'm guessing. This had a single crystal but two cathode pins... I soldered some wires onto it and fired it up and man is it BRIGHT!!, I took it outside and shined it down to the end of my street and it was still solid and strong, that was 1/10 of a mile. I'm sure it would go well over 1/4 mile, properly focused. Though haven't tested it. Too bad I couldn't get it to burn anything.
The other diode didn't get very bright, which surprised me. I don't think I fried it, I was quick with soldering and used pre-tinned wires and low temp pencil iron. And I shorted my cap out before I put it in my test board. Dunno. I have seen a lot of that. I seem to burn diodes no matter how careful I am.. Which makes me wonder if they are actually burning out, or if I'm throwing them away for no reason. LOL.
Been through like 6 of them now.
: /
Anyway, it's all good and fun. One of these days I'd actually like to see it pay off with a burning one.
Rich
