Laser Diode Problems

[Badgerhunter27]

I finally hooked my (3) 3v diodes up to my battery box which hold 2 aaa like a couple guys have done on here already. Only 1 diodes lit up so I separated each of them to test them, for some reason when I attached the wires from the box to the leads of the diodes they didnt light up at all I had to put the wires directly on the diodes, and when I did this the output was very faint you couldnt even see the dot across the room. So I am wondering should I solder new leads onto the diodes to hopefully have a better connection or are the diodes messed up and will need to get new ones. Also when I hooked the battery box leads up to the good diode it worked fine, but I did it a second time and it turned very faint like the other ones so it has me wondering wth is going on.

 

[Hippie]

What is the exact spec of the diodes?
have you got a pic of them? And how you wired them up?

 

[Badgerhunter27]

650nm 5mw 3v, and I used your 3v diagram as my set-up the weird thing is that 2 of them worked fine when I hooked them up separately but when I tried doing it again separately the light output was dull almost like i had burned something out.

 

[Hippie]

I know that this may sound silly. Have you tried different batteries?
Otherwise Im stumped.
Id still like to see a photo of them wired up.

 

[Biggdaddy]

are you putting a plug like the preds have where you can unplug it from off your helmet.

 

[Badgerhunter27]

yeah I put other new batteries in and it did the same thing, I ordered some new diodes and this time I am actually going to do it the right way and solder them together I just twisted them together last time but first i have to get a soldering iron. I messed the leads from the diodes up pretty bad tinkering with them (those tiny wires are pretty fragile) so I cant even put them back together and take a pic this will teach me to try and take shortcuts.

 

[sswift]

You cannot wire a bare laser diode up to a battery, it will burn out. Laser diodes are very touchy things, and they need a control board to monitor their current usage. What you want is a laser MODULE. It's a laser diode with a little circuit board attached. Some have a bare board, some come in a metal cylinder with some wire leads out the back. Just look on ebay, you'll find them.

 

[Badgerhunter27]

The diodes I got had a tiny board coming off of them with the leads attached but I didnt have them all together when I tested them so maybe thats why I burned them out but I have the same kind on there way so this time I will solder them all together and then to the pack