Driver question

[neutrino]

Hi guys.

Just got my new blue diodes but haven't got a driver yet. I'm waiting for the flexmods to come available again. I'm going to try and build a stanham driver in the meantime once the components arrive. Does anyone have a photo of this made on stripboard??

Whilst waiting I want to get one of these diodes running. I've got an old red diode with ttl driver kicking around. Could I just replace the red diode with the blue one?? The ttl driver is mains powered. I'll turn down the output current before connecting the blue and then slowly ramp up the output. Can I do this with the power on? Would this idea work to get me some coherent blue?

Cheers
Rich

[stanwax]

Rich
It may work it depends on the power supply voltage on the low DC side of the PSU. If it converts mains into 5v you may get a glimmer of blue but its likley not to have enough volts available.
See if you can identify the low ohm series resistor in the didoe circuit. If this is say 1 ohm then even at 300mA (200mA is the threshold of the blue) that res will be dropping 300mV add to this 0.7 V across the tranny and 4V across the diode and you will see you have used all 5v available. So it may work. If the driver has more than 5V avail then you should get some more power

Rob

[neutrino]

Thanks Rob.

I'll give it a go and see what happens. I just didn't want the diode to pop.

Cheers
Rich

[stanwax]

I just didn't want the diode to pop.

Not impossible but unlikely if the driver is designed for red
Rob