Learn me something electronical...(Flexmod)

[Bradfo69]

Just made a contribution to DTR's retirement fund. 2 new M140's on the way.

[m0f]

Good to hear. You'll get it fixed in no time! Realignment should be a snap too.

[WolfMax]

^ From the description, alligator clips were used to temporarily connect two different diodes at separate times to a single driver.

In my experience anything with the potential for an intermittent connection such as clip on leads or even a bad solder joint can do it. If a diode is disconnected even for a fraction of a second during operation, most drivers will reach full power supply voltage potential, 12V in this case.

I thought the Flexmod P3 driver stopped working if the output is disconnected (denoted by a red LED lighting up on the board and requiring total power down to reset). I suppose there might be a delay but I imagine the safeguard is in place to prevent such disconnection occurrences.

But I agree, reconnecting a diode without first shorting the pins/pads/wires is a requirement and is mentioned in the P3 setup guide.

If you have your P3 set up with a connector for the laser module like my test bed,



You should power down before disconnecting the module and short the pins before reconnecting.If you disconnect with the power still applied, you will have to power down to reset the P3 to get it working again (just don't forget to short the pins before reconnecting the module).

It's a LaserBug on the end of the cable if you were wondering

[carlos3621]

fwiw,
I had 4 FM3's in use, but they didn't have beam suppression, plus they are too sensitive and quick to go into fail safe mode.
I since then switched to Dave's 2 channel drivers, and have NOT had any issues with them whatsoever, so far.

just my .02

[Bradfo69]

I searched a bit for other drivers but, since I had the flexmods already, that's what I used. I looked at Daves and they actually make some sense to switch to at some point. Especially for this. Although, he (Dave) told me he has the dedicated diode/tec driver designed for this module but, he's been a bit busy to get me dimensions and pictures.

[m0f]

Aside from the lack of beam suppression I've never had a problem with them. The only time I had trouble with failsafe was when I had my meanwell power supply set for 240v instead of 120v. Still worked, just couldn't supply the current needed. Took me awhile to figure that one out but as soon as I switched it to 120v, failsafe never bothered me again.

So in light of that, Carlos if you're having trouble with them going into failsafe when they shouldn't, may want to check into the health of your power supplies. Could be the source of the troubles, it definitely was for me.