Well, johnrobholmes was right. The repeated short spike I was getting with my driver circuit finally cooked the diode. It still lights up and makes a beam, but very weak. $50 educational expense.
I replaced the driver with an "X-drive" sold by the guy that has the diodes. I also upgraded to a more powerful Nichia NDB7875 and got a G2 lens to test. I liked the two stage trigger, so built an analog driver from a LM317 for the low power mode. This seems to work great and there are no more spikes in the output. Low power mode is 150mA and measured 42mW output. This is great for aiming/focusing.
I measured the NDB7875 output with the G2 lens on my fancy power meter at work. It starts out at 3.2W and warms up to right around 3.0W. This is enough to make wood burst into flames at close range. The Axiz lens measured around 2.5W but makes a tighter beam at long distance. It definitely pops ballons from across the room now.
I replaced the driver with an "X-drive" sold by the guy that has the diodes. I also upgraded to a more powerful Nichia NDB7875 and got a G2 lens to test. I liked the two stage trigger, so built an analog driver from a LM317 for the low power mode. This seems to work great and there are no more spikes in the output. Low power mode is 150mA and measured 42mW output. This is great for aiming/focusing.
I measured the NDB7875 output with the G2 lens on my fancy power meter at work. It starts out at 3.2W and warms up to right around 3.0W. This is enough to make wood burst into flames at close range. The Axiz lens measured around 2.5W but makes a tighter beam at long distance. It definitely pops ballons from across the room now.