The first one I used died in about 5 days, the second one lasted me about 4 weeks, during which time I made another one for a supplier friend of mine, his crapped out almost right away, my second one died, I have made another but I don't use it much, cuz, it DIED!

my 510 unit with a 2 watt .47 ohm resistor works like an MFing champ! I actually preferred the performance of the the regulated one, but one can only get so many free parts from TI. Resistors are like 12 cents and haven't died yet. For me, resistors all the way!
That's odd - mine have lasted a couple months now and still going strong.