First laser build and a few questions

Hey all,

New to the forum, and having introduced myself in the welcome I have gone off and done some reading about my first laser.

I have in my possession already an old LG GGW H20L blu-Ray drive. This is a drive I never use anymore and I am happy to pull apart for the diodes (good thing as I ave already started that process lol)

So I have a diode (I am 99.9% certain this is the 6x drive). All I need now is a driver, battery and host. Glasses, must remember glasses

For batteries I have some AAA and AA rechargeable Sanyo Eneloops that I believe should be well up to the challenge. I do also have some RC 2 and 3 cell LIPO batteries - is it advisable to stay away from using LIPO for lasers and stick to LI-ION instead?

For a Host I'll probably have a look around amazon/ebay and see if I can find some of the popular hosts that I read about here and pick one of those up - there seems to be a certain level of personal preference with these am I correct there?

The last part is the driver. I have been doing a fair amount of reading on the driver, as I am a dab hand with a soldering iron, and am capable of understanding the level of electronics that seem to be required for this application. (Though more reading and reminding is needed I won't be constructing for at least a few days/weeks so I have time there) I would like to construct my own driver.
The tricky part has been figuring out all of the numbers that I need for the various capacitors and resistors to get my laser into the region of 150-200mW.
However I have just come across this driver tutorial: http://laserpointerforums.com/f67/laser-driver-can-done-rog8811-87507.html which suggests that the circuit shown in that can handle powering a blu-Ray diode with a 9v battery. So my question for the driver is will that be a good starting point?

Many thanks

It may be safer just to buy an X-Drive, but I think building your own using the LM317 is a much better experience. You can check the white link in my sig to see the DDL/LM317 driver in use

Looks sweet that build.

Yeah I'm all about experience over ease to be honest, I know things can go wrong when people go that route (my early RC's are a testament to that lol) but I'm happy to build a few boards myself. Tempted to get everything from that thread and see if I hav an old cd/DVD drive I can make a smaller red out of as well

you can get 650 nm diodes of low power cheap on ebay if you can not find a old drive.. My suggestion is buy some of those low power reds and a few modules learn to press them and hook them up and then tackle that blue ray diode the learning curve is some times step in this hobby

Interesting. I think I have a drive that refuses to open lol and sure an old knackered laptop or two are lying around that I can pull apart.

I also have a class 2 red pen I got a week or two ago to help in warhammer games looking for Line Of Sight - would that diode take more power than it's given through the pen? It's like a £10 little laser pen (saw a vid on youtube of someone altering a cheap green laser pen from 5mW to approx 100mW.

Think a trip to maplin tomorrow and a look for some decent goggles - I'll have to go read some of the safety threads to find the right ones

I personally would not pot mode the pen its difficult and it could ruin it. the easy way is to find where the pot is and drill a hole to access it but then you end up with a hole in the pen
Imo its a waste of time... for the drive that will not come out just pull the back of it off and disassemble if you have issues there are videos on you tube on how to do this. You many get one or two out of the laptop drives but if they are 650 nm their are going to be weak if they are 650nm more than likly depending on when they were made and if they are dvd r or dvd rw Ir some thing like 902nm or 808. the drives you want for cheap 650 nm diodes are 6x or higher dvd rw and blue ray 6 x or more for didodes.. or buy them off ebay.. a cheap source for these is ebay. if you want to learn on how to build using modules. I would built a altoid tin laser just to get the hang of using modules...

you can get tactile switches off old electronics. some of the best lasers are made from things around your house.. some of our members build lasers out of recycled materials..

I like using the 6mm 650 nm modules i get off ebay for cheap you can get 40 of them for like 15 bucks.. fun little modules that can be focused. and you can put them on anything.. but wear glasses with them most are over 5mw

one thing else with glasses unless you want to spend $$$$$$ you need to buy at least three sets one for 100nm to 473nm one from 490nm to 598nm and one from 600nm to 720 nm for safety sake

Yeah I had wondered whether it would be worth modding that one, label it came with States 650nm, <1mW. And I have two drives, a DVD RW and just a plain DVD drive, wouldn't be looking for a lot of power from them, just something to get working on and practice with.

Very true, I have some old broken electronics lying about that I had thought of looking into and cannibalising for resistors, capacitors and the like. Will have to see if I have time this week to open some of them up and see what I have of any worth.

Anyways, I've diverted this thread slightly off topic myself hehe. My main worry at the moment is making sure I have the right numbers for all of the parts that I need. In my RC's I can work back from say the kV rating of a motor to decide on what ESC I need and what battery etc. with this though I'm a little more at a loss, I know I'm looking for something in the region of 150-200mW, and from research I should be looking at something between 9 and 12v from the battery. But from that at the moment I'm not sure of the calculations to find out what I need capacitor and resistor wire. Or are all of the parts on the driver fairly standard until you look at something much more powerful?

Thanks all

if your using 9 to 12v your using way two much if you do a lm317 driver to power a diode you need 3 to 5v you will blow every diode you have using 9 to 12 v to power a diode your need five things (1) diode (2) driver (3) module (4) heat sink (5) power source that will give you 3 to 5 v most of us use Lithium Ions... cheap and provide 3.7 volts now you can use a benchtop power supply to make sure every thing runs right but the main power source is lithium ions that all i can tell ya

Ah interesting to hear, i had been reading this thread http://laserpointerforums.com/f67/laser-driver-can-done-rog8811-87507.html suggesting that I should be using something in the region of 9v input to the driver for a blu-Ray diode. I'll do some more reading and see what I can find out

Vran said:

Ah interesting to hear, i had been reading this thread http://laserpointerforums.com/f67/laser-driver-can-done-rog8811-87507.html suggesting that I should be using something in the region of 9v input to the driver for a blu-Ray diode. I'll do some more reading and see what I can find out

Click to expand...

use the search function on lpf

Been struggling with the search the past few days, searched for a few terms 'blue-ray' 'driver' and keeps coming up with no matches. I'll figure it

take out the blue ray and just put laser driver

Vran said:

Been struggling with the search the past few days, searched for a few terms 'blue-ray' 'driver' and keeps coming up with no matches. I'll figure it

Click to expand...

The actual search bar is at the bottom of the site (Google powered one)

That one gives much better results.

Also, here's an image I like to pass around:



Simpler than you thought, eh?