Ps3 Bluray diode question.

Hey guys. Let me start off by saying I'm a noob to all of this.

My friend and I had seen some videos and what not online about turning a ps3 bluray laser into a laser pointer. We decided to try this one day, however our results seem far different from anything we had seen, and didn't even really look like a "laser".

http://img94.imageshack.us/i/img20110419095343.jpg/
This is what the laser looks like when we power it.

http://img822.imageshack.us/i/img20110419095447.jpg/
I know this probably isn't the best set up and could probably kill the diode quickly which I'm fine with. I got the laser from a semi broken ps3 that I couldn't figure out what was wrong with it (I had 3 BD drives, now 2). For all I know the laser in the drive could have been shot before we even took it out, however I'm wondering if it's normal for the laser to look like this or if it was bad/we damaged it taking it out.

Like I said I am new to all of this and this was more of an experiment to see if it worked. I have a couple others and plan to do it again if it can make an actual laser pointer and figure out what I did wrong, but if most of the things online are fake and a ps3 diode isn't worth using I won't continue to waste my time.

Any help or advice to making this work, or making my future projects not fail so much would be greatly appreciated.

Hello and welcome to the forum!:wave:

I never toyed with a PS3 BluRay diode, but IIRC those are readers, not burners,
so they are fairly low powered. You might want to look into "PHR-803" diodes,
you can get them for 8~10$, for example from our member "scopeguy20".

How are you powering it, I can't see right from the blurry picture?
Are you simply using a resistor between the 9V battery and the laser diode?

Also, to make a laser pointer, you will need a housing (aixiz module) to put the diode into, a heatsink
to keep it from overheating, a lens to collimate the light into a tight beam/spot, and
a proper constant current driver, not just a resistor.

I suggest you read a lot, starting with the "INDEX" link in my signature.

Yes, just a resistor between the battery and diode. I know to make it into an actual pointer I would need a housing and all that but like I said this was more of an experiment to see if it worked. I wasn't sure if the housing would make the difference between seeing an actual dot or if it would still look how it does now out of a housing.

I will look into getting other diodes and doing that instead though as I am getting the feeling a ps3 diode probably won't work. Thanks for the reply and I'll go do some more reading.

What value resistor did you use?

150 ohm resistor.

The housing is essential as well as a collimated optics. for yours you can get a cheap acrylic one off the aixiz website.

the light emitted from the diode is much like a LED, the beam isnt focused and just shoots everywhere, the optics will help to focus that light into a tight beam.