New 22x LG dvd-burner, good laser diode?

daguin said:

[quote author=current_affairs link=1211747110/24#30 date=1212338232]Well, I officially destroyed the round diode like the noob I am. :-[

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A good education is rarely free. The diode looked like "the kind". You just need to go back to alter the process by which you remove it from its heatsink. (or look for one that's easier to harvest.)

Peace,
dave
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Would you suggest the Sony NEC Optiarc 20x drive for an easier harvest?

im completely sure that the one you destroyed is the red LD and that it is a long die open can...was, that is.

I wouldn't be entirely sure it's dead until I hooked it up to 2 very dead AAA batteries. IF it's dead you will barely see any light from it. However it if NOT dead it will put out a lot of light. Easy test and it's not going to kill it if it's not dead. That is most assuredly an LONG OPEN CAN.

Kenom said:

I wouldn't be entirely sure it's dead until I hooked it up to 2 very dead AAA batteries. IF it's dead you will barely see any light from it. However it if NOT dead it will put out a lot of light. Easy test and it's not going to kill it if it's not dead. That is most assuredly an LONG OPEN CAN.

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Look at the picture, Kenom. He melted one of the pins out of the housing.

Peace,
dave

the drawn pin is probably a NC one. if both bonding wires are intact, the LD might still be functional

Well I dripped a whole lot of solder onto the back of the diode so that has to be causing a short. I tried hooking it up and it didn't do anything so I think it's fried. It has to be.

Then remove the solder, of course it's causing a short.

You guys think it could still work?

You won't know if it works until you test it. Some diodes die pretty easy but some are really tough. As long as the + pin isn't ripped from the diode and the two little gold wires in the front of the diode are still connected to the dye there's still hope.

check your rep

current_affairs said:

You guys think it could still work?

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1 of the diodes i stripped from a phr-803t sled got a huge blob of solder on the back while i was removing the pcb on the back and since i dont have a solder pump trying to remove it only made it worse. to be honest i yhought i killed the diode but after letting it sit for a day i used the shaft of a pen and my soldering iron to blow most of the solder away(kind of a reverse solder pump). to my surprise the diode still worked even after my mistake of heating up the diode trying to remove the solder(took a while).

Current -

First, be very careful about the suggestion above regarding using a couple of AAA's - Kenom is right but he knows what he's doing and experience has given him a good feel for things like the condition of his batteries. Just be sure they are really low on juice, and don't substitute another kind of battery, or else you can fry the LD.

slightly off-topic, but I hope helpful:

I'd suggest some practice extracting non-critical items... can you get any really cheap (or free) cd or dvd drives? they can be dead ones - try a local electronics outlet, or repair shop. That way you can get better at extraction (and soldering) without worrying about killing an expensive part. Just be sure not to put power to any of those extracted diodes - or take great care when you do - because many if not most may be infrared and you can fry your eyes without even seeing the light.

And don't throw away the circuit boards from those drives - there are lots of useable resistors, capacitors, even transistors and other things on them that you may be able to use in the future (unless you have excess $$ and would rather work with all new parts).

The other suggestion starts with a question: can you get a current-regulated driver/supply to work with? If not, you're going to fry a lot of LD's. There are several people here selling various versions, some are assembled and some are kits. I'd suggest getting an assembled one until you get better at soldering. You can practice soldering on the boards from the drives you've taken apart - remove a bunch of parts, stick 'em back in, etc... modern boards may have nothing but "surface mount" parts, so if you want to practice with "through-hole" parts (the ones with wire leads) just go get some junk throw-away like an old phone answering machine or something. Of course, being a bit of a packrat, I'd also keep an eye out for useful parts in the process.


DanQ

Ok, I really tried to get it to work, but unfortunately I wasn't able to achieve any results. Sorry guys.
I got all the solder off with a razor blade and connected it up to low batteries, but I just couldn't get it going.
I still think there's hope for this one if put in the right hands. Believe me, I'm really tempted to pick up another one and
get it right this time. I'll just take this as a learning experience of what not to do in the future.

btw, thanks for the rep points.

Did you check the tiny gold wires on the front of the diode? One of them should be connected to the dye and to the case. The other one should go from the dye to one of the pins.
Here's a pic:

it looks like that pin is missing in his last picture. Ahh well. practice getting that other diode out of it's casing. I use side cutting snipper/cutters.

here a cheap 9mm
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.13377