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Found a Cube Inside Sony AD-7203S!

The Lightning Stalker

The Lightning Stalker

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So I was happily pulling apart the 2 "dead" DVD burner drives I got today and nestled inside the optic of the second one was a beam cube! :drool: Did anyone know there were beam cubes in some of these things? :anyone: I certainly did not. In addition to the beam cube, it also has 2 of the 4 pin flat plastic laser diodes going into it. I have yet to check the alignment or if they even work, but suffice it to say this thing is loaded. The drive is a 20X Sony Optiarc AD-7203S. So there may be a dual diode laser in my future! :beer:

The other drive was not bad either. It had a coated acrylic lens with a longer focal length inside. It was also 20X and has a 3-pin flat plastic diode. (Optiarc AD-7200A) So all in all it's been quite a good night.
 

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bloompyle

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Re: And We Have Cube!

While the flat diodes will lase, they are harder to build with, and don't have very much success for the hobbyist unfortunately.
 
bloompyle

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Re: And We Have Cube!

It's been done, but most are more inclined to use the LPC 826 or the 20X LPC 815 instead. They are both 5.6mm diodes.
 
Eudaimonium

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LOL, you would be VERY hard pressed to find a DVD optical drive that doesn't have a PBS cube.

Since DVD drive has both IR and red diodes, and they need to be hitting (reading/writing) same spot during operation, they are of course merged into a single beam.

And yeah, flat plastic diodes - big trouble. You're going to have headaches trying to fit that thing into anything that'll provide some sufficient cooling.
 
Eudaimonium

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The only one of those I've ever heard of was one found in very early PS3 assemblies, it had IR, BR and red emitters stacked, and was supposedly absolutely horrible to work with because the emitters, being stacked, were off-center and beam was always crooked by a small amount, no matter how much fiddling you did. Best visible when both BR and red were powered at same time, somebody did that while back.

Anyway, I am pretty sure that you're not going to find combined IR/red in a DVD burner. In some weird-ass readers maybe, but not a burner. Emitters too hot to stack.
 
Leodahsan

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I've only found a PBS this year. On almost 4 years destroying dvd burners, I didn't got any cubes.

For combining two beams into one (IR and RED) seems like the companies use more dichros than cubes.

Nonetheless its a great find... Perfect for dual diode red build (if you have beams small as the cube... :eg:)
 
Eudaimonium

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:/

Must be all the DVD burners I took apart, that use the same layout then. I got these cubes for export in kilograms :D
 
Leodahsan

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Then you should export them :D
They cost $25 at the bay, and thats the lowest price I know of.
 
djQUAN

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I looked in the DVD burner I took apart ages ago. It had separate 5.6mm diodes for IR and red. And a really tiny cube. :) a few lenses and dichros too. Not sure if I can use them though since they are coated for red/IR
 
Eudaimonium

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Leodahsan said:
Then you should export them :D
They cost $25 at the bay, and thats the lowest price I know of.
Click to expand...

Yah, big 1x1 cm ones.

These are tiny, about 3x3 or 4x4 mm, also coated for Red+IR, so even if you could use them for red+red ... who needs that? :D
 
Leodahsan

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Its not a matter of "who needs". Who needs lasers anyways? :D
Its challenge to use a 3x3mm cube. I'll use one on a handheld some day :eg:
 
Leodahsan

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I'd be really embarrassed if I asked for something I didn't use. In a few days a machinist here will tell me if he will or won't do custom builds for me. If he does, I'll use your cubes...
I pay the shipping. :)
 
The Lightning Stalker

The Lightning Stalker

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Leodahsan said:
For combining two beams into one (IR and RED) seems like the companies use more dichros than cubes.
Click to expand...

That's what all the other drives used. This is the first one I've found with a cube for some reason, so I thought it was something rare. Guess what? Guess not.

Eudaimonium said:
Anyway, I am pretty sure that you're not going to find combined IR/red in a DVD burner. In some weird-ass readers maybe, but not a burner. Emitters too hot to stack.
Click to expand...

Actually, I've been seeing it quite a bit. The 3 pin diode is a dual and so was the 3.8 and the one 5.6mm. They probably put the IR on top and the red on the bottom to overcome some of the thermal issues. This could also be why the IR can't handle much current. I'm not sure I would want to look at it through a microscope when it's running to find out though.
 
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