Help Identifying a Diode

I found an old dvd writer from a MacBook Pro and decided to try harvesting the red diode. It's this drive (model number GSA-S10N):

Amazon.com: APPLE MacBook MacBook Pro GSA-S10N DVD±RW/DL/RAM DVD-RW Super Multi Burner Rewriter Recorder Drive by HL: Electronics

It has an 8x dvd burning diode. I think I found the red diode, but it's not a standard laser diode--it seems to be more compact. I don't think the aluminum casing around it can be removed as I think that's part of what's holding it together. Has anyone ever dealt with this kind of diode before? What's the pinout? Pictures attached below.

Its probably glued inside a heatsink with a lens.
Sorry to tell you, but even if you manage to remove it
you will have spend 50$ for something that costs <10$.
Here are some red diodes: O-like Red Lasers

Jim

That is a flat plastic diode. They are nice diodes in and of themselves, but we can't use them because of the flat plastic package. Most of the modules we use accept the 5.6mm TO can package.

You can buy very nice diodes for around $10.

You might also find some fun optics to play with in the 'sled'. Mirrors, soemtimes a tiny PBS.

Yeap, is flat plastic one like he said.
I used to find alot of these in burners hoping i would find something usefull.
You could try to power it up and place your axiz lens near the light to see if you can get a beam, or just add it to your diode collection like i do

EDIT: Its probably IR though.

Thanks for the responses. I'm fairly sure that this is the red diode from the burner, as the other diode I harvested looked like the IR diode from an old laptop DVD reader. have a DC variable power supply I can use to try to make the diode lase, but I'm unsure of the pin configuration and I don't want to burn it out right away. Does anyone know the configuration?

So I found this thread: http://laserpointerforums.com/f50/flat-red-mount-modified-aixiz-module-easy-49550.html
and followed jayrob's pinout diagram for the flat diode. It worked, so I put it up to an aixiz glass lens and got a nice visible beam in the dark! I read that an 8x diode should be run ~150ma, but so far I've pushed it to 330ma with no ill effect... maybe due to the giant metal vice grip heat sink it's sitting in
I also dremeled out an aluminum piece I had lying around to make a holder/heatsink. I doubt it's a very effective sink, but it'll have to do for now until I can get an aixiz module.

Does anyone know what I should run this at? 330mA is nice and bright but I don't know how stable it will be and I don't want to kill my diode.

I'll post some pictures soon.

skir0987 said:

maybe due to the giant metal vice grip heat sink it's sitting in

Click to expand...

Yep, these are heatsinked quite well, just hard to integrate into the modules we use right now. I could see sanding the existing heatsink flat and mounting it to a block or something...

It's fun to play with these things, even if you don't end up putting it into a finished product.

:beer:

I actually ended up LED'ing this diode with the 300ma current... I think that may have been a bit too much. I made an aluminum heatsink mounted in a project box with an LM317 driver. Maybe if I find another one of these diodes it'll come in use