It has a little heat sink and I'm careful to only run it for 30 seconds or so at a time. It does get a little warm to the touch after that so I stop and wait until it's cooled down again.
I didn't know that lasers need a lens for straight beams, I thought those were for focusing them onto a...
Hi guys
I took out a laser diode from a DVD burner. Since I don't have a driver, and don't know a place to buy a LM317 from, I instead hooked it up in series with a resistor to prevent it from burning out.
My problem now is that the laser diode is glowing, but it's not creating a laser beam.
I...