Anything salvageable from HP dvd1035 drive?

Well, I put my new precision screwdriver set to good use tonight. I got through the copper cover and found the goodies inside! Whoo hoo! I did have trouble with the last screw though. Man! What a difficult task! I ended up using a flathead screwdriver and a lot of torque, since the phillips head wasn't doing anything except for slipping. LOL. But, I got through it, and the cover practically fell off by itself.

23: Diode view
Here's a photo of the "diodes end" of the assembly. I'm guessing that the IR diode is the one to the lower left (sort of outside the black plastic frame), and the red diode is on the lower right? Not to be confused with the rectangular silver thing to the left of the diodes of course. I have no idea what that is.


24: Optics View
I can see the little cube! It's smaller than I expected. Actually, the diodes are smaller than I expected them to be, too. And I can easily see the mirrors.


Do I want the lens on the other side, too? And is there some sort of magnet inside this assembly? The one screw and washer kind of got sucked inside somehow (on the lens side). I'm guessing something is magnetized in there??

I must say that you are handling your 'noobieness' in a very professional manner. Great photos surely are making it SO much easier to give you help. oh Yeah those are some powerful magnets for thier size --for sure(rare earth --I think?). Also the 'cubes' in the center came come in handy to join or split beams of the same wavelength as well. Flamingpyro likes/takes the leftover sleds to do pyro stulff with (dont ask). I give you a +rep for your efforts---Len

Wow. Thanks for the rep point! And thank you for the kind words on my professional noobiness. LOL. I might be new to lasers, but I'm not new to taking photos and writing reviews and articles and posting it all online. One of these days I hope to have a store-bought laser that I can review here.

So, is my assumption on which diode is which correct, or is it backwards? Or must I dissect the diode assembly further?

I will certainly keep the optics for future use.

So should I disassemble the lens part and grab the magnets, too? Or is that part worth "more" intact like it is now?

Do you think Flamingpyro wants my drive carcass parts?

Thanks again for everyone's help!

DieselMarine knows about firearms lasers-DX(looonnng shipping time) sells overspeck green pens for around $10 which can be modded up quite a bit(search DX true 5mW) by john lawson-AixiZ sells lots on Ebay- AND -everything from just parts to kits to completed units can be gotten here from trusted LPF members galore. I really learned a lot from the Pros in the tutorial section- and look forward to seeing your info there too.

Well, I'm learning a lot on this forum, and I'm just trying to read as much as I can here. Maybe one of these days I'll be able to post something "expert" on LPF. For now, I'm taking my time with all of this info, and trying my hands at this little DIY project.

More progress tonight!!!

It took me a little while to gather my nerve, but tonight I took my X-Acto knife to the assembly. I cut the power "cord" near the circuit board, using the X-Acto. This is very easy. For the diodes, I had read somewhere around here that you just have to "work" on the glue (i.e. cut carefully and slowly) until the diodes (w/ heat sinks) kind of come out. So, I started carving away the glue that connects the heat sinks to the black housing.

I started with what I thought was the IR diode (the one outside the black plastic). Basically, you carve away the glue between the black plastic housing and the silver heatsink. I was worried about cutting into the diode, but the heatsink is much tougher than the glue is. Cutting glue away from the one side weakened the other and it just fell off.

Then, I started cutting away the glue from (what I think is) the red diode. This one is tougher, because it has more glue holding it in place because it spans the plastic housing. But with some patience, I got through the glue and was able to gently(!) pry it out with a tiny screwdriver, being careful NOT to scratch anything (except the heat sink if necessary). If the glue bond is broken, the entire heat sink should lift right out.


25: diodes removed!
Here's what it looks like "empty" so you can tell what gets cut out and what is plastic housing:


So, now I have two laser diodes still inside their heat sinks.

One has a strangely-shaped heat sink with a hood (or something). It appears that the heat sink extends to the front of the diode somehow, too. The three pins seems to be in a single line.

The other has a basic rectangle-shaped heat sink. The three pins make up a triangle-shaped layout. But this one seems to have some sort of black plastic "attachment" in front of the diode. The black "frame" looks like it's holding a diamond-shaped lens of some sort, which has a silver metal holder on the top and bottom.

Here are a few different shots of the diodes, at different angles and views:

26: Pin view
Yeah, I know that one still has a ton of glue on it. It looks so messy and fat! LOL.


27: Front view


28: Another front view



On the red diode, what is that black plastic "thing" on the front of the heatsink? Is that simply held on with more glue? Do I need to cut the glue away to expose the front of the diode?

I'd really appreciate some guidance as to what to do next. I didn't expect some sort of black lens-holding tumor on the front of the heat sink here....

Thanks for reading along so far, and for any more input you may have!!

I couldn't tell you for sure with that particular sled, but...from my past experience I can tell you this.

The Easiest way to get the diodes out of the sled is to simply grab a pair of plyers, grip on the heat sinks and rip/snap it off of the sled frame. The glue is fairly weak. (Of course make sure you cut the power connector first)
Now I am not saying that you did it the wrong way...it's always good to be very cautious...especially when your doing it on your first try.
That thing..(Black thing) that you speak of...most likely is attached to the heat sink with some more glue.



Before you try to get the diode out of the heat sink...take the ribbon cable off of it. This can be done a couple of different ways.

1.) You can try to cut it off with an exacto knife...(This doesn't always work)

Or

2.) Put a glob of solder on the tip of your soldering iron. Then touch that glob of hot solder on the diode's pins, close to the solder that is currently on them. While the solder on the pins is in liquid form, pull off the ribbon cable. (This whole step should take less than 2 seconds. The longer it takes you...the more you risk damaging the diode due to heat) (Practice this method on the IR diode first)

To be honest with you...the easy part is now done...now comes the hard part.

There are a couple of different ways to extract the diode from the heat sink.

1.) Grab 2 plyers. With the plyers...grasp on opposite sides of the heat sink....now twist the plyers in opposite directions. (Make sure that neither of the plyers are gripping on the diode...heat sink only) Now, if the heat sink is thin enough, it will split open, thus freeing the diode

If that doesn't work.

2.) Cut the Heat sink on one side...(Thin wall side) While doing this, make sure that...
>>>>>A.) The diode doesn't get hot while cutting it out
>>>>>B.) The diode doesn't get cut..while cutting the heat sink
After you make a cut on the thin side of the heat sink...try the Plyer step again. The heat sink should be weaker now and doing the twisting action in step 1, should free the diode. If it doesn't, cut the opposite side of the heat sink from where you made your first cut. Then try step 1 again.


Thats all for now.
Good luck and keep us posted.
Later,
Iskor12

Well, I answered my own questions by accident just now. LOL. And I see that Iskor12 and I were typing our posts at the same time. Thanks for those tips!

Upon trying to cut away some of the glue from the red diode's heat sink (just to make things look a little more presentable, I basically cut through the glue that was holding that black plastic "frame" with lens inside it. It pretty much just "peeled" off in my hands. I was like "Oh. OK then!"

It was such an enlightening and fulfilling moment when I could finally see the "business end" of that diode! Whoo hoo!

29: Diode in heat sink, view 1:


30: Diode in heat sink, view #2:


Now all that's left is to get my little vise, hold the diode safely in the vise, remove the power cable from the pins, and then file down the heat sink a bit so I can "break" that off!

I'm so excited!!! Although I don't have any "laser-related" parts yet, like an Aixiz housing, driver, heat sink, or host. LOL....

Here is an excellent video made by Mohrenberg that shows exactly what I was trying to describe earlier.


You did make the correct guess as to which diode was the red one. Good job

Once you get it out of the heat sink, it will most likely look exactly the same as this one, except cleaner.

iskor12 said:

Here is an excellent video made by Mohrenberg that shows exactly what I was trying to describe earlier.

You did make the correct guess as to which diode was the red one. Good job

Click to expand...

I did see that video before. But thank you for posting it in a handy place (this thread). I'll probably watch it again.

Oh, I'm glad I guessed correctly! Whoo hoo!

I picked up a soldering iron tonight. I got the 30W one like this, only mine is bright orange. LOL.

I'm buying my equipment one item at a time (when I can afford it). I used another 15% off coupon tonight, too. So instead of $4.99, I got it for $4.24.

My next step is to get my other tools from my old house, and then desolder the ribbon cable thing from the pins. Then remove the diode from the heat sink.

daveindelaware said:

I'm buying my equipment one item at a time (when I can afford it)

Click to expand...

I do the same exact thing
This is an expensive hoby...but it has it's rewards

Tonight I completed this harvesting project. I had what I needed to get it done right, too: small vise, pliers, small files, and my nerve.

31: In the vise, waiting


The next step took me a while, since I'm new to soldering/desoldering. I knew the process required, but I was afraid of keeping the iron on the diode too long, and it turns out that I wasn't leaving it on long enough the first 2 tries. LOL. But on the third try, and almost a full second, it came off so fast. This really is an easy step!

32: Desoldered cable (not shown)

33: Glue cleaned off after cable removed


34: Time to file


The next steps took much longer than I expected (the videos make it look so easy). It's probably due to my worry about filing too much off of the heat sink and damaging the diode. Plus, the prying apart took longer as well. I had to go back and file more, twice, because the heat sink just was not budging. Eventually though, the heat sink snapped, and the diode fell out. I was working over a mouse pad to catch the diode, so no worries.

35: The final product!


I do have two serious concerns with this diode. Because I think I F'd it up.

- I filed a little too far on the one side, which I hadn't noticed while I was filing. The file mark goes up flush to the one side of the diode "drawer". I know there's another "cut" in this on purpose, but that one doesn't go as far as mine does.



- Both "sides" of the diode are black. Are these stress marks? Or burn marks from the iron somehow? Did I just fry my diode?



36: black discoloration on entire "side"


37: some discoloration on other "side" plus file mark


(Sorry for the blurry pictures, I tried to enlarge them so you could see what I was talking about).

Ugh. I'm so pissed, and embarrassed. Did I go through all this trouble just to F my diode up at the end?

You should still be able to use your diode. The problem with filing to much is that it gives less surface contact to the module, so it will disapate/transfer heat more poorly. Personally, I wouldn't worry about it to much. Just use a good heat sink.

Good job

iskor12 said:

You should still be able to use your diode. The problem with filing to much is that it gives less surface contact to the module, so it will disapate/transfer heat more poorly. Personally, I wouldn't worry about it to much. Just use a good heat sink.

Good job

Click to expand...

OK, I understand about the heat & heat sink issue. I'll use a good heat sink.

But what about the black discoloration? What is that?

To be honest, I am not sure. The picture is to blurry to see what it is. Sorry.

Gah, OK. I was afraid of that. I'll try to take clearer pix later and post them.

Thanks.