could it happen that i burned the diode ?

[newbie noob]

hello people
a couple of days ago i spent most of my time making this burning laser out of a dvd burner , i got the diode out of the dvd burner , and then i was trying to light it up with two aa batterys , anyhow the light that comes out is nearly visible and its not as strong as it is showen on sum of videos online , the question is , is it normal or my diode is broken ?? (or i broke it)
thx for ur replys

 

[gulftown]

Yeah, you could accidentally reverse the polarity of batteries, or it could be also static electricity.

 

[DTR]

Were you using a driver or hooking the diode straight up to the batteries?

I doubt you would find any videos on this site telling you to hook it up straight to the batteries.

 

[Lase]

hello people
a couple of days ago i spent most of my time making this burning laser out of a dvd burner , i got the diode out of the dvd burner , and then i was trying to light it up with two aa batterys , anyhow the light that comes out is nearly visible and its not as strong as it is showen on sum of videos online , the question is , is it normal or my diode is broken ?? (or i broke it)
thx for ur replys

Did you accidentally make a pointer out of the IR diode instead?

IR light is invisible but I think the diodes in DVD burners are on the edge of the visible spectrum. Be careful because even though you can't see it, it may still be very dangerous.

Lase

 

[Misanthrop]

hello people
a couple of days ago i spent most of my time making this burning laser out of a dvd burner , i got the diode out of the dvd burner , and then i was trying to light it up with two aa batterys , anyhow the light that comes out is nearly visible and its not as strong as it is showen on sum of videos online , the question is , is it normal or my diode is broken ?? (or i broke it)
thx for ur replys

You have based your project around the wrong diode.
That one is near IR, there should be another one?

 

[newbie noob]

thank u guyz
but first iam kinda sure its not the ir one cuz when i turn it on the diode heats up so very
although i found another diode wich i cant get out of its heatsink which i tried to connect to two batterys while its in the heatsink and it produced less light than the former diode
i think that i broke it , cuz yeh i missed up a little bit with it i accidentally dropped it a couple of times , i connected the batterys on the opposite sides , when i was soldering it i wasnt either careful , i didnt connect it to a driver .and as i read before such devices are very very sensitive n i should be careful withem but i wasnt
anyway the final question is , if its broken it would still produce some kinda red light but not a strong one ???

thank u all

 

[gulftown]

yeah, but it will be like 1-3mW. I destroyed 3 diodes . So nevermind and get yourself new diode.

 

[Kookapeli]

Sounds like the 1st one was a IR Diode, the 2nd one you probbably killed and Led'd it

Please read the stickies and tutorials, there is a vast amount of information to be read before you try again. Get yourself a pair of safety glasses too, that is a MUST !!

Oh, welcome to LPF :beer:

 

[jimdt7]

I think it is probably a near-IR diode. These usually cant produce more than 10mW of power. But NEVER EVER look directly to the diode !
There must be another diode. How many pins does it have ?

 

[Nocturnal]

These usually cant produce more than 10mW of power.

:thinking: I think they can go around 300mW, remember these 'burn' the discs.

 

[jimdt7]

:thinking: I think they can go around 300mW, remember these 'burn' the discs.

I think you are right but only some of them !

 

[newbie noob]

oh no i can tell u it wasnt the ir one ! anyway i got a new dvd burner with 2 $ i love here !
i made up my driver and now am extractin it but there is 2 diodes i can see how can i determine which one is the needed ?
and really really really thank u for ur replys guyz iam lovin this forum ! if u could only know wat iam makin my laser for

 

[Nocturnal]

usually the ir ones have no 'window'

Chris

 

[newbie noob]

usually the ir ones have no 'window'

Chris

window is the cylindrical shape on the top of it ? cuz i just extracted one and it looked like it was open on the above !

 

[newbie noob]

You have based your project around the wrong diode.
That one is near IR, there should be another one?

it turned out that Iam not sure if its the ir one or not ,but i can tell u that both of them are not quite strong , anyhow i bought another dvd multi-driver extracted 2 diodes , got one of them out of the heatsink (it didnt look like the diodes i saw online, it didn't had the cylindrical hat) , connected it to the power ,not producing good light ,
the other one has 4 pins which means its not the right one (while it was in its heatsink ) i putted it on power and again its not producing anylight , is the heating sink preventing the light ??
ahhhh i feel so uncomfortable about if it was even true that i can make a laser that burns things .

 

[Lase]

Is there a product # on the sled in the DVD burner?

People here will be able to give you more information based on what type of sled it is.

Lase