4Pin plastic laser diode?

[walshy155]

WTF, I just got a laser diode from a CD/DVD player it was a broken (screen cracked) Starlite PDVD-31, I has 4 pins, and is black and it is like plastic, can anyone help me with the - and + pins, it has lit up a few times, it's red light, and I think it has infrared on the same diode too.

 

[qumefox]

If it's just a player it's going to be very low power, <5mw so it's probably not worth the hassle of messing with. As far as polarity, being 4 pin, it will have the IR diode there too. Two pins will be for the IR, the other two will be for the 650. If you've gotten light out of it before, then you had the polarity right.

Just remember though. Readers are always low power. Burners are the ones will the stronger diodes.

 

[walshy155]

I think I broke it, anyway I just found a small laser module, around <5mw, I connected it to a momentary push switch , and I put it all in a small mints tine, or altoid tin I think there called, and it's awesome ^^