DIODES

[phoenix77]

To anyone that can help me after reading this;Today I had the good fortune to acquire 3 PC Towers the re-write etc. discs. 1 said 16-12 -36 another 52-32-16 & I haven't any idea on the 3rd 'cause the front panel was missing. After disassembly of the 'sleds?' I was left with 2 little things that LOOKED like laser diodes, but they were only 5mm & 9mm long. IS that correct? also the tags for the LASER DEVICE only listed them as class 1 lasers. Besides the 'diodes' there were various other pcs. of optical glass, mirrors, & also a looks like a beam splitter cube. Clear glass on half, the other half frosted. I'm a noob at this stuff, & have never MADE a laser myself so ANY HELP will be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance to any & all laser-heads that reply. phoenix77

 

[Switch]

So ,are they DVD writers or just CD writers? Your diodes could be anything from a highpowered red to a low powered IR. :-/
All consumer laser devices(disk players/writers) are labeled class 1 because the device itself doesn't emit any laser radiation without disassembling it.

 

[Zom-B]

When a drives said Class I laser in stead of Class IIIb laser, you can forget using the diodes as they will be extremely dim, not even enough to hold a presentation with.

 

[phoenix77]

1 says'high speed compact disc re-writable 24/10/40a Another one says 16xDVD-ROM & 40X CD-ROM, & the 3rd one says Recordable/re-writable 48X16X48 Does this help any?

 

[Switch]

I'm not completely sure, but I think the best you're gonna get is a class 3b IR diode.

 

[phoenix77]

How can I find out ?

 

[Zom-B]

find the yellow warning signs with the phrase "CLASS ### LASER PRODUCT". report whats in the ### place.

 

[phoenix77]

It says Class 1 laser but SWITCH says that any consumer device that does NOT emit radiation is classified as a CLASS 1. See his earlier posting.

 

[Switch]

The yellow label may or may not contain a warning for the diode itself.It's not gonna say "Warning! class 1 laser" anyway, class 1 is completely harmless and doesn't require warning labels.Besides, I do believe reader diodes are class 3a or at least class 2.Class 1 refers to the device itself and not the diode, be it writer or reader diode.

 

[chido]

1 says'high speed compact disc re-writable 24/10/40a Another one says 16xDVD-ROM & 40X CD-ROM, & the 3rd one says Recordable/re-writable 48X16X48 Does this help any?

I think #1 has an IR diode, #2 might be a 16x diode, (does it say if it's a reader or writer?) and #3 I think just has another IR diode.

 

[phoenix77]

How do I go about applying power to these to find out & what voltage should I use?

 

[chido]

If you already extracted the diodes, could you post some pics?

 

[phoenix77]

no camera

 

[chido]

What you can do is either build yourself a DDL driver or just grab your multimeter and set it to the silicon diode testing function. Grab one of your diodes and place DMM's probes on the diode's pins, see if you get some red light, if you don't see anything then either the diode is dead or it's an IR diode. Do this with all the diodes you harvested.

BTW, this is the polarity of most DVD red diodes: (pic by Skram0)

If you place the probes like in the picture above and the diode doesn't light up, then try placing them on different pins.

 

[Zom-B]

Most non-highpowered diodes have opposite polarity. Putting voltage at it in reverse WILL kill it instantly.

Furthermore, I do believe that there is no dvd burner in this bunch (because dvd burners list 5 or 6 different speeds and not 3). What you would find are highpowered infrared diodes (very dangerous and useless) and very dim red diodes (which you may or may not be able to distinguish from highpowered infrared diodes without a digital photo camera) NEVER LOOK INTO THE DIODES DIRECTLY WHEN POWERED!!

 

[chido]

Putting voltage at it in reverse WILL kill it instantly.

The diode testing function in a multimeter is the only safe way to test the polarity of a laser diode. I don't know about low powered reader diodes, but it works fine with high powered burner diodes.
If he kills one of the low powered ones using this method I don't think it'll be a big loss anyway.