DVD Burner laser anyone ??

[SenKat]

Wooo-hoooo !  High power, baby - YEAH !  650nm (I think) from a dvd burner laser diode....took a LONG ASS TIME to tear the thing down to where I could get to the diode...I am pretty pumped - but my wife is telling me it is time for bed    Dangit - well, to test it, I hooked up 3v dc to one of the three pins - and neg to the body of the diode.....MASSIVE RED LIGHT !!  AWESOME ! ;D Did I mention I am pumped ? ;D I got the idea off of this site :
http://www.felesmagus.com/pages/lasers-howto.html

It has step by step - wish I could take credit for it -but I am gonne build this red bad ass from the ground up - mount it in an ugly radio shack project box, and have a hand held red (hopefully over 100mw) laser !!  I will take pics and post them to this thread as I go along.....THIS IS FUN AS HELL !  
Night all for now....SenKat Outtttttttttttttttttttttttttt.

 

[SenKat]

Okay- the COOL part - it friggin works, baby ! For reference - I used a Lite-on dual layer dvd burner for the diode "harvest" and have QUITE a bit of power coming out of this thing....looks UGLY as hell, but burns plastic right off the get go. I used various radio shack parts - the small pc perf board - only had to use half of that - about the size (not width) of a 9v battery....a 1k Ohm resistor, a small pushbutton switch, 3 1.2v AA size nimh energizer 2500mah batts - in series a small 1N4001 diode (for voltage drop) and an LED....like I won't KNOW when this beast is lit up ! I will post pictures soon, I promise ! All in all, I have (assuming $40.00 for the dvd burner) about $60.00 involved at the MAX - for red, BURNING power ! Woooooooo-Hooooooo !

 

[hammer_time]

yeha yeah yeah, im stil here just not as much...

ive been attemting the dvd laser for a while now, ive used up 4 dvd drives. i always kill the diode while i try to unsolder it, always...

if your looking for cheap dvd burners check out www.overstock.com s auctions site, you can get drives for 25 shipped!

also try useing an old cell phone, i took the board out of a old nokia. i use the charger it came with and the 3.6v lithium ion battery it came with. one diode later i got a slim 3v power supply. lasts a lot longer than AAs too.

well, this is all ive got to offer, hope some of it helps!

 

[SenKat]

SWEET ideas !
As far as the desolderring process goes - I used high temps for short times...while it was still in the heatsink it is glued into...that did the trick - add some desoldering wick, and viola !  I actually found two diodes in there - one I boogered up completely, so I guess the one I got out okay was the one I wanted anyways ! (pure luck !)  Thanks for the cell phone tip - my old razr may come in handy yet  Now - if I can just build a battery guage out of the lcd..... Muahahahahahaha !

 

[hammer_time]

well if you look, the battery has 4 hookups. i think 2 are the + and gnd. and 1 is for chargeing purposes and the other is for the charge remaining. i might be right, but dont hold me to it, search around a bit, you could just put a led to that terminal and when it goes dim the battery is almost dead, jeez im gonna have to look into that now

 

[hammer_time]

well, my dvd laser is a sucess, finally. ill up some pics a bit later. it reads 210mW average in the power meter.

i also got permission to get a pool table for christmas, not a table, but a note allowing me to buy one, SCORE! ;D

 

[SenKat]

Glad you found success as well - damn it is BRIGHT ! Now I am working on slimming it down, and mounting in an old Maglight flashlight for better looks....looks like hell mounted in a plastic project box !

 

[SenKat]

Have any of you out there tried this yet ? It's a blast - not too expensive to muck with - and can be rewarding if you are successful ! I actually found a site that sells the diodes for dvd-burners - waiting on a price quote now....

 

[aliencam]

i have done this with everything except a DVD burner.

i did a CD burner, CD player, DVD player, all IR lasers.

i am waiting to come into $25 for a DVD burner to make a visible laser.

 

[SenKat]

i have done this with everything except a DVD burner.  

i did a CD burner, CD player, DVD player, all IR lasers.

i am waiting to come into $25 for a DVD burner to make a visible laser.

Make the rest while you are waiting for the dvdburner ! Improve on the design, and casing - I was looking at some aluminum tubing at Home Depot - might try to make my next one look pretty good

 

[aliencam]

well i'm having problems making it permanent, i can't solder the wires to the diode, i lack the skill. i can do just about anything else, but yeah, not that.

 

[SenKat]

well i'm having problems making it permanent, i can't solder the wires to the diode, i lack the skill. i can do just about anything else, but yeah, not that.

Get yourself some solder flux.....dab a tiny bit on the lead you want to solder to - the solder will stick a LOT easier and faster that way... OR, if you wanna pay 2 way shipping, I'll solder it on for ya !

 

[Hemlock_Mike]

I pulled a diode out of a DVD r-w and WOW. pop balloons within minutes of mounting it. I'm looking for a good heat sink.
I think I was turned up to about 350 mA.

Mike

 

[SenKat]

Sweet job ! Post pictures of your laser when you are ready - I am ashamed to admit that mine looks like a horrible mess of spaghetti right now - waiting on some possible casings to come in to play with those some

 

[Hemlock_Mike]

SKat --

Mine isn't much better yet.  I failed to get an old red laser apart in good condition for a mounting.  I have some stuff coming.  I used an LM 317 as a current control for testing.  I will probably end up with a simple balast resistor for power so it will fit in my pocket.

How many mA for 200+ mW output ?? Any known limits ??

Mike

 

[tatman]

haven't been on this forum long, but i'm sure glad i found it! NONE of my friends have the same brain type as me, and they ALL let me know before they throw stuff away. lots of great info here.for now let me just share a project from a couple years back. somebody gave me an old LASER printer, and i figgerd since they call it a laser printer... it MUST have a laser inside. big hassel to get apart and when i did get to the laser part was bummed as i could not get it to power up.(i thought) well i accedently discovered i DID get it working while playing w/ my nite vision scope. it was IR w/ LOTS of power (anybody have an idea how much power?) and was very cool... but because i never know when to stop i toasted it w/ a 9 volt battery. now i know and the next one will b a bamf!