DVD Burner LED instead of LD??!?!?

[thehacker3]

Ok, so i saw kipkay's video of how to build a laser flashlight, did some research, blah blah blah and finally decided to build my own laser flashlight. grabbed a pretty good dvd burner that i wasnt exactly using but i didnt feel like totally wrecking it., took it apart, and i saw the lil laser thing. so i keep taking it apart and wat do i see? just 5 lil mirrors + lenses and a little think that looks like an led. no way was it a diode, waaaay too small. anyway, is it possible that this was an led? i can attach a picture if u guys REALLY need to see it, dont feel like pulling the wreckage out of my messy room. pretty much ide like to know if thats an led and how it can work on a burner and ide like to know if any1 ever seen anything like this before. thanks in advanced guys

 

[Archane]

they don't all look the same, mine was mounted on the sides of the arm that moves under the dvd. if you can take pictures of it some of us can help you identify the diode.

 

[zerafiel]

Laser diodes are really small. they normally come in 5.6mm cans

 

[thehacker3]

eh, i forgot, i kinda broked it all lol. no but when i was taking it apart, after careful examination of the mirrors and lenses and all i found that the light source is this nearly microscopic thing. ill attach a picture, FINE lol...
ok, after opening it up again to take a picture i noticed that there was SEVEN mirrors and lenses, not five. also i found wat looks like the second diode/led, attaching pictures so help me out

crap, all my cameras are shit and my $900 doesnt have a memory card.... ok so i guess this convo is pointless =\

 

[thehacker3]

Laser diodes are really small. they normally come in 5.6mm cans

this is NOT 5.6 mm, its more like .1 mm, ive seen what tehyre supposed to look like and nothing i have matches that. i wish i can attach a pic.. pretty much theres 2 led's that have a shitload of mirrors and lenses in front of them. im guessing thats how it works. nothing close to a diode anywhere inside the carriage assembly.

EDIT

ZOMFG!!!! I FOUND IT!!
ok so here's how i did it for all u ppl that have similar problems. I shined my laser pointer on the 2 remaining mirrors inside and noticed one of them was a cube that had a diagonal line thru it. following the beam i found a small box that i didnt even notice before. i oppened it up with a blade and now i see the actual diode in front of me. /score! thanks a lot guys for making me take it apart lol, wouldnt of done it without ya. sry for the bad spelling, kinda rushed...

 

[Gazoo]

Make and model number of the DVD burner????

 

[thehacker3]

doesnt matter anymore. not for future users: DO NOT OVER TIGHTEN THE VISE IF UR USING ONE TO EXTRACT THE DIODE. i heard a crack and im like ... that cant be good, then i look at the diode and i see that the lense cracked :'( :'( :'( is that lense necessary or do i need a new diode?

 

[o_DEATH_ANG3L_o]

I think that the whole problem here is that damn Kipkay video. He makes it look like you can extract the diode SO EASILY and then slap it in an Axiz module then throw it all in a minimag. If you want to make your own laser pointer that burns, I suggest do some reading, A LOT of it. I did 3 weeks of research before I finally grasped a good understanding of everything. This site is really excellent for learning pretty much EVERYTHING about lasers. Oh btw, most 16X DVD burners have closed can LDs and they are very small, so one who doesnt know about lasers would mistake it for an LED. Just dont do what that idiot Kipkay did and then you REALLY will end up with an LED.

 

[Ashton]

Sounds to me like a c-mount (aka open-can) diode. Those are a PITA to work with, IF this is your first laser, be glad you didn't use that diode (though sorry to hear you're our the $$$)

 

[thehacker3]

did lots of research b4 taking it apart. looking back, the diode was very well hidden and to the side of the carriage assembly. thats why i couldnt find it. next; i had a problem taking out the actual diode and ended up cracking the lens on top cuz i over tightened it when trying to secure it. what's the proper procedure of extracting the diode out of the thing its mounted on? it was soldered to a flexible circuit and i unsoldered it but then it looked like it was glued to the thing it was mounted on. i still have it, ill try to take a pic. u guys think that theres a slight chance that the diode willl still work in a laser? im not poor, i can afford a shitload of these things but the cheaper the better lol.

 

[Gazoo]

The proper method is to cut away at the heatsink until the diode is free.

 

[thehacker3]

wow, i started doing that and then i thought i was doing something wrong so i started jamming it out. wow i am a moron..... well w/e if it wasnt for u guys i wouldnt have started taking it apart again anyway and would've thrown it out =\

 

[Kenom]

actually if you are very careful you can cut away the can on the outside of hte diode to expose the guts. If you don't cut the wires going to the bar on the inside you will have a perfectly usable diode. Here is a link to a post where we did the same thing.

http://www.laserpointerforums.com/forums/YaBB.pl?num=1189268933/9#9
there is all the info you need.

 

[thehacker3]

heres a pic of the destroyed diode. well dunno if its destroyed yet, ill try cutting off the top right now
http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/2857/img0027os9.jpg
http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/4605/img0028ih8.jpg

EDIT:
i just cut away at the base holding the diode and then cut away at the top just for kicks. right now its an open can diode if its not an led. i say that because i decided to test if it would light up if a power source was attached so i took my good old multimeter and put it on 1 ohm resistance cuz theres nothing lower. i atach the ends and nothing. /sigh but i was expecting it already. then i decided to try and switch the wires

O - negative
O - positive
O - whatever...'

and guess what?!? it gave a VERY VERY faint glow. i looked at it and i saw the filament glowing nicely. now im confused, is this an led already? or is it still a diode that wasnt given enough juice? all i know is that this thing has been thru hell. i didnt know about the heat rule when unsoldering it from its connection and i just kept the iron on the lead until it gave way =S. i squeezed the thing so tightly that the top is now deformed into an oval instead of a circle. and finally i cut away at the top of the can to expose the guts. SURELY it couldnt have survived all of this and still be a diode, can it? pictures dont work out, the thing is too small

 

[Kenom]

What power source did you use to power that up in your latest test? was it just the multimeter? You can test a Ld diode like you can any other diode. You will get nothing one way and something the other. It's actually a very good way to test a LD cause it will light up the medium but not lase it. So you can look at it with the naked eye and see it glow the current is so low. Then take two AAA's and do a quick test to see if it's really bright.

 

[thehacker3]

i attached 2 AA batteries last night and it was glowing brighter. it looked really nice and i couldnt wait to get the aixis module so i can use it normally. but of course my curiousity got the best of me and i started playing arround with it. this morning when i wanted to show it to my dad, i hook up everything just like i did last night and it doesnt glow :'( :'( :'( i wanted to see if there was current going thru it and sure enough, the multimeter gives a reading that there is current flowing. now its def. toast, right???