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FrozenGate by Avery

DVD Laser

A

abc

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Hey all

I have dissected my broken DVD burner, and taken out the working diode, and I want to build a laser. I have bought a housing to focus it and use as a heatsink, and I have mounted the diode in it. I now need a driver of some sort. I'm a complete noob, but I have a few ideas. I can build my own driver with a potentiometer, voltage regulator, resistor, diode, and capacitor with schematics from the net, or I could buy a pre made one. I know how to do everything with the DIY driver, but I have no clue as to how to go about getting a smaller pre built driver. Can someone help me?

I need to know:

What driver to buy (and from where)
How I wire it up
What batteries I use
How to use it

The main reason I want a prebuilt driver is so I can fit it in a more portable housing.

I would be extremely appreciative of any help at all, I just wanna have some fun and get into DIY lasers. Thanks in advance!!! :D
 





The driver that you use kind of depends on a few things: The size of the host that you want to use, the batteries that you want to use, and the requirements of the laser diode. Once you figure those out, we can help you pick out a driver that will work.
 
Ghostchrome said:
The driver that you use kind of depends on a few things: The size of the host that you want to use, the batteries that you want to use, and the requirements of the laser diode. Once you figure those out, we can help you pick out a driver that will work.
Click to expand...

I would like to fit the whole assembly in a aluminium LED torch body, the main shaft has about 23mm of space each way. I guess I'd like the out put to be 200mw. Is that too much for a DVD diode? I'm not too sure, but please bear with me. I would also like to use AAA batteries.

Is this - 2pcs adjustable current laser diode driver 80-500mA w/TTL | eBay any good?
 
Why use a driver with TTL modulation?
I do not think that you will use TTL modulation in a handheld...
I think the diode will work fine with any cheap 300mA driver...
500mA will probably kill the diode or give it short lifetime.
I've connected a DVD burner laser diode to 420mA constant current supply a lot of time ago - maybe a year? 2 years? 1/2 of a year? I don't remember... when I didn't know nearly anything about lasers and was using some green acrylic glass to protect my eyes (I know that was a stupid idea - but the laser appeared through it like a very dim pointer - so it was protecting me probably enough - and YES it was a red laser not an IR)... the diode did burn things like tape for like 2 minutes, then it started dimming and... oh ****, it stopped working - I was using a LM317T-based driver.. For some laser diodes 400mA will be OK, some will burn out quickly... so use a 200 - 300mA driver. I do not think that AAA batteries will supply good current for a long time... I would recommend some lithium batteries.

Hope this helps :)
sorry if I'm wrong...
 
Last edited:
I'm confused here reading this - does it not depend a great deal on the diode / DVD machine, how old it is and what kind of write speed it had?
 
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