help me with my first build

[guiltyspark]

i have always loved lasers , i had a little red pen when i was a kid and had so much fun with it ( filling the bathroom with steam for example lol)
And now that i ordered a 50mw pen ( not sure if its REALLY a 50mw , but i can see the beam faintly in a lit room)

And im instantly hooked again , i also love making stuff so im going to try it out.



Im going to base it off of the HD DVD player.

I dont know much about the voltages and stuff , so some help on what that particular laser needs (the hd-dvd player) would be greatly appriciated.

Suggestions on appropriate hosts and drivers would be nice too!

And a good pair of saftey googles that cover both the green and violet lasers would be a good help so i dont hurt my eyes.

 

[ElektroFreak]

The first thing you're gonna want to do is read over the general and tutorial parts of the forum. These can be found on the home page. Pay particular attention to the stickys at the top of each section. I can assure you that all your questions have already been answered there.

If (after you've been there and done some research) you still have questions, then come back here and ask. We'd be happy to help you out.

Also, Sam's Laser FAQ is the laser bible as far as I'm concerned. Here's the link:http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/laserfaq.htm  It's not very pretty, (it's text based w/links to pictures and other sites) but it contains all the knowledge of lasers you could hope for...