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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

how to make a 405nm blu-ray laser

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(ive had this topic on lasercommunity for a while and ive finally ot the energy to redo it here ;D)


in this topic i will post a step by step guide on how to make a homamade blueray laser from one of the PS3 laser assemblies that are all over ebay right now.

ok, the first thing you will have to do is buy a ps3 laser assembly off ebay just type in "ps3 laser" in the ebay search and a few will come up. they will cost about $80 US each.

you should have something that looks like this (top view)
 

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if you look at the assembly from the side you can see the 5 pinned diode, it has 5 pins because it has 3 different laserdiodes in it. one is 405nm for reading blueray discs, one is 650nm for reading dvds and one is 780nm for reading cds.
 

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if you look from the top you can see that the diode has its own little heatsink that is connected to the rest of the assembly by 2 small screws. undo these screws now.
 

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youll notice that the diode/heatsink is still stuck to the rest of the assembly. this is because there is a small ribon cable to power the diode.
this will have to be cut.
try to push the heatsink down so its pulling on the cable tightly (you might have to wiggle the heatsink a little bit because there is some sticky stuff holding it onto the assembly)
then get a razor blade or sharp knife and cut the cable (it is situated inbetween the screws you undid before)
 

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after you have cut the cable you will be able to take the heatsink/diode off the rest of the assembly (there will be some black sticky foam-like stuff holding it on aswellbut that is easily removed)
heres some pictures of the front and the back of the diode/heatsink
 

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to remove the diode from the heatsink you will first have to scrape the white heatsink glue/paste from around the back of the diode with a small screwdriver.
 

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after you have most of the heat transfer paste off flip the heatsink/diode over and make sure the pins of the diode are not touching the bench you are using because you are about to tap it lightly with a small screwdriver and you dont want to damage the pins.

if you look towards the diode window you will see two slots in the heatsink eitherside the diode and in the slots you can see the brass base on the diode.

get a small screwdriver and put in in one of these slots so it is on the base of the diode. now get a bigger screwdriver and hit the back of the small screwdriver this should break the glue holding the diode to the heatsink. (if you feel you are hitting it quite hard and it isnt coming off then scrape as much of the heatsink paste/glue off as you can and try again)
 

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now you should have a nice little violet/red/infrared diode with a little bit of that ribon cable left on it. just cut the cable off, it will get in the way if you leave it.
heres some pictures of the diode.
 

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now you will have to solder some wires onto the pins on the diode.
i am using my diode housing (more about this later) and some bluetack to hold the diode and dissipate heat quicker.
if you look at the pins on the diode you will see that one pin has more space around it, this is the earth wire (i am soldering a black wire to this pin) and the pin to the left of it is the + for the violet diode (i will be soldering a red wire onto this pin)
its probably easier to look at this picture.
 

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be careful when soldering the wires to the pins because too much heat will kill it. try to have a hot soldering iron with a small tip and only do it for short bursts.
get the wire you want to solder onto a pin, melt a small blob of solder on the end of it and keep it hot, then quickly move the wire and soldering iron onto one of the pins and take the iron away. practice on other bits of wire first.
if the wire dosent stay stuck on the pin then try melting a whole bunch of solder onto a peice of metal plate then rolling the ball of solder away and quickly rub the pins in the hot flux that came out of the solder
(or just buy some flux ;D )
heres a picture of me soldering the wires onto the pins.
 

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now get some heat transfer paste to help transfer heat from the diode to the heatsink. ask your local electronics store for heatsink or heat transfer paste (make sure the paste dosent conduct electricity incase you get some near the pins i used some white stuff called "unick" that i got from dicksmiths)
now get a needle and scoop a tiny little bit of heat transfer paste and smear it all around the brass bass of the diode.
 

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now you will have to find a collimator/heatsink for your diode. im using one from AixiZ which i got from SenKat in a group buy (Thanks SenKat ;) ) they are sold on this page as a 10mw 650nm laser for $12 just buy one and knock out the diode and driver and your set :cool:. http://mfgcn.com/_wsn/page2.html

now put the diode into the hole in the heatsink and tap it in with a screwdriver.

i hade to widen the hole where the diode goes with a dremel because it was too tight (i didnt want to break the diode hitting it in too hard) and i had to cut away some of the plastic before the lens because it was cutting out alot of the light.
 

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now you will have to make a driver for the diode and find how much power it needs.
i am using a 6V battery pack (4XAA) and a 62 ohm resistor right now then i am going to put it into a case and run it on 2Xcr123a batteries.
to get the diode to lase you will need around 6V @ 40-100ma.
all of mine have run their best at 6V @ 96ma, i wouldnt take it over 90ma unless it is not bright at all.
get a 6V power supply (use BATTERIES do NOT use a plug in wall adapter because they laways put out more than 6V) and a 200Ohm variable resistor to test the diode.

beware of those rectangular multiturn resistors, i was using one of those and a 62 ohm resistor to find the current my diode 'likes' and no matter what i had it set on the laser would still be dim. since i had it on 0 Ohms resistenca, i took it out and now the diode is ALOT brighter i later found out that the diode was taking 2-3V so the laser was only getting 3-4V.

because of this i reccomend that you just use various resistors between 200Ohm and 60Ohm and not variable resistors.

if you are using the variable resistor then set it at full resistance (use a multimeter to make sure its not on no resistance)
wire it up to the diode (measure it on the multimeter to make sure it isnt causing a voltage drop) and slowly turn it up until it lases, it should be quite bright when its finished (my one has a slightly visible beam at night)

if you want to use normal resistors then start with one at 200Ohms and keep swapping it with resistors of a lowel value(try to get as many as you can so that you dont suddenly overpower it) until you find the right one.

the dot should be about as bright as it appears in this picture.
 

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