Kiplay's at it again! This time - BluRay!

[SenKat]

[quote author=SenKat link=1194391816/15#27 date=1194530107]LD's are current ran devices....I coulf, in theory put 400v through a LD if my current was low enough, and it would run until the stated DOD (Date Of Death) which is normally >/= 5,000 hrs for dvd/BR diodes.

BTW: You can't really feed the LD 400V and a low current. It's impossible, in theory or otherwise..

You could perhaps run it off of 400V with a huge enough resistor[/quote]

I gather you did not see my point...... *sigh*

Anyways - the fact remains - you CAN drive any diode off of simple resistors, it is just not recommended to do so - I know that, everyone who READS and COMPREHENDS on here knows that - I was merely stating a fact. It CAN be done. But unless you have lotsa spare diodes sitting around as replacements - don't do it that way. Or better yet, only do it with REDS - that way I sell you more diodes ? BAH ! Anyways - obviously cannot get my point across - so it will stay as typed.

And before any wise crack comments come back with, why are you hamerring me, or him, or whoever - I am not hammerring anyone - just merely stating a fact -{Incoming analogy !} kinda like the fact that you CAN look directly at the sun during an eclipse, but it is not recommended to do so....get it ? Maybe ? Anyone ? Bueller ? Bueller ?

 

[IgorT]

Now, Back to our regular scheduled program...

To me it seems this IS the regular scheduled program of this thread..

 

[IgorT]

I gather you did not see my point...... *sigh*

Well, i understand what you meant.. I also assumed the second option was what you meant, and you are right. It can be done, and it would work, but current regulation is better.

I just stated that, so noone would get confused.

Now let's stop clarifying confusions, since it obviously results in even more confusion..

 

[rog8811]

Welcome marconi, and thanks for the input, I nearly made my first blueray with just a resistor and a capacitor (though I already knew better :-[) as I had not found a reg that would work with my setup. BUT between the members here a circuit was born that works and can be picked up and used by anyone who cares to read the thread.
Half the fun of this hobby is the experimentation/testing to see something develop and grow into something to be proud of.....and that will last longer than the time taken to make a video.

*my 2penneth...(that will be 4 cents to most of you)*

Regards rog8811

 

[SenKat]

*my 2penneth...(that will be 4 cents to most of you)*

Regards rog8811

DAMNIT ! That makes YOUR advice worth more than mine, since mine is in U.S. funds Well, hells bells....Guess I need to raise the cost of advice...GEESH ! Thanks, Rog ! ;D

Yes, I echo Rog' and most likely everyone on here by welcoming Marconi to the forum - glad to see a few more heavy-hitters joining up and chiming in There's very few rules here, and MOST of the time, I am not a jerk Okay...SOMETIMES I am not a jerk....hmmmm nevermind.... my 5 cents worth (U.S.) {HA ! ROG ! HAHAHA ! } ;D ;D

 

[rog8811]

LOL@ Senkat

 

[catdog]

First off guys, don't get me wrong - there are better ways to drive a laser than just a resistor and a battery, but my point is that it will work just fine.  The problem I have is the hatred for this guy kipkay, with a knee jerk reaction to criticise his tutorial whether it is justified or not.  All I am asking for is that if you criticise this bluray phaser tutorial, that you provide proof to back it up.

And proof is not just because someone else said so...

Uh god... 9V instead of 4.5, and 1.5A instead of 60mA...
Damn I hate this bastard! People! Let's go and put kerosene in a family car, and you get a "jet car" for under $100.000! I wonder when he's gonna invent that!  
Jackass...

PS: Sorry if I overreacted, this really pisses me off.

A perfect example of my point - and truely spoken like someone who knows nothing about electronics.

In my opinion, anyone who can buy a resistor, can also buy a capacitor. Anyone who can solder the resistor, should be able to solder the capacitor.. I mean, what's one more element?

It would still not be as good as driver circuit, but would at least soften the blow to the LD at switch on/off.


One problem, that would still remain, is the current climbing, from heat. As the LD heats up it's resistance drops, which means the current goes up. More current means more heat, which causes the resistance to drop even more, and this can sometimes kill the LD.
I don't know how much the BRs heat up and what this heat/resistance relation is there, but i've seen it happen on red LDs.

Current regulation solves this problem, as it drops the voltage a little, when the resistance drops, for the current to stay the same.


I'm hoping my two BRs come soon, and i hope to learn more when they do. It's possible this is not even such a big issue there. But one capacitor would definatelly not hurt.

I agree, it is simple to add one extra component, and definately will not hurt anything.  The heat from these bluray diodes is pretty much negligable if you mount the diode into a casing.


I have still yet to see any evidence of where this voltage "spike" is supposedly coming from.  Benchtop power supplies, sure some of them generate a large voltage on startup, but a 9V battery does not have any mechanism that I know of which can cause a voltage spike.  Inductance in the wires? I doubt that is going to have any significant effect.

 

[Things]

well it MAY not be 10X or 3X as we have said, but it is a know fact that batteries can float above their rated voltage, untill they are loaded. a car battery, for example, i have seen them float up to about 15V without load, then as soon as you hook something up to it, the voltage drops almost instantly to the average level. That little bit of extra voltage _could_ be the end of your diode every time you turn it on. just my 2 cents, which is less than everyones

 

[disma]

I just thought id add this... when I have used a resistor in the past, I charged the battery VERY fully, then before disconecting the charger, check the voltage on the battery, then use this voltage in your calculations for the resistor, yes, you will not get the full power from the diode, unless the charger has just been disconected, but you will save the diode. this is the only way I would ever use just a resistor and cap, and only when there is no other way to power the diode. (eg:dont have a big enough regulator) I dont recomend anyone use a resistor, this is just what I have done before.

Max

 

[Quadlazer]

He might have gone the cheap route, but that article is what brought me here....so I could learn the right way to do it.

Can't wait to get my Blu-ray LD, Daedal.

 

[IgorT]

I agree, it is simple to add one extra component, and definately will not hurt anything.  The heat from these bluray diodes is pretty much negligable if you mount the diode into a casing.

Well, i've seen a graph with a current spike here, and another graph, where a simple 1uF capacitor fixed it, and even provided a slightly smooth start up. But the second part is reason enough for me, to use a cap on the diode. Smooth start up..  It's gentler this way. Especially if you think of some dirty or clicky switches..

I also said a third component might be needed, a pot, since we've seen the treshold currents of the BRs can vary quite a lot. I have not tested any yet, but from what i've read, many BRs wouldn't even light up at 27mA.


But since you already have the BRs, i would be interested, if you measured the current, when running them off constant voltage. When i did this with a DVD LD, the current was climbing constantly (1mA per second +/-).. Of course those get very hot, while the BRs don't.. But i'm still interested in actual data about the BRs.

 

[Benm]

[quote author=SenKat link=1194391816/15#25 date=1194526319}
 So - in THEORY....if I were to hook a BR diode up to my CAR BATTERY....given enough resistance to bring it down to 20ma (regardless of the voltage) the diode will light up, and enjoy a nice, long, happy, life !  Anyone else care to chime in here about the whole V=!/R mystery, and such as that goes ?
[/quote]

There is no mystery. You can run a LD off a car battery with the exact same resistor that you would use running it of any 12 volt source (4 CR123s, 10 NiMHs, wall adapter, 100 lemons with metal plates in them, whatever).

I usually hate the water analogies with electrics, but they are kinda valid here:

Say you'd take a coke bottle and a bathtub, and put 10 inches of water in both. Then poke an equally large hole in the bottom of both.

Does the water run faster from the bathtub? no...
Does it take longer before the bathtub is empty? definitely...

In this analogy, the level of the water is analog to voltage (equal), the size of the container to capacity (bigger for a bathtub or car battery), and the hole to a resistor (equal).

 

[JohnnyBra]

I can't say I agree with his tutorials... Electronics can be sensitive little beasties and they need all the protection you can provide for them.

But I have to admit, it was his MiniMag tutorial that got me googling "Burning Lasers", and thus brought me here, to discover the RIGHT way to go about it. Thanks to him, I now have my own MXDL group buy burner, a DXTrue30, and a couple of spare group buy diodes to "play" with as I experiment and build.

Viva la Google!

 

[SenKat]

Re: KipKay's at it again! This time - BluRay!

{Boy, THIS comment will endear me to lotsa folks !}

Well, Kipkay is not really the evil tutorial monger that everyone thinks - at least, not to my perception.  He has a great speaking voice, knows how to market things, and is pretty damned successful at making money for his efforts !  I do not care for the majority of his tutorials, as I believe they are irresponsible, in some cases WAY off the point he is trying to make, and in all cases, over-glamourized attempts at creating income.  He actually takes a little bit of effort to answer comments left for him on either instructables, or meta-cafe which is more than I can say for a lot of people that produce videos, and ask you to watch them.  
    Does all of this mean I like him ?  Nope - it is simply talking about him from a different perpective than a lot of you have.  Is he wrong in his tutorial to make the phaser ?  Nope - technically not.  should he have introduced a simple circuit to protect the diode ?  Nope.  OMFG...I said, Nope !  He was making it as easy as possible - simply showing off the fact that he did it !  If you go there, and read some of his comments - he doesn't even LIKE lasers that much - at least it seems that way to me !

Anyways folks, Catdog has a valid point - just like we are supposed to be nice to our forum members, not bash other forums, be kind, etc - I think it would be an excellent gesture of humanity to show a little mercy towards the guy that has brought so many people here to learn the PROPER (or at least better !) way to handle, respect, purchase, or make Lasers of all different types and wavelengths.

 

[IgorT]

But I have to admit, it was his MiniMag tutorial that got me googling "Burning Lasers", and thus brought me here, to discover the RIGHT way to go about it.

That is true.. Someone telling me about his video on MetaCafe was also what got me interested initially..

And it is also what made me kill an expensive 18x LD and another 16x LD, before i started looking around for what is wrong.. Without that video i wouldn't have killed two LDs, but i also wouldn't have found this place and finally made a working laser..


So it seems quite a few of us have this in common..

 

[rog8811]

But I have to admit, it was his MiniMag tutorial that got me googling "Burning Lasers", and thus brought me here, to discover the RIGHT way to go about it. Thanks to him, I now have my own MXDL group buy burner, a DXTrue30, and a couple of spare group buy diodes to "play" with as I experiment and build.

....and a rapidly reducing bank balance, if you are anything like me

regards rog8811