please some really small answears are all i seek for

[newbie noob]

hello guys , I have just extracted a laser diode from a GH22NP20 LG DVD-burner
what is the energy that this diode can produce ?
the 2nd question is, is there by any chance a way to figure what is the amount of the maximum current i can push to the diode without burning it ?
i built a driver from an lm317 , I have set it to produce 250 mA at most
my final question is , how safe it is to power the driver with 6 AA batteris ?
thank you very very much
and excuse my bad english

 

[Blord]

1] It is a 22x DVD burner. It should do 200mW.
2] 250mA is fine
3] 6AA is no problem.

 

[qumefox]

^ What he said.

Though you shouldn't need more than 4 AA's. 6V input should be more than enough. Increasing the voltage beyond that gives no benefit other than making the driver run hotter.

 

[Blord]

It depends on the drop voltage of the diode and the voltage delivered by the batteries.
Normally a lm317 should regulate at ~5.2V on the red diodes ( tested with my bench psu ) but if you have only 4 NiMH batteries with 1.2V each, the total voltage of 4.8V isn't enough. Although the diode won't go broke it receive less current.

 

[qumefox]

He stated AA's though and not NiMH's, So using AA's was what my advice was based off of. It will run fine with 6, but it will run cooler with 4.

I think if he wants to go the rechargable route, 2x li-ion's would be an easier route than NiMH.

 

[newbie noob]

oh thank you guys !, I have recently finished building my very first laser !!
but it didn't burn as i expected , i thought that it would burn from like 2.5 meters far , also , it would take it a while to light the matches up , I read some mentioning that you would increase your laser diode if you had a good heat sink , i don't understand how a good heatsink affect the power of the diode ?!!? , did I miss understand what does a heat sink means ?
any way , what are my other choices to power it up ? , iam trying to put a maximum power switch so i can switch between the safe current and the a little high current
so my question is what is the maximum current that can be safe for my diode ?? or even half safe cause i really really want it to burn much stronger and further
thank you guys
hope to answer me soon