Repaired HTC Vive Base Station with old PC CD Burner

[loreadarkshade]

Kind of funny how life goes full circle.

So i had a broken HTC vive base station that had a IR laser that wasn't firing anymore. I ALSO joined this forum literally last week, getting into the laser hobby.

So i had the idea to try and replace the diode with one from an old CD burner.
To my surprise, it worked! Now i have 2 base stations.

Let it be known, I do not know if this is safe, so if you do this, do it at your own risk. BUT, i think since the base station had its own internal laser driver, the current supplied to the diode should be the same if I'm not mistaken.

It's funny, one of those lasers was designed to track 3D objects in a spatial environment, the other was designed to play back shrek movies, yet they both do the same job.

Spoiler: Results:

https://imgur.com/a/sb33EWx

https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/khiyyh

 

[FireMyLaser]

Hi, I saw your comment on my video on youtube, but you solved it yourself, very good! I'm surprised how easy fix this was, even with a different wavelength. As far as I know, the spec of the original diodes is not known to anyone outside Valve/HTC.

 

[loreadarkshade]

Hi, I saw your comment on my video on youtube, but you solved it yourself, very good! I'm surprised how easy fix this was, even with a different wavelength. As far as I know, the spec of the original diodes is not known to anyone outside Valve/HTC.

Haha woah, small world!

 

[gazer101]

Thank goodness they didn't deliberately make it so that you can't swap out components *cough cough apple* by being picky with the wavelength

 

[FireMyLaser]

The wavelength maybe is not that critical, and guess the original is somewhere near 800-850nm. The photo diodes have some daylight blocking filter on them, but I guess 780nm is close enough to not be blocked by that.

I also was never sure what power the diodes need to be cabale of, and how finicky is the alignment is.