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What to do with CD-ROM drive laser

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LAN_403

Alfons

Fri May 26 2006, 06:13PM

Registered Member #134 Joined: Fri Feb 10 2006, 10:44PM
Location: Belgium
Posts: 86

Hi,

I've got a bunch of CD-ROM drives and CD Writers lying around; and I want to do something with them. Does anyone know of a cool thing to do with their lasers / motors / anything else?

Madgyver

Fri May 26 2006, 06:30PM

Registered Member #177 Joined: Wed Feb 15 2006, 02:16PM
Location: Munich, Germany
Posts: 214

Well you can use the laser in speed measurement equipment, if you can fabric a housing which is eye safe.

The lasers can also be used as interferomters and long range IR remote controll tranceivers

Alfons

Fri May 26 2006, 06:38PM

Registered Member #134 Joined: Fri Feb 10 2006, 10:44PM
Location: Belgium
Posts: 86

Madgyver wrote ...

Well you can use the laser in speed measurement equipment, if you can fabric a housing which is eye safe.

The lasers can also be used as interferomters and long range IR remote controll tranceivers

Sounds interesting... But how to drive such a laser? It has like 10 or so connectors and I can't seem to find any useful information on the web...

Madgyver

Fri May 26 2006, 06:42PM

Registered Member #177 Joined: Wed Feb 15 2006, 02:16PM
Location: Munich, Germany
Posts: 214

For specific questions about how to safely drive these lasers, dig throught this extensive FAQ

Eric

Fri May 26 2006, 08:10PM

Registered Member #69 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 07:42AM
Location:
Posts: 116

The laser diode itself only has three pins but it is buried inside the assembly which includes the actuator coils and possibly photodiode(s). You have to dig the diode out and then figure out which pin does what and then drive it with the proper current. Without ruining it. Kinda hard to do. If you don't have a spec sheet, you can't reliably drive it since you don't know the right operating current. I suppose you could power the drive and then measure the diode drive current that it supplies directly..

Marko

Fri May 26 2006, 08:21PM

Registered Member #89 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 02:40PM
Location: Zadar, Croatia
Posts: 3145

I got some of these diodes running and found them almost uselles - they have very weak near-IR output, very poor in power (definitely weaker than common laser pointers).

You will actually have trouble to see if diode is working or not.

CD writer diodes may be stronger but not for much, you may get some kind of few mw near-IR laser pointer again.

Madgyver

Sat May 27 2006, 10:24AM

Registered Member #177 Joined: Wed Feb 15 2006, 02:16PM
Location: Munich, Germany
Posts: 214

Well weak is relative, weaker as laserpointer is still stronger then your common IR-LED. Having the whole thing assembled in a high precision interferometer capable of detecting lengths in the Âµm's isn't that bad either.

Besides you can have a little bit of fun with the amplifier board if your CD-ROMS still have them.

(look a the few blurry pictures, I might geht around translating this weekend)

G^3

Sat May 27 2006, 03:24PM

Registered Member #97 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:40PM
Location:
Posts: 61

My physics teacher used these type of laser diodes to trap Rubidium atoms. Now in order to do this you need a lot of fancy optical equipment that I don't know where to get or how to use.

...

Mon May 29 2006, 03:00AM

Registered Member #56 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:02AM
Location: Southern Califorina, USA
Posts: 2445

The output looks very week because it is in the near-ir, the eye is only like 1/100th as sensitive to it compared to a red laser. If you have ever opened up a dvd-rom you can see how bright it would be if it were a more visible wavelength.

As to uses... Since you have the collimator assembly you can use it just like you would a laser pointer, but the beam is invisible. On the old forum someone used one to make a security system... A normal photo diode will work fine for detecting the beam.

As to driving them... If you can find a separate metal can on the optics assembly that is the laser... One of the pins will be connected to the case of the laser. This is the +. Of the 2 other pins, one is the laser and the other is a photo diode connected to the laser. The way to check is to apply power, one will have a relatively linear current draw/ voltage, one will register very little then suddenly increase. This is the laser. Be careful, as if you give it too much current it will blow instantly. From this point on you need to measure the laser diode current very carefully. If you just want to use it you would run about 50ma into the diode, as long as the laser does not get to hot you should be fine. If you are feeling adventurous you can hook a volt meter from the third pin to ground, which will give an idea idea of the output power. As you turn of the laser power you should observe that the meter reading increases... Slowly turn up the power until the reading levels off, then turn it down a little--this is the current operating current for the laser. Never run more than that amount of current through the diode. The voltage required to run at the current will vary depending on the temperature of the diode, you need to use a current source to run the diode.

Oh, and don't look into it

Carbon_Rod

Mon May 29 2006, 06:27AM

Registered Member #65 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:43AM
Location:
Posts: 1155

This old Alpine 1106nm CDROM IR diode is very bright indeed when viewed with a CCD camera (complete with driver module board.)

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