High Powered Laser from DVD Burner

 

I didn’t think that the lasers in DVD burners were this powerful. If you have one that died (hopefully not because of laser failure) you might want to make your own high power laser. Be very careful when playing with something like this. I would suggest using laser goggles when operating.

“The laser pictured above has a peak output measured at 225 mW (average output 200 mW). It’s a visible red at about 650nm. It can light matches, pop balloons, cut electrical tape, and so forth. It can do pretty much anything a Pulsar 150 from Wicked Lasers can do, because it’s basically the same thing. The only differences? This laser was home-made, and cost about 1/3 the price. With the laser diode, mounting hardware, and collimating lens, all that remained was to do the electronics. I already knew, from looking at the guts of a Pulsar, that you could run a red diode without any driver at all – just wire it straight to the batteries. That made it a lot easier. I still had some requirements though. I wanted the option of constant-on so I wouldn’t have to mess around with rubber bands, twist ties, or clips. But I still wanted momentary use too. And I wanted an indicator LED. Also, I wanted to use rechargable batteries, so I wouldn’t have to keep filling the landfills with dead alkalines. Finally, I wanted to use AAs, for longer life between recharges.”

Via: Make


13 Comments


  1. Hi Benzhai,

    There are full instructions on the site linked to in the article. Seems like he is having some bandwidth issues at the moment though.



  2. with this supply the laserdiode should have a short liftime.
    to have it stay longer you should use constant current of max 150 mA dependend on the LD type. take a look at sams laser faq for more details.


  3. Hi, what kind of DVD burner have you used?


  4. Hi, what kind of DVD burner have you used?:)


  5. what about regular cd burners? probably different wattage?


  6. does it have to be a dvd burner or can it just be a regular dvd player


  7. hey i have a cd burner a i was wondering if i can use it to burn things too i know this laser cant be seen easy but anyways i want to know it is posible

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