Many had laser pointers in their childhood, which could be purchased in toy stores. But with the development of modern technology, it became possible to create such a laser from a DVD drive with your own hands. To do this, you just need a faulty DVD drive (it is important that the LED itself remains operational), a screwdriver and a soldering iron.
It should be remembered that it is better to use a non-working DVD to create a laser! This is due to the fact that after disassembling and removing the LED, it fails. Do not forget that such a laser from the drive is much more powerful than a regular pointer and can cause irreparable harm to health, so you never need to direct the beam at a person or animal.
When the beam of such a device is directed to the human eye, the retina burns out, and a person can partially or completely lose his vision.
So, let's create a laser from a DVD drive with our own hands. To do this, carefully unscrew the bolts on the back of the case to get to the LED of the future laser. Under the cover is a unit that drives the carriage. In order to remove it, you need to unscrew the screws and disconnect all the cables. Then remove the carriage.
Now it is necessary to disassemble it, for which many screws should be unscrewed. Next, two LEDs will be detected. One of them is infrared, it is responsible for reading information from the disk.
We need red, with the help of which information is burned to disk. A printed circuit board will be attached to the
red LED . In order to turn it off, you need to use a soldering iron. To check the diode's operability, it is enough to connect two finger-type batteries to it, but it is important to consider their polarity. Remember that the laser diode is fragile, so you need to be very careful with it.
Next, you need to purchase any laser pointer. When creating a laser from a DVD drive with your own hands, use it as a "donor" for the case. After the purchase, you must carefully unwind the pointer into two parts and remove the laser diode from the upper half . You can use a knife for this. It is important to do everything carefully, because the diode may be damaged. Using a small screwdriver select the emitter. Using hot glue, install a new LED in the housing. And so that it is firmly established, you can use pliers, crushing them on the edges of the diode.
The laser from the DVD drive is almost ready. Before starting it, it is necessary to check whether the polarity is correctly determined. Now you can safely connect the power. After the first start, you may need to adjust the focus. Next, you can install the pointer in the flashlight and connect AA batteries. Do not forget that the laser can burn through various objects, so you need to remove plexiglass from the diffuser.
A well-tuned laser from a DVD drive can not only burn paper or set fire to matches, but also leave a mark on plexiglass, explode balls (it is better that they are black) and leave visible marks on plastic. If you install a diode in the head of the plotter, you can perform plexiglass engraving.