I'm going to turn my flashlight into a laser

[DaJe]

So after seeing that thread about turning a flashlight into a laser, and realising that I have that exact flashlight, I figure I'll take it on myself

First I would like to say

Do not attempt this yourself. Lasers can be very dangerous, especially when your expose your eyes to an intense beam of light such as that. I do no advise you ever point a laser at yourself, another person, or any animal. Neither I nor The Best Case Scenario accept any responabilities for any injuries or damages which may come from your emulation of this project.



I don't have all the materials with me yet, but I do have all the right tools. The flashlight I'll be using will be the same one from that video, a mini maglite. What I'll be doing is basically removing the laser from a DVD burner, and installing it in the maglite, in replace of the light already in it. The burner I will be using is a Samsung 18x lightscribe dvd burner. I do have an older burner that I wouldn't really care if it got ripped apart, but it's a slower speed, and the one I'm going to use only cost $30, and I wasn't using it anyway (I gave it to my brother).

So, let's move on to what I've been doing so far



These are all thumbnails, so click them to see the full image


Here's the burner itself

So I started by unscrewing the only 4 visible screws, and took the bottom off of the drive.

Then there was this thing in the way

So I removed it

So then I'm left with this, and not much to do

That's because the laser is here, and I can't get to it because the drive is upside down.

So I had to hook up that board that I took out, so I could plug the drive in and pop open the tray to remove the front cover so I could take off the plate on the other side.

So now I finally get a look into the right side of this thing.

And here's the laser. I thought there would be more than one, so maybe there's another one hiden somewhere.

So I guess my next step is to remove the laser. I think before that though, I'll go buy the right housing for it. Should be like $12. Maybe I'll pick up some special protective glasses for red lasers as well. I forget where I saw them before though. They're a gret thing to have when working with things like this.

[Indybird]

Yay, somebody's doing this! I watched the video yesterday, and am definitely thinking about doing this.

Please make your, worklog detailed, so I can use it as instructions since the video went at a million words/steps per minute.

Thanks,
Indybird

+rep for doing the mod!

[DaJe]

Alright, though each drive is probably designed slightly different, as well as the laser.


So anyways, I remove the part with the laser on it.

http://codeinsurrection.com/pics/com.../DSC_18812.JPG




The metal casing around it seems to be either welded or soldered.

http://codeinsurrection.com/pics/com.../DSC_18822.JPG




So I bent it up. And now I see these 3 things on each side of it, which I'm not sure if I should cut or not. They seem to be holding it in place, but it also seems to be within a magnet, which keeps it up.

http://codeinsurrection.com/pics/com.../DSC_18832.JPG

http://codeinsurrection.com/pics/com.../DSC_18842.JPG





Actually, it appears that what I'm looking at may simply be a lens, and the laser diode itself might be below it.


And now upon further investigation, it appears that theres a reflector or a series of reflectors, and possibly multiple diodes. Looks similar to when I took apart a laser mouse. Tomorrow I'll post more pictures and disect it more. I still haven't reached the actual laser itself. Maybe some careful Dremel work would make it easier. But for now, I have to sleep, because I have to go to Boston in the morning.

[AJ@PR]

This is looking rellly, relly good so far!
on your Log!

[.Maleficus.]

To take out the little screws around the laser, you'll need a #0 philips head screw driver. You could Dremel it, but it's pretty likely you'll eff up the laser.

I still haven't had time to test the lasers I have... And I need to buy one of those laser housings...

[DaJe]

I'm trying to figure out where the actual laser I want is. It appears that there may be three laser diodes.

There's a whole bunch of lenses and relectors in there. Looks like at the very bottom middle, there may be a diode, which goes through the lens above, to the middle reflector, and into the main refractor which is the top middle piece. Any laser used would go through that to divert it's direction to straight up. And then there might be a diode on the very left. It goes through a lens, then through a block, and then into the middle reflector. And finaally there's the one next to that, which goes through the same block. It goes through a lens, into the block where I assume there is a refractor, sent over to the reflector, and then to the final refractor. It's a bitch to get to these things. Screws aren't the only thing holding it all in place. And now i have the possibility of there being 3 lasers, and having to figure out which one I need.

[Scotty]

Interesting, never as easy as the video's make out...

As it's a litescribe drive i would assume there is going to be atleast 2 lasers, one more powerful than the other as it etches the disk.

[NocturnaL]

Haha this is going to be awesome. What will you do with the laser is my question?

[goofazoid]

Interesting, never as easy as the video's make out...

As it's a litescribe drive i would assume there is going to be atleast 2 lasers, one more powerful than the other as it etches the disk.

I thought that the Lightscribe used the same laser, and thats why you have to turn the disc over...

[.Maleficus.]

Haha this is going to be awesome. What will you do with the laser is my question?

If you look in the Technology Talk forum, AJ posted a link to a video that turns a flashlight into a burning laser. It can pop balloons, light matches...

That would be fun to take to a party. Someone's standing right next to a balloon, and BAM! pops in their face. Or relight the candles after they blow them out