Disassembling a CD/DVD Reader and Reusing Its Parts

Intro: Disassembling a CD/DVD Reader and Reusing Its Parts

Hi!

Talking about CD and DVD drivers, they are awesome! You can find many cool and valuable(for a hobbist) things inside them to use in your projects. There are so many things that you can do with one or more of these drivers that you will be impressed.

This instructable is about this, reusing the parts from a old/dead CD or DVD driver. After disassembling many of these drivers i could learn its tricks and know what can be done with them, now I want to share this specific knowledge with you.

So, let's start!

STEP 1: Finding Your Victim

You can find a dead CD or DVD driver in old computers, maybe you have one in your house. But if you don't have one don't worry. I got mine from a computer repair workshop, if you ask for one in the workshop next to your house they will possibly give you one, because this drivers when dead and being substituted are going to trash, asking don't cost anything.

Good luck!

STEP 2: The Tools

To get it open, you will need only some screwdrivers, for the most part i used only a philips screwdriver, But the ideal is to have a kit with many screwdrivers, because you may need a strange to disassemble the laser.

Maybe you will need pliers to pulling the magnets in the laser structure.

Ah, you may also need a solder iron and the skills in how to use it.

STEP 3: Starting the Surgery

The first thing to do is to loose the four screws under the driver, after that you can pull the cover.

STEP 4: Retiring the Other Part of the Metal Case.

Now on the sides of the press the marked parts on the images and pull
the front of the driver, after that finish taking off the metal cover.

STEP 5: Retiring the Electronic Board

I don't use the electronic board, but it is standing in the way of our progress, see the images to know how to take it.

I recommend that you put these parts that don't have much value for us in a box/bag for discarding correctly later.

STEP 6: The Tray Motor Board

In the images, you can see how to take off the tray mechanism, there are some things that can bee used here.

You will need knowledge in desoldering to retrieve the parts from the board.

1 x Green diffuse LED.

1 x DC motor.

1 x push button.

1 x strange button.

STEP 7: The Tray Mechanism

Here, there are some gears that you can use with the motor from the step before.

What you can make with this parts depends of your creativity, you can make a reduction to a robot or something like that, I using some these in one of my projects, You will see it in Instructables in some time.

STEP 8: That Thing That I Don't Know the Name.

Yep, I don't know if this thing has a name.

Let's call it 'Laser movementing mechanism', ok?

For me, that is the real treasure inside these drivers, because I have seen people use them to make laser cutters, engravers, 3D printers and plotters.

Following are some projects that I like with that mechanism:

A Bio Printer.

Poor Man's 3D Printer.

Pocket laser engraver.

And my favorite:

Printer from a CD reader.

STEP 9: The Brushless Motor.

The motor used to spin the CD or DVD is a brushless motor, that means that you can't simply connect two wires in a battery and it will spin, for that, you will need a Electronic Speed Controller (ESC) and maybe some mods , following are some instructables with motors like this.

Some projects with these motors:

Arduino CDROM BLDC Motor Driver

I saw people using these motors to fly RC planes with some modifications.

http://www.flyelectric.ukgateway.net/cdrom.htm

STEP 10: The Stepper

The motor used to movement the laser is a stepper motor, stepper motors are very good to positioning, the signal sent to the motor makes it move to a determined position.

The stepper motor in these drivers is bipolar, and have to be used with H bridges , I use the L239D chip, a dual H bridge to drive them.

Nice projects with these steppers:

Arduino Mini Laser Paper Cutter.

Arduino mini pen plotter.

The MicroSlice | A tiny Arduino laser cutter.

STEP 11: The Laser

The DVD/CD readers have two lasers, while the CD readers have only one, yeah... I think. The laser used to burn DVDs can be strong enough to burn matches and other things.

Following are some instructables using these lasers.

A Homemade Laser Pointer.

Homemade Laser Module.

*Don't point the laser to your eyes, or to anyone eye or not,it can do serious eye damage or burn the skin, don't be stupid it's not funny.*

STEP 12: Well Done!

Hey, we can stop here.

I hope that you liked this Instructable.

Remember to discard the parts that you're not using within the regulation of your city/state/country.

Now you have some things to experiment with, good bye and be creative!

In some days (or weeks) I will be here with something made with these drivers.

Please, if you liked my instructable, vote for me in the 'Teach it!' contest.

See you.

Comments

[AncheP]

ive opened a dead dvd player and found most of the parts that you found.
however I don't know the name of this one thing that looks like a lever, acts like a springy lever which returns to the center if toggled to any side. but its small and made of plastic. it disengages the tracking mechanism from the loading/transport tray when the drive opens up.
its soldered onto a pcb with three pins as inputs.
what is it?

[spoyspoy]

i think it's a switch

[LesB]

Just in case someone would like to save the drive: All the drives that have gone sour on me went bad because the hatch wouldn't open. In all cases this was due to the rubber drive belt on the hatch motor drying up and losing its "grab".

This can be fixed by buying silicone O-rings on eBay or other sites. A silicone O-ring of the right size will work as a drive belt better than the original, and it will last much longer. Just open the case and pull out the drawer, and drawer drive motor and its dried up belt will be visible.

Can't figure why the manufacturers won't improve the reliability of their drives by utilizing a 20-cent O-ring.

[zombieregime]

The view is different when you're a consumer versus a manufacturer. Yes there's all the anti-capitalist rantings about obsolescence and all that jazz. But when you're buying them in shipping container quantities, the prices look very very different. And could give you the wrong looking bar on your graph.... Which could ensure that Ted could swoop in with his proposal of using the cheaper bands and now you're out of a job....

Oh also sometimes the rubber they used in older devices including hifi tape decks would just disintegrate and turn into goo so be careful when playing with those it's hell to get off your fingers.... And stinks!

[SteveC60]

Same reason car manufacturers use custom plastic connectors, like for instance in personal experience, a VW Passat wagon electric radiator fan connector. Connector failed, approx. $200 motor/cable assembly junked and replaced. If they had used a Cannon plug (maybe max. $10 in bulk) it would outlast the car - that's why military and aircraft electronics use them or the equivalent from Amphenol, etc.

[deswiger]

If they fixed it, making it last too long, they couldn't keep selling their "New and Improved" ones.

[danloeser]

Easy: they'd sell way fewer drives that way.

[VardenJ]

This is good but will the bits and pieces help?

[zombieregime]

Very much so. On the electronics board are all of the analog and digital converters as well as the three phase motor driver to drive the spindle, and whatever positional feedback sensors they use. To just flippantly toss the board away without even googling the part numbers is a bit lazy and really wasteful. I'm kind of surprised OP would admit to that....

[zombieregime]

Not researching the chips and just 'not using the electronics board' is throwing away perfectly good motor controllers that you could be using to drive those tiny motors. It is incredibly wasteful, for what? Convenience of not having to Google some data sheets? Cmon, man. You're pursuing being tech nerd. You're better than that. Don't let the complexity beat you, it's just a handful of stuff in a small space. It's not actually that complex ;)

[ndpani]

Out of Three motors, one with a pulley fixed can be used directly.

For the other 2 stepper motors can anybody suggest a simple circuit and all details to effectively use them in projects. The one which moves the Laser is simply wonderful and can be used for a variety of projects. Waiting for a valuable suggestion.Dhandapani

[zombieregime]

Everything you need to operate the motors is already in the CD-rom. "I dont use the electronics board" is incredibly wasteful, there are a handfull of DACs, ADCs, the 3 phase motor controller with hall effect feed back for the spindle...

Write down the numbers on the chips and google them. Save the datasheets, read them. Yes all of them. Cover to cover, then read them again until you start getting a feel for what bits of information are important for your task and which aren't. Thats how everyone else does it. There are no shortcuts. Well, there is one, but that requires investment capital to just hire someone to do it for you. Because asking someone to do it for free is bad form.

But I'll give you this one hint for free. The step angles might be different, but a stepper is a stepper. Look up a stepper circuit and improvise if you cant afford a driver. Like I said, all that is needed to drive the motors in a cdrom are already in the cdrom....

[ViswanathanR]

I am a regular reader of this forum under Instructables and the items posted under this are very valuable ones to learn and do it yourself.Infact I have started collecting the old parts of electronics only after reading the post. I am a regular subscriber under my another e-mail ID: [e-mail]. Only sad part to me is I am unable to download the articles as PDF ones since it requires paidup membership which I cannot afford. Only I book mark these for my reading whenever I get my leisure.I ahve made lots of gadgets after seeing this site. Kudos for the site which promotes DIYers like me.

[TCZ]

how to compound the tools?

[TCZ]

how to compound the tools?

[eidolon1138]

Very well done. I like how you took so many pictures of each step. Also, it is fantastic that you include links to resource for using some of the components!

[TCZ]

teach it

[Robson Couto]

Thanks, I am glad you liked!

[ColinM85]

Great instructable. I've just learned the right way on the fourth CD Writer I've disassembled, but your instructable has clarified several points. A few notes based on recent research and experience : 1. DC motors with high-resolution encoders (I've found more in printers than CD/DVD drives) with appropriate control firmware give more control than the small stepper motors or hobby servos, plus, assuming there isn't too much friction, you can record movements from the encoder/controller, and play them back. (Motion control, anyone?) I can't remember if they can hold a load in position like a stepper. They're also smoother - I think. 2. I've just taken apart one of the "Stepper Motors" and it consists of a cylindrical magnet surrounded by two highly-wound coils, one around (I'm presuming) each pole. I've never seen a motor of this design before. The magnet is connected directly to the threaded rod, although the rod does not carry the magnetic field. Parts of the housing are aluminum, others are (I think) mild steel, based on their magnetic behaviour. 3. Does anyone know where to buy these (stepper motor + lead screw assembly)? They're a beautiful design -- I'd like to build a 9x9cm 2-axis plaster-of-paris (google for local name) engraver for metal casting. 4. With lasers don't sit around with a power supply trying to make a laser come on. If it's infrared you won't see it until you don't see anything. If it's a writer-laser you may see something as your retina burns out. I'm exaggerating but only a little. Be so very careful. Coherent light HURTS. 5. Does anyone have any idea what those two (presumed) nickel-coated neodymium magnets are for? Fine positioning? I'm just really curious because it looks really cool...

[TCZ]

teach it