Powerful Burning Laser

Hello today im going to show you how to make a powerful burning laser from DVD-RW, before we begin I must caution that its very powerful thing and can seriously damage your eyes, be careful.

Step 1: Diode

First thing first. We need to take off a laser diode from dvd driver, open it, find moving part with lenses, usually there is you’ll see 2 diodes IR for CD and just red for DVD, carefully take them from hit sinks, better before you start doing that solder together all the diode's terminals, in order to prevent damage from static electricity. Do not throw the rest, lenses may be helpful in this project, and small neodymium magnets good for levitron, if planning to do that. To be honest I don't have any DVD for about 3 years, so I just bought new diodes called LPC836 (Ali ) which is the most powerful one ever used in burners.

Step 2: Optic

Now lets talk about optic, as I said before, you can use native lenses from dvd, but you'll have to figure out how to fix them, I recommend to buy aixiz housing (Ali ), pair of dollars will solve all the problems with focusing. Interesting moment, you can buy only housing for about 3 dollars, or 5mw laser module with same housing but a dollar cheaper. So lets put our diode in to the housing, but first if you bought module like me, you need to remove the old insides and then press new diode.

Step 3: Driver

Next step is current limiter - driver, sadly we can not just connect diode to the battery its going to die immediately. So we need to build this simple circuit, if you google something about lasers from dvd before watching this video, you probably have seen easier one, I very don’t recommend to make it, when your diode is going to die is just a question of time. So as you can see there is only 2 components:

Chip LM317 (Ali or Amazon) and 3.3Ohm 2Watt resistor (Ali or Amazon). I also used little heat sink, but chip is absolutely cold, so you don’t need it. Solder resistor to the first two LM317’s terminals. And two wires, to first and last terminals, first is going to plus of laser diode and 3 rd to plus of power supply, minus is strait from battery to laser. One important moment, because I used a new diode I was 100% sure that it will handle this current, if you’re not sure use the series connection of two 3.3ohm resistors it’s give you a safe current for almost all diodes from dvd. I used a heat-shrink sleeve to protection from short. That’s it!

Step 4: Final

If you have a bit more experience you can try to make this driver, which I used for laser from preview. when I decided on the housing, first I made this aluminum washer-heat sink. Then made a new buttum, because needed more space for 18650 battery, I planed to solder all PCBs to the body of flashlight, but didn’t found good flux, so just press it inside. Best what I can imagine with driver board is just glue it on the right place. And at the and, press aluminum washer with collimator.

Step 5: P.S.

If you like this instructable don't forget to check out my YouTube Channel :)

Find me on social media:

• https://www.youtube.com/c/HowToDoEng
• https://www.instagram.com/konsta.kogan/

Comments

[Iseenhaah]

Is lmx37 recommended for high frequencies? >1MHz

[shahram.saeedi]

Dear sir,
I have a 1000mw engraving laser module, it was working well. Unfortunately it suddenly lost its burning power and wasn't capable of engraving anymore, although the laser diode is still ON and generates the same focused purple-blue light and the body of the module gets warm when it is plugged in to power. I changed the power source, result was the same, it is just a laser pointer, not burner.

Is the problem with the laser diode, or its driver? which one should I fix?
Tnx.

[f1air.9undi7]

Did you check the lens? I had a similar issue and noticed the lens was scorched. Although everything appeared the same I just would burn or engrave.

[shahram.saeedi]

Yes, the lens is OK, I think the diode is gone.

[sreenivas1503]

In my surroundings this type of dvd has not used.

[sreenivas1503]

Where can I bought IPC836?

[sreenivas1503]

How can I get it?
Are you can sale that dvd driver?

[tpattonjr]

I want a real burning laser that can burn skin or set clothes on fire! I don’t like weapons or fire arms so I think a laser would make a great protective distraction if you had to use it on anything !!

[MannP1]

Do i have to use a collimator

[Aditya Jeet yadav]

I need an circuit diagram for this circuit because I am student and I want to make my work education project which is laser gun which can burn

[Aproyagt]

I am interested in this project but i am not an engineer who knows complex circuits. Can you please simplify the circuit diagram. I dont understand what those bold lines means and where they are connected. And what those red black and grey text means

[wh1teshadow]

Hello, I'm an electrical engineer. For the question you asked above, the grey text is default value for the entire circuit, while thre red and black text are intended for a different LASER diode. For example: 3V 650 nm is refer to red laser diode with 650 nm wavelength and 2V 780 nm is intended for 780 nm laser diode. Hope this helps

[ciptian]

Hi everyone. I am trying to do this project with the NCP1529 but i can't understand how to calculate the output current. I looked on the internet but i did not found nothing. Do you know a site or the formula?

Thanks.

[tjh20]

Setting aside the tidy laser housing for the moment....Why couldn't the already focused laser assembly be used as is, provided the diode(s) is(are) properly powered? For that matter, keeping the assembly intact would allow operating each of the diodes as desired. And how about a separate driver for each diode to have them both on at the same time. I'm just killing time on the bench, not building a death-ray.

[okurt16]

Hi guys. I have a question about laser diodes. I want to make laser engraver. And I want to engrave wood, leather etc also I want to cut balsa wood ( soft wood about 3-4mm), foam for making aircraft models.I need some information about this issue. So how much ?nm , ?mW I need to use? What depends on the cutting this material? How can I calculate? Many thanks

[kusc007]

hey what did you use for the battery pack

[marderchen]

Nice.. (pulsing the laser is much bettet for getting more power.. so maybe try a simple NE555 circuit) but pleas do yourself a favor and do not buy ULTRAFIRE Li-ion cells.. (shown in video the typical red /black stripe look..) (have test they.. the real capacity is only ~1000mAh (mostly they are labled with 4800mAh etc...) also the don't supply a high current.. (and its dangerouse to charge them fast ) but the hole tink looks expensive.. ( http://www.ebay.de/itm/High-Power-250mW-Focusable-Laser-Module-Battery-Case-/161532045523?hash=item259c0f68d3:g:NLMAAOSwuMFUmToQ have buyed one.. some time ago.. (not sou powerfull like yours.. but it works https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yIRPoYDDm0 .. maybe finde some time to change the "resistor circuit to STM32 or NE555 puls circuit.. ) =^.^=

[lukeuser]

The trick of buying Ultrafire and other cheap Li-ion batteries is knowing what you're getting. Even with the significantly lower capacity and low current (this laser only needs a quarter of an amp), they can still be good value from my experience, as you can get them dirt cheap.

[fhedew]

I have no experience in electronics, but I was very interested in the tutorial you did. What is the name of the Chip LM317? I mean, has the chip a generic name?

[w7ov]

The LM317 is an adjustable voltage regulator. In the configuration shown it operates as a constant current source. See the document here for the LM317 spec's: http://www.onsemi.com/pub_link/Collateral/LM317-D.PDF