# Burning Blu ray laser diode???



## wek120

Ive been trying to find a burning blu ray laser for fairly cheap, but all there is are about 30mw tops which I didn't think would burn anything anyway... Anyone know if there are 150+ mw blu rays?


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## IgorT

wek120 said:


> Ive been trying to find a burning blu ray laser for fairly cheap, but all there is are about 30mw tops which I didn't think would burn anything anyway... Anyone know if there are 150+ mw blu rays?


 

You're gonna have to wait till the BlueRay writer drives become faster and cheaper..

People are guessing it might start happening in a year. I hope they are right. But it'll probably still be very expensive..


Which one are you talking about, when you say 30mW? Is it the diode from the PS3 replacement sled? That is just a reader. I don't think that one can safelly do 30mW for long. If you're talking about another one, please post a link.

I'll check the graph, just to make sure how powerfull the reader BR LD is..


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## IgorT

I was able to find some prices on powerfull laser diodes in the Blue Ray wavelength..

Sanyo DL-3146-151 (405nm @ 7mW 5.6mm) Laser Diode (AVAILABLE IN STOCK) 

For 1 pcs ------------ $845.- USD/per unit 

For 10 pcs ------------ $795.- USD/per unit 

For 25 pcs ------------ $760.- USD/per unit 

Nichia NDHV310APC (400-415nm @ 60mW 5.6mm) Laser Diode (AVAILABLE IN STOCK) 

For 1 pcs ------------ $2100.- USD/per unit 

For 10 pcs ------------ $1975.- USD/per unit 

For 25 pcs ------------ $1625.- USD/per unit 

Nichia NDHV220APAE1 (400-415m @ 200mW 5.6mm) Laser Diode (lead time 2 weeks) 

For 1 pcs ------------ $3100.00.- USD/per unit 

For 5 pcs ------------ $2833.00.- USD/per unit 

For 10 pcs ------------ $2571.00.- USD/per unit 

For 25 pcs ------------ $2292.00.- USD/per unit 



I would love a 60mW or even a 200mW Blue Ray laser, but those prices are bizzare..


We are going to have to wait for them to get cheaper because of BlueRay Writers becoming faster and more widespread...


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## IgorT

Oh, and i checked the graph of relationship between the output power and current for the Blue Ray reader diodes, from the PS3 replacement sleds

Most people are driving them at around 39mA. 40mA corresponds with approx 20mW of output power.

For 30mW you would need 50mA, but i don't know how long it would last.


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## allthatwhichis

marconi has a 1x burner diode doing 25mW all day long and another, what I think is 2x, doing 65mW. He has been selling them on eBay for awhile. He has them in the same housing as his Maxyzmodule reds. 

If I had the money, I would spend the extra grand for a 200mW well before I'd buy that 60mW in the prices above.


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## IgorT

How much does he charge for the 30mW and the 60mW?


I have decided to be happy with 20mW for now, since it's cheap (US$25 from the PS3 replacement sled) so i would rather wait for the burners to become faster and cheaper...


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## Gazoo

IgorT said:


> How much does he charge for the 30mW and the 60mW?
> 
> 
> I have decided to be happy with 20mW for now, since it's cheap (US$25 from the PS3 replacement sled) so i would rather wait for the burners to become faster and cheaper...



Hello Igor,
I don't know where you are getting the idea your laser is putting out 20mw's. Running the blu-ray with 40ma's will yield appx. 7mw's. I have confirmed this with my LPM-1. You would need to run it with at least 55ma's to get 20mw's out of it, and you would be risking an early death running with that much current. 

I did it one time at 55ma's because I wanted to see if I could light a match as a few others have done. I was able to but it took me quite awhile because the focus had to be perfect. I am lucky that diode did not suffer any damage.


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## IgorT

Gazoo said:


> Hello Igor,
> I don't know where you are getting the idea your laser is putting out 20mw's.


 
I was talking about HemlockMike's graph on LPF.

Is there a better one available? I know he had to use some corrections for that one..









This is the graph i was talking about. From this it would seem, that 40mA is almost enough for 20mW.. Maybe 17mW.

Is this graph wrong?


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## Gazoo

I was looking at Leslie's graph here:

http://www.fineartradiography.com/hobbies/lasers/blu-ray/diode.html

This contradicts Mike's graph. So I don't really know.


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## IgorT

Gazoo said:


> I was looking at Leslie's graph here:
> This contradicts Mike's graph. So I don't really know.


 

Leslie was using Coherent laser check, which i think is better than Laser Power meter (right?), that Mike was using. Also Mike had to double the reading to correct for wavelength.

But Leslie mentions, that his Blue Ray was ESD damaged, so it's output is seriously lower.

I believe, he is getting 5 or 7mW at 40mA because of this. At least that's what it says on his page. Something similiar happened to me, when i repositioned mine. It was incredibly bright at 39mA, but when i touched it, it suddenly lost 2/3 - 3/4 of it's power...

Before that happened it looked MUCH brighter than the 5mW red, and since 405nm wavelength is much less visible, than the red, mine might have been 15mW at 39mA, before i touched it.. Of course i'm just guessing here..

I still can't figure out where the ESD went in my case, since the LD was in the circuit, with a cap and on a battery, not a PSU...


BTW: Does your laser meter have a correction graph for different wavelengths?


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## IgorT

I checked again.. Mike used two different meters.

These are his results..




> Using the above breadboard setup (no TEC), I measured the Power output with my LM 1400 and LPM-1. The LM1400 has a correction factor of 2x at 400 nM. DDL reports a correction factor of 1.75x with the LPM. ---------
> 
> My results with the BR running for several minutes at 46 mA and using the provided factors -----
> 
> LM1400 --- 20.6 mW
> 
> LPM-1 ---- 20.02 mW


 

Pretty impressive, right? I'm quite sure my good one was just as powerfull before it died.. Of course the first one was never even close, so they might vary A LOT...


How many Blue Ray LDs do you have Gazoo? Are they visibly different in output power?


I just ordered two more, and hope they get here soon.. This time i'll prepare everything else first, the circuit, batteries and enclosure..

I found some nice AAA size 500mAh Li-Pos from UltraFire, so they'll fit into my small remote enclosure together with a current regulated buck converter - LM3402 (4 ordered as samples from National and many coils from CoilCraft, enough for all boost or buck regulators i might ever build, all for free...)

I can hardly wait! 



EDIT: Damn.. CoilCraft refused my samples order, because they say i don't meet the criteria for a high volume manufacturer.. Well, if they could read Slovenian, they would realize, that we do have a R&D department. I sent them additional information and hope they reconsider...


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## jdwannam

Hey I just ran across this posting on Engadget. Apparently Sharp has released a 250mw laser for 6x Blu-ray burning. They have it available in 3.3 and 5.6mm cans. Expensive right now but mass production will start in April.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/14/sharps-laser-to-enable-6x-dual-layer-blu-ray-laptop-burning/


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## RDZombie

jdwannam said:


> Hey I just ran across this posting on Engadget. Apparently Sharp has released a 250mw laser for 6x Blu-ray burning. They have it available in 3.3 and 5.6mm cans. Expensive right now but mass production will start in April.
> 
> http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/14/sharps-laser-to-enable-6x-dual-layer-blu-ray-laptop-burning/



hells yeah! these are meant to be driven pulsed, i wonder how far you could push them CW


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## IgorT

RDZombie said:


> hells yeah! these are meant to be driven pulsed, i wonder how far you could push them CW


 
Omg, this almost made me drool....

Yeah, that was my first thought as well.. But 250mW pulsed is an incredible specification..


We've been pushing red DVD LDs with 120mW pulsed rating up to 150mW CW, and sometimes more...

Still, with something so expensive, i wouldn't dare go over it's maximum ratings.. The diode itself costs 460$, But even at it's normal CW rating it would probably be incredibly impressive!


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## Gazoo

Igor,
This is nuts..lol The most current I can get going to my diode using a 5 volt regulator is 29ma's...the voltage across the diode is 5.16 volts. It only measures 3.5mw's on my LPM-1 after doing the conversion.

Before I could get 55ma's going to the laser with a voltage just under 5 volts. 
I don't remember what I measured it at on my LPM-1 but I know it was more. I didn't do anything to it...it has been laying on the table connected to the circuit. But I have been using a Radio Shack 3 amp PSU and I have one of those cigarette lighter things that plugs into it and the voltage is selectable. But it is a switching adapter so I highly doubt the PSU was causing spikes.

I have 2 more sleds I can harvest and will get one of them done over the weekend and report back. And like you...I am going to run it from a battery from now on.


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## IgorT

Gazoo said:


> Igor,
> But I have been using a Radio Shack 3 amp PSU and I have one of those cigarette lighter things that plugs into it and the voltage is selectable. But it is a switching adapter so I highly doubt the PSU was causing spikes.
> 
> And like you...I am going to run it from a battery from now on.


 
Yes, that was a VERY painfull lesson. I will never run the driver circuit off a PSU again.


My PSU is also a switching adapter, with current limiting, but the problem is, that it puts ES and D together, since it provides a path to the ground..
If i walk around the room, and touch the PSU wires, i always feel a powerfull shock.


I thought my laser would be safe once in the circuit and with a cap, but then i just touched it, to repositon it, and it lost more than 3/4 of the power..

The electrical characteristics changed almost exactly like you described. Suddenly it needed more voltage for a lower current. And i'm guessing the output was also like you measured... These are extremely sensitive.

You're lucky, to have two more sleds.. I have to wait for the new GB to finish, and then some, for them to come half way around the globe...


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## IgorT

Gazoo said:


> I have 2 more sleds I can harvest and will get one of them done over the weekend and report back.


I'm anxiously awaiting your results.

I really hope the next thing you say is "OMG, i didn't know these can be so bright! Something must have been wrong with the first one!".

I think the reasons for your low readings were ESD. It would explain why they match with Leslie's graph, any my own LD's characteristics.
You could actually be surprised, if the next one turns out ok. I certainly was, after i accepted how dim they were, only to find, that the second was MUCH brighter. Untill i killed it of course.. 

I've seen many posts from people with meters, saying that their BRs are giving out around 20mW at approx 40mA, so i'll just keep my fingers crossed.

Good luck!


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## Gazoo

There is no other way to explain the loss in output....I am sure it was ESD. It was running at a comfortable 38ma's. The only reason I turned it up to 55ma's was so I could light a match, but after that I never did it again. I will definitely report back when I get the next one going.


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## Hemlock Mike

The system lost my first reply here. I'll try again.

My first diode was, unknown to me, a hot one and I pushed it over the cliff to see what it could do. I did pop one and light a match but it's life was ~15 minutes before it dropped slowly to a 1 mW laser.
The second diode did not respond like the first and died an early death at about 45 mA. This is why I have the third diode running at 39 mA @ 13 mW. Works for me !!
Since the first PS3 sleds came in, we have observed some variance in their abilities -- Some are hot, Some are not !

Mike


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## IgorT

Hemlock Mike said:


> This is why I have the third diode running at 39 mA @ 13 mW. Works for me !!


So it was the first one, that gave that graph? Almost 20mW at 40mA?




Hemlock Mike said:


> Since the first PS3 sleds came in, we have observed some variance in their abilities -- Some are hot, Some are not !


What do you mean by "hot"?

I noticed a huge difference between the two of mine, as i already mentioned. After realizing the first one should be at least four times brighter, i started pushing it, and it was running at 70mA for a while, untill it's lasing treshold jumped again, to 140mA..

The funny thing is, it's actually still a laser, but only if i run it at 200mA! It gets extreemely hot, while doing so, but the beam is visible with some smoke. Of course it's not even close to the beam of the second one at 39mA... But the funny thing is, that the output is "stable" at this current, and only drops due to heat.. It still hasn't died completelly. Has anyone else tried pushing their presumably dead BRs to ridiculously high currents?


I just hope i have better luck with my next two..


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## Gazoo

I don't know what's up with these BR reader diodes. I tried a new one and it is working, but I am not sure it is working like it should. I can run it up to 75ma's or more...no problem. I have not gone higher than 75ma's and my reading with that amount of current is just a tad over 19mw's. 

I am not going to order any more...none of this makes sense. I am going to wait until BR burners come down in price and try that instead.


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## IgorT

Gazoo said:


> I am not going to order any more...none of this makes sense. I am going to wait until BR burners come down in price and try that instead.


 
Ok, i didn't expect this...  I'm sorry to hear that, Gazoo.

They really are very weird, aren't they? I just hope i can get a stable output from the next two....


To fit the laser in my small enclosure (you know which one i'm talking about - the remote door opener), i took appart a Varta 9V Ni-MH 200mA block, to get those 7 tiny cells out.. If i line the sides of my tiny enclosure with them, they still leave enough space for the circuit and the laser in the middle.. This is how i'll keep it tiny. I really hope i get at least one good BR out of it. If both worked this time, it would be even better.


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## Gazoo

It's ok though..lol It is much brighter. I think it might be a Nichia diode..at least that's exactly what it is acting like according to the table on Leslie's website. I know it's weird and Leslie says they don't use them in PS3 sleds, but if you look at that table on Leslie's website the diode I just harvested matches the table.


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## IgorT

Gazoo said:


> I know it's weird and Leslie says they don't use them in PS3 sleds, but if you look at that table on Leslie's website the diode I just harvested matches the table.


Didn't your previous one match that table as well?

So this one is brighter, but you have to push it to 70mA? You think it'll live long?


I'm confused now.. Does this mean, that i got two different one in the first group buy, since the second was 3-4 times brighter than the first one?

I wonder what i get this time.. Hope at least one of them is the bright kind.. Damn, now i'm worried.


EDIT: Oh, the Nichia is supposed to be better, right?
Are you saying, that your second BR matches the Nichia datasheet table or the PS3 P/I graph? The graph is of an ESD damaged PS3 BR, if i understand that correctly.


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## Gazoo

My second BR diode matches the Nichia datasheet table. The first one was operating correctly with 38ma's.


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## Kenom

I can get my hands on a 415nm that is rated up to 1 WATT pulsed. they want $1700 for that baby. Might be worth it if you can get what they claim of 200mw cw out of it.


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