Diodes (LEDs) from Electronics! Something else to sell!

Hey just a heads up, when ever you are scrapping certain electronics such as Projectors or Computers/Laptops that contain DVD Burners and Blu-Ray Burners (Not CD Burners), if you are patient enough to take the time to remove the LED/Diode from them, they sell on ebay! One of my hobbies is Lasers - not the little red dot kind, which usually rate at about 5mw. The 2 watt kind that burn things A popular method of obtaining the Diodes that are used in Handheld/Portable Lasers is "murdering" a projector, DVD/Blu-Ray Burner, or a few other specialty items that contain them.

You don't need to actually dissect the diode, it's much more delicate and fragile like that. You can either sell the whole Burner drive, or just the middle chunk that contains it. The Burner drives contain TWO diodes, one for reading, one for writing. The reading one is NOT what people are after - it uses Infared, usually 800 nm + range. These are very dangerous and largely avoided (despite how many IR Lasers are for sale....) because not only are they powerful enough to permanently blind people with just a quick flash, but you CANNOT see the light - you do not even realise you are blinding yourself until it is too late. The only way to really tell them apart (aside from experience) is to atatch them to an independent power supply, which is a pain. So just sell the whole chunk that contains them. You reduce your risk of damaging them too.

Do an Ebay search on Blu-Ray / DVD Burner Diode to see how they are selling, they go up and down.

I'm afraid to hook one of these to a power supply without knowing which one is the dangerous one. Can you give us a little more info on that part? I really don't want to get blinded, but would like to have a nice laser.

Originally Posted by Pnutfarmer

I'm afraid to hook one of these to a power supply without knowing which one is the dangerous one. Can you give us a little more info on that part? I really don't want to get blinded, but would like to have a nice laser.

These generally are not that powerful, usually laser setups with burners are 300mw-600mw - while all lasers do need to be respected for their potential danger, these pale in comparison to the high end ones.

Just keep the LEDs pointed away from you. The real risk is getting shot directly (in the eye) with them. The lasers that have dots that are bright enough to damage you by looking at (worded poorly....shining a dot on the ground and looking at the dot) are the higher strength ones.

Use a low power supply too. Just enough to get some juice going. Especially since you can easily overload it and kill it. I really do not have much experience when it comes to actually building them myself, but there is a wealth of information available all over the internet.

Just make sure that if you do sell them, you state that they were harvested from a USED *name/model of driver/projector/etc*. Buyers know that this means there is some risk involved. Projectors especially, since they usually have a time-line on them.

I would suggest selling them for much cheaper than the average current listings. Afterall, you would have normally just thrown them away, right?

Originally Posted by CandlePowerForums (Flashlight Hobbyist Forum)

Once we have the solder and connection loose from the diode it’s time to determine which of the two diodes is the red one. I use the diode tester feature on virtually every multimeter I have ever seen. It is an arrow with a line at the end. This tells us three things. 1. what wavelength the diode is 2. if the diode is still functioning and 3. which of the pins is negative and which is positive. I use a red sharpie to mark the positive and a black to mark the negative. You will find which of the diodes is the IR diode and which is the red one. I toss the IR diode, however you can keep it and do whatever you want with it. The power generally on the IR diode is usually very small but still enough to burn your eyes if collimated.

Here is a video just on identifying which is which.
How to Identify a burning red laser diode from a DVD burner computer drive « Hacks, Mods & Circuitry

I'm not too familiar with different projectors as they are a rare find. Is it damaged, does it work? If it works without too much of an issue, ebay it, projectors are generally expensive and used ones of quality sell used. I would suggest running a search on the model#/brand to try to find detailed tech specs, possibly include "diode" or "led" in the search query, to find out what type of diode is in there. Some projectors use LEDs, some use Bulbs. While the bulbs are not the diodes I mentioned in this post, they do sell sometimes. A lot of used projectors sell without the bulb in it because they burn out over time. This is why used projectors often list an approximation of how many hours of use it has had. Think if you were to (for some reason) but a used light bulb for your ceiling lighting fixture.

I always run a couple searches on any "special electronic" before breaking into it, to find out if there is a market for it in its "As Is/For Parts" condition, or for a certain part inside of it - similar to selling a Laptop's RAM vs chopping off the gold fingers, a Hard Drive from an Xbox that is an upgraded size, or how VCRs are selling for More Than Scrap.

As previously stated I don't have much experience at all with building the laser pointers, so I'm not too knowledgeable about this end of the field. But I know the general scrapper mentality of taking at least taking a shot at selling something that people will buy vs throwing it away. I usually just buy mine built by a specialty company or custom made by a hobbyist through the internet. A *GREAT* place to research is LaserPointerForums, if you are interested at all. It's to the laser community what this forum is to the recycling community, huge and a wealth of info.


Just ran a quick ebay search on that model.
sharp LCP vx100 | eBay

144 $ used, no lamp in it. No bids either, but gives you a rough price guess.

If you have all the cords to it, give it a test to see how if it works (if you don't know already). If it runs well, send me a message, I'd love to pick up a working projector for cheap!