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Blu-ray Laser Gadget
i4u writes, "Wicked Lasers has done the unthinkable. They took the sparse blue laser diodes used in Blu-ray Disc drives and are making cool laser gadgets out of them, called Sonar. You can own one of these very limited edition lasers for $1,999.99. The price is that high because Wicked Lasers buys Blu-ray Disc players and removes the Blu-ray diode for the Sonar laser."
This one's cheaper...
;-)
All that searching and the cheapest source for one is right at the top of this page.
Mess not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.
Explain how to make something that actually cuts out of a DL-DVD laser, for a non-electronics geek, please? I'd like to mess with one.
I see another person did it too!
http://www.felesmagus.com/pages/lasers-howto.html
When you take the laser assembly out, you'll notice two of them mounted to little heatsinks. One of the two puts out light well into the visible red spectrum and the other is useless.
You can use the usual optical feedback supply to run at peak output, but since this dvd laser application used no feedback, neither did I. I hooked it directly up to the 5 volts from a USB cable through a 10 ohm resistor. You might want to steal a lens off another laser or a camera. If you don't use a lens, the beam spread will light up half the room.
This would be a good time to consider buying some eyewear that will filter out the red, because an accidental burst can get focused onto your retina. That would be bad.
From TFA:
"The cost of the Sonar is mainly due to the high price of laser diodes which are taken from Blu-ray disc players. The cost of a new Blu-ray disc player combined with international shipping, and import taxes raises the cost of obtaining a 405nm diode in China to approximately $1,500."
Either these guys a clinically stupid, or they're totally full of shit.
You can buy a brand new, already-imported, Sony BD-RW drive for under $500 according to the PC Connection catalog that is on my desk right now, and you can get a Sony standalone player for $799. They're paying $1500 for them? I bet they making the whole thing up and he's just holding a piece of (poorly) machined aluminum or a regular laser pointer in the picture. It's a ploy to get you to go to their website that you wouldn't have ever heard of otherwise. They priced it at $2k so that nobody would buy one, and they're hoping you'll pick up an overpriced green pointer while you're there.