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

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