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ISSUE 223 FEB 2009
PERFORMANCE GEAR & GAMING
ESSENTIAL TECH SKILLS
ISSUE 223 I’D BUY THAT FOR A DOLLAR
I’D BUY THAT FOR A DOLLAR
OVERCLOCK YOUR LAPTOP Revealed! How to improve your laptop performance by over 20% for free!
BUILD YOUR OWN LASER POINTER FOR PENNIES
Give your DVD-RW a new lease of life
WWW.PCFORMAT.CO.UK
THERE’S MORE… Code your own Xbox games Screen tech explained Phenom II: AMD is back Tweak Left4 Dead
PLUS!
GEAR OF THE YEAR Issue 223 Feb 2009 £5.99 Outside UK & ROI £6.49
PRINCE OF PERSIA LEAPS INTO ACTION PCF223.cover 1
IN DEPTH PREVIEW GHOSTBUSTERS 18/12/08 12:56:10 pm
Make a frickin’ laser beam!
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Make this!
Rip the heart out of your Lightscribe drive and turn it into a high-intensity laser pointer
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o matter if it’s children playing out Star Wars adventures or half-demented Cold War rulers playing out their defence budgets, everyone loves frickin’ laser beams! You may have seen laser pointers before but you haven’t seen anything like this: a laser pointer built from a Lightscribe drive’s innards. All you need is an old Lightscribe DVD writer, preferably 16x speed, and an existing laser assembly. Bolted together or even placed in an old Maglight style torch case, it’ll make the perfect high-power laser pointer. At its heart this Make works, thanks to the Lightscribe laser diode. Not only does it produce a visible red laser, but it is powerful enough to heat things up. A normal CD/DVD-ROM or RW diode is only function in the IR spectrum. To perfect this project, we’ll add a power regulator (Maplin code:UF27E) and a feedback control 14ohm resistor to the laser diode’s power input. This extends the life of the laser diode, as otherwise it’ll burn out quickly, due to
over current. An existing laser assembly is required to get the right beam focus and this is the main expense. It shouldn’t need to be said but the pointer should never be pointed at anyone as it will permanently damage eyes. ¤ Neil Mohr
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What you will need ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤
LightScribe DVD rewriter 9v battery & adaptor Laser assembly LM317T Power regulator 14 ohm resistor Solder kit Multimeter
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Future Publishing Limited provides the information for this project in good faith and makes no representations as to its completeness or accuracy. Individuals carrying out the instructions in this project do so at their own risk and must exercise their independent judgement in determining the appropriateness of parts, equipment, sealants and other
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adhesives for a particular use. All laser based products are dangerous and great care should be taken when using them. Lasers should never be pointed at a person, doing so could result in permanent damage to the eye. Protective clothing, gloves and goggles/safety glasses should also be worn at all times, when using soldering.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, Future Publishing Limited takes no responsibility for any person relying on the information relating to this project and disclaims all liability for any errors, omissions, damage or injury to users or their equipment as a result of or relating to their making and use of the laser pointing device.
February 2009
16/12/08 5:13:30 pm
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“The laser diode not only produces a visible red laser, but it is powerful enough to heat things up”
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How to make a laser beam 9
Start taking the DVD drive apart (1). Locate and remove the diode caddy, and remove all the of the surround circuit board, until you get down to the prism (2). To make testing easier attach connections to the positive and negative terminals of the laser diode. The positive pin is the right-side orange pin (3). The power regulator’s right-side input pin connects to the positive output from the 9V power source. The regulator’s left-side output pin will connect to the positive input of the laser diode. While the negative output of the laser diode will connect to the 9V battery’s negative terminal. Purists will point out we should have a capacitor, but we’re just doing a dirty solution (4). To create the regulated current a resistor connects the left output pin of the regulator and its central adjust pin. Every diode is different, ours ran happily with a 14ohm resistor which created a 100ma current (5). You should test the circuit to see what the current is running at, you may want to do this with a LED in place (6). Open the laser assembly, we had to hacksaw ours (7). Remove the laser diode and place the new diode into the assembly (8). Construct the circuit inside a suitable casing with the power supply, such as a medium Maglight, but the power supply has to be at least 6 to 9 volts (9). More impressive than Star Wars (10). February 2009
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