By now I am sure all of you have heard about Blu Ray players. The heart of this innovative device is a special high power laser. Wicked Lasers is striving to bring cutting edge products to their customers. Steve over at Wicked Lasers was kind enough to show us how their new Sonar laser is developed. The crazy thing is that these lasers are so rare they must be harvested out of actual Blu Ray players. If you can afford one of these finely crafted lasers, I am jealous. 
Thanks Steve.
“The photos show our lead laser engineer, Dr. John Garner Ph. D. and his assistant.
The steps to create a Blu Ray pointer from a Blu Ray Disc Player is as follows:
First, the DVD player covering is removed
Then Blu Ray Diode is extracted carefully from the drive.
We have developed a PCB board to pair with the Blu Ray diode and optics are added to focus the laser beam.
After testing the power output, the laser module (Diode + PCB + lenses + brass housing) is inserted into another brass casing for heat dissipation and to fit the casing.
A single Cr-123A Lithium Ion battery is used to power the unit. The dot as shown is purple and registers to be 23mW.”
Here are some specs. for the finished laser.
“Sonar™ is the world’s only Blu-ray™ powered laser designed to satisfy the desires of true laser enthusiasts.
* 405nm Blu-ray™ laser diode
* Spacecraft grade 6061-T6 aluminum casing
* Super-regulated beam stability
* High-drain Li-ion power supply
* Limited edition!”
November 25th, 2006
Sonar Blu-ray Laser: How They Make It
We recently told you about Wicked Laser’s new Sonar model, a pocket laser made from the Blu-ray diode (ripped from the still-beating heart of a Blu-ray DVD player). Hit the jump to see how those mad scientists over at Wicked…
November 25th, 2006
Sonar Blu-ray Laser: How They Make It
We recently told you about Wicked Laser’s new Sonar model , a pocket laser made from the Blu-ray diode
November 25th, 2006
[…] Hacked Gadgets - Making the Sonar Blu-ray wicked laser […]
November 25th, 2006
DIY - Extra a High Powered Laser out of a Blu Ray DVD Player
You gotta check out wickedlasers, they make anywhere from a laser that’s simply
visible to lasers that can melt plastic. In the HackedGadgets article, we can see
how the high powered laser is being extracted from a blue-ray player. In short,
D…
November 25th, 2006
[…] [Hacked Gadgets] […]
November 26th, 2006
[…] There’s no question that the guys over at Wicked Lasers are completely laser obsessed, and their most recent laser-based endeavor — extracting the Blue laser from a Blu-Ray player to create what they call the “Sonar laser” — is a testament to this fact. Apparently the supply of the Blu-Ray diode is so short (we wonder why) that their team of laser engineers were driven to ripping apart a retail Blu-Ray player in order to extract its most valuable component. Presumably this extreme method is the justification behind the $1999.99 price tag that Wicked Lasers has placed on the Sonar laser, although we wouldn’t bet on them getting every diode this way. Personally, we’re left wondering why Wicked Lasers didn’t up the exclusivity factor by using gutted PS3s. That way they could’ve charged $2599.98, geddit? […]
November 27th, 2006
[…] There’s no question that the guys over at Wicked Lasers are completely laser obsessed, and their most recent laser-based endeavor — extractng the Blue laser from a Blu-Ray player to create what they call the “Sonar laser” — is a testament to this fact. Apparently the supply of the Blu-Ray diode is so short (we wonder why) that their team of laser engineers were driven to ripping apart a retail Blu-Ray player in order to extract its most valuable component. Presumably this extreme method is the justification behind the $1999.99 price tag that Wicked Lasers has placed on the Sonar laser, although we wouldn’t bet on them getting every diode this way. Personally, we’re left wondering why Wicked Lasers didn’t up the exclusivity factor by using gutted PS3s. That way they could’ve charged $2599.98, geddit? […]
November 27th, 2006
Making of the Sonar Blu Ray laser
Steve from Wicked lasers tried to sent us a zip file with the “making of” photos from the “Sonar Blu Ray laser” but big emails never work out, but pal Alan managed to get them posted up @ Hackedgadgets,…
November 28th, 2006
Hello, if 10mW were enough this http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20061020/122535/ would be a cheaper source for a blue ray laser. it is about 65 Euro
November 30th, 2006
[…] “By now I am sure all of you have heard about Blu Ray players. The heart of this innovative device is a special high power laser. Wicked Lasers is striving to bring cutting edge products to their customers. Steve over at Wicked Lasers was kind enough to show us how their new Sonar laser is developed. The crazy thing is that these lasers are so rare they must be harvested out of actual Blu Ray players. If you can afford one of these finely crafted lasers, I am jealous.” - Link. […]
December 5th, 2006
yeah… cool and all.. but how do u make one??????????
December 15th, 2006
what does the pcb control? How is that assembled? Why is it needed?
July 20th, 2007
[…] Blu-Ray laser pen is made out of gutted players November 27th, 2006 Sonar Blu-Ray laser pen is made out of gutted playersThere’s no question that the guys over at Wicked Lasers are completely laser obsessed, andtheir most recent laser-based endeavor—extracting the Blue laser from a Blu-Ray player to create what they call the “Sonar laser”—is a testament to this fact. Apparently the supply of the Blu-Ray diode is so short (we wonder why) that their team of laser engineers were driven to ripping apart a retail Blu-Ray player in order to extract its most valuable component. Presumably this extreme method is the justification behind the $1999.99 price tag that Wicked Lasers has placed on the Sonar laser, although we wouldn’t bet on them getting every diode this way. Personally, we’re left wondering why Wicked Lasers didn’t up the exclusivity factor by using gutted PS3s. That way they could’ve charged $2599.98, geddit? Read Filed under: Tech | […]
November 19th, 2007
I found this article and the next day, I had bought a PS3 drive off eBay ($50). Took it apart two days ago, created the circuit yesterday and tonight I have a finished Blue Laser pointer.
Click my name to see a slideshow of pictures I took during deconstruction/construction.