Hacked Gadgets Forum

October 2, 2007

Hard Disk Drive Voice-Coil Laser Shutter Actuator

at 5:32 am. Filed under Computer Hacks, Cool Gadgets, Electronic Hacks

Seems like there is no end to the uses of old hard drives. This hack uses the voice coil of a used hard drive to act as a Laser Shutter.
Thanks for the tip Robo.

“We have developed a high-speed laser shutter based on voice-coil actuators found in generic hard disk drives. We have enhanced the shutter with a new driver circuit described below and a notched flag, achieving 500ns rise time and sub-microsecond pulse durations. The shutter is readily constructed from a disassembled hard drive (as shown in an early prototype in the photo above), with the addition of a simple drive circuit. A high-current opamp (e.g. L165V or OPA548) can be used, but requires a bipolar power supply, and generally some sort of pulse shaping. The circuit in our paper, designed by Sandor Szilagyi, provides very fast switching, a small holding current, and bidirectional drive from a unipolar supply.”


 


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4 Responses to “Hard Disk Drive Voice-Coil Laser Shutter Actuator”

  1. marks256 Says:

    Someone should make a ridiculously large digital camera with that… :D

  2. Alan Parekh Says:

    That would be cool!

  3. Mel Garcia Says:

    Is there any way that you could send me the materials needed for this gadget?

  4. Alan Parekh Says:

    Send you the physical stuff? Or just what is needed? If you are looking for the later please go here:
    http://optics.ph.unimelb.edu.au/atomopt/shutter/shutter.html

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