Replacing Diodes in Optical pickups/lasers ?

Hi all!

This is something that I'm having a hard time finding info for..

Repairing optical pickups AKA LAZORZ!!1

I'm assuming the most common failure is the diode? Is this a universal part for certain media ie: All CD based readers use X, DVD uses Y or combo XY diode?? ect..
Because the media is the same, I'm assuming the way it's read physically is the same...

Repairing these pickups would be better than trying to source a good pickup for say a Goldstar 3DO or something like that...




For example, I'm assuming the #1 LD is a dual CD-DVD device and LD #2 is for HD-DVD as it's a smaller width..

So say this pickup stopped reading CD's but could still read DVD's or HD-DVD's, meaning the focus and adjustment mechanisms are functioning.. We'd just have to replace LD #1?

No as far as finding a replacement part, finding the entire assembly to fit in there would be hard, as I'm assuming that assembly is custom made to fit the entire unit.. But what if we salvaged the same width LD from a newer cheap device (old working dvd player)


I guess I'll have to pull apart some optical pickups and have a play around but there are some pretty smart people on here that may know something more that would help..

 

Hell would freeze before you were able to align those parts within the required precision without the right equipment...
So reassemble the pickup after repair would prove to be a real hairy problem.

Things I've witnessed on all kinds of optical disc drives:

The laser diode being worn out...
Speckles of dirt being trapped between prisms/mirrors...
Scratched objective lens...
Mechanical shock made it lose alignment or dislodged one of the parts...
Torn/cut flex PCB...
Shorted out Focusing or Tracking coils...
Faulty photo diode...

Most times it went to the bin.

 

Alignment is a *bleep* even in old he-ne laserdisc players where you can actually see the results of any changes. Took me hours.