Let me start by saying i have searched and searched the internet the afterdawn forums and called people offering this service with little to no luck and am confused from some of the info i have received
i own the local computer repair store and lately i have gotten a few calls about the fat ps3 laser (kem/s 400)going bad. i have done plenty of these replacements buying them from ebay and such.then i found a local guy who sells big time on ebay and started buying from him local($50 a piece).i know its not a bad price but here is what im looking to do.i have a guy that is great with soldering and we have purchased a few diodes(6) to be exact in doing all of these we managed to get one working.with very little effort at all. the problem is i have 5 that all appear to work.they light up blue and red and seem to focus correctly (from what i can see with out any electronic help)my goal is to be able to replace the diodes and save everyone money the cost is about 20 for the diode vs 50 for a laser assembly plus a mark up if sold to a customer.i'd love to get that down for alot of reasons
my question is this for all you that have tried this or know anything about this process.is there a way to calibrate these things or am i wrong in thinking that calibrating these is the problem.does it involve things like an oscilloscope or other tools (if so any explanation would be (helpful)
i have read on other forums about a disk that does this for sony and big expensive machines also the disk thing i do not buy the machines i do but also people have said about a computer program that can do it but i question that because how would you hook up the laser to the pc?
any help would be appreciated and not only help me but i hope we can share all the information with ps3 users to save us all some money and not keep forking out to sony
Not sure, but I would imagine that you could use a scope and the same calibration disk you would use for any other calibration...only you would probably need a bluray calibration disk as well as a DVD calibration disk.
If there is no way to adjust them, then they cannot come out of alignment, except when parts wear out. I know there are no pots (at least on the photos I have seen), but I think there might be a little bit of adjustment in the angle (have not tried; I am lucky enough to have a fully working drive).
As for saving money, the benefits would be minimal, as it would be a very short-term fix, useful only for scamming people into buying your PS3 with a dead laser. On top of that, the laser assemblies are not that expensive, and you can even just change the lens in many cases.
i think your missing my point just a bit.i can buy new diodes for around $8 if i get alot of them.at $8 after i pay a tech to install them i can resale a laser for less than 30 instead of the 50 to 60 people are paying on ebay and the like.ive also seen people getting over $100 for install of the new laser.also it keeps for of these in service longer as new ones are no longer being made
Interesting...so rather than trying to get the aiming right, your concern is just for getting a LED that does not fit the spec to run at a slightly different voltage so that it does fit the spec? Couldn't you just get the same LEDs that sony used? I don't think they were made by sony, so they should be available if you are looking to buy in bulk anyway.
Edit...
I was just thinking of it and I came to a realization: The LEDs that sony uses must be made to some very exacting standards. I say this because the POTs for adjustments are never intended for the end users, and sony does not care if repair shops can use them. They are only there on the PS2 because sony's LED quality was not perfect, and they had to adjust these on each new laser unit. If you get some of the same LEDs that sony used, no adjustment should be needed, at least in theory.
fony tend to use bias and offset pots on the mainboard if there are none on the laser sub assembly itself.. the offset usually needs adjusting after the unit is assembled to get an acceptable eyeheight but as they don't release schematics or any details about the horrid thing the only way to find out is to take the whole thing apart and look over the board for any small pots called bias, offset or drive.. something like that.
The only way to get a laser to work to close enough specs to run a demanding application like reading a disk you must use exactly the right one.. They don't run "off specs" in an acceptable way. It's a quantum effect (I could explain bit it will take pages of complicated algebra). changing voltages causes all kinds of weird things to happen. Buy the right one, make things foolproof.. the wrong one won't work.
