play around with an old CD-ROM drive

[mdanh2002]

Hi

I have an old 8X IDE CD-ROM drive removed from my old 386 computer. The CD-ROM drive is still working mechanically and detectable by the computer, but the laser inside has been damaged. Now that I have removed it, I wonder if there are any ways to re-use the component inside? As for the motors, how do I make them move without the computers? I tried connecting it to a computer supply, search for IDE interface and tried trigerring it by feeding input to the IDE cable but did not succeed. I can only make the drive door open/close: the motor to do this was a normal DC motor an its +/- inputs are exposed. (I could make a floppy drive motor move by feeding input to the cable)

Any ideas?

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Connect directly to the motors, and feed them that way - they are probably all just normal DC motors, due to the low cost of the drives.

 

[things]

actually i have seen some motors in cd drives that have to have a pulsed current in a sequence to move them? because they have 3 connections and don't do much when you hook up dc to them

 

[mdanh2002]

Only the motor that opens/closes the drive door is a normal DC motor and has 2 connections. There is another one responsible for rotating the disk and it has at least 5 connections - I don't know how to make it move. Maybe a stepper motor? The one with 3 connections you mention is probably a servo, just feed DC to 2 pins and a pulse to the 3rd pin and it should work, but I cannot find such a motor in my drive.

 

[things]

well the motor i mentioned was for spinning the disk. and my guess why it has many connections is because you have to get the right speed for it to read the disk so maybe one is a tacho.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

well the motor i mentioned was for spinning the disk. and my guess why it has many connections is because you have to get the right speed for it to read the disk so maybe one is a tacho.

Unlikely, there's no need (or use) for a tacho, the feedback signal comes from the CD itself, and keeps it at a constant linear velocity.

It sounds like it might be a brush-less DC motor?, but these have become less common as prices of drives have fallen so much.

 

[things]

It sounds like it might be a brush-less DC motor?, but these have become less common as prices of drives have fallen so much.

yes, actually i just noticed,the windings are mounted on the board. and the top part sits over them and spins .

 

[ParkingLotLust]

I have an old(er) Sony Discman that I tore apart to get the motor out of once... To my dismay, it ended up having four or five leads connected to it. If you listened really closely to it when it played a cd, you could hear it spin up, then spin down, then spin up, etc.

In short, Im wondering about the number of connections too

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I have an old(er) Sony Discman that I tore apart to get the motor out of once... To my dismay, it ended up having four or five leads connected to it. If you listened really closely to it when it played a cd, you could hear it spin up, then spin down, then spin up, etc.

In short, Im wondering about the number of connections too

Sounds like a DC brushless motor, in Discman's the size is obviously critical.

 

[spiffitz]

The disc spinner motors are brushless, hence the 3 wires. For a while the radio control plane guys were modifying these motors by re-winding them to use as a low-profile, lightweight aircraft motor. The aftermarket caught on and now make their own cdrom-type brushless motors, also known as "outrunners".

Example:
**broken link removed**

 

[Sceadwian]

They're the inverse of standard motors. The coils are stationary, the rest of the motor housing spins. High torque, low inertial mass because the coils aren't spinning.