I have an old usb CD-RW drive, which has a USB plugin, an s video output, and two audio outputs (left and right). It's fairly slow, and all the computers in our house have built in dvd/cd-rw's now, so my dad was going to throw it away. I told him I wanted it. I could give it to some charity or something, but I'd much rather use it for something. If no one can come up with something cool to do, then I'll probably just scavenge parts from it (motors, infrared diode, etc)

EDIT: http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?cid=10&id=349&pg=
That's the exact burner, model number and all

Play with the Laser, make a laser pointer or something.

RDP

By the way, that's not an s-video output - it's a multi-pin DC input from a power supply.

Usually these things are just regular IDE drives with a separate USB->IDE converter. If you take it apart, you can use it for hard drives or DVD drives instead.

Also fun for the laser. It might not be quite powerful enough to burn things, but it's bright enough to cause severe eye damage instantly. Great fun.

Oh, thanks. I just kinda glanced at it and assumed it was video, heh.

Also, as for the laser pointer, CD burners use infrared light. All making a "laser pointer" out of it would do would be make an intense beam of infrared light, which is invisible and can cause severe eye damage without you realizing it until after it's too late. I think I'll leave the laser idea alone.

The hard drive idea is interesting, I'll open it up and see if it has a PATA connection.

EDIT: You were exactly right, it's a molex power connector, a PATA connector, and an audio connector for the audio output. I'll probably put one of my spare hard drives in it and use it as an external backup drive.

Now, any ideas for the actual cd burner?

Also, as for the laser pointer, CD burners use infrared light. All making a "laser pointer" out of it would do would be make an intense beam of infrared light, which is invisible and can cause severe eye damage without you realizing it until after it's too late



your answer lies in this paragraph

Ghetto rig a mouse trap that burns a copy of Rick Astley's greatest hits onto the poor rodent once the bait is disturbed and the lid snaps shut.

Also, as for the laser pointer, CD burners use infrared light. All making a "laser pointer" out of it would do would be make an intense beam of infrared light, which is invisible and can cause severe eye damage without you realizing it until after it's too late. I think I'll leave the laser idea alone.

Why do people automatically jump to eye damage when it comes to lasers?

Use an infrared camera (pretty much any digital camera with the filter removed, or a camera with night shot, or even a cheapo digital with a cheapo IR filter) to pick the dot up when projected on a surface, focus it and use it for this:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/767822/laser_espionage_microphone_how_to/

With the powerful infrared beam, the whole process will be less obvious and can be used at a longer distance.

Put a hood over the photocell to block out the ambient light, you'll get better fidelity like that.

Plus, glass is much less IR permeable, so the reflection will be better.

you can always make it into a hidden storage unit. i made one internally, and have instructions here:

http://www.instructables.com/id/dvd-drive-hidden-storage/

Those old USB to ATAPI bridge boards are very slow and may not even work with IDE interfaces. Although the physical connector for CD and hard drives is the same, they speak slightly different languages.
I remember trying to get an old external burner like yours to read a hard drive and it just wouldn't do it. I even tried updating the firmware of the converter board.
But you might be luckier.

I like the laser espionage idea too.

Why do people automatically jump to eye damage when it comes to lasers?


Because eye damage is kind of what they call a "big deal". Great post though.

Also I know some CD drives at least have a visible red beam of light. Maybe yours is IR, I don't know.

that can separate into 2 things

1) laser pointer
2) light automatic sanding disc

You guys aren't creative enough.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgJ0EpxjZBU&feature=related

I had an old one of those a little while back. They're really just a standard internal CD burner housed within a case. I took out the fan, and used it to get some data off an IDE drive that I took out of an old PC. It saved opening up my own. :D

Shows what you know. I've been looking into this vein of projects for some time now. You need a DVD burner, CD burners are just IR pointers, more suited to surveillance if they can achieve the range.

Well, I broke the IR diode =(
Now I'm left with everything except for that.

Motorised cup holder?

You just broke the most expensive/useful part.