We own two DVD players. Well, three. Well, four – but one is a portable DVD player for trips and one is a replacement for one of the first two. The first two are really old – and were just failing. They had problems loading DVD’s or just even turning on. I was curious what I would find inside.
Of interest I found a bunch of small motors, a few LED’s, springs, magnets, tiny mirrors, rubber belts and super tiny precision rods.
There are obviously lots of little capacitors and whatnot. What else should I pull out of these things?
Don’t forget the laser diodes. CD laser diodes are infrared (translation: they kill eyesight) and the DVD lasers are visible red. Don’t look at a powered on CD laser. Playing with DVD lasers is ok, though, and is really fun.
@cyrozap: Oh, dang. I’m pretty sure I completely destroyed the laser diodes. :( I think those were the bits near the tiny mirrors. I basically took out every screw from every part and pried apart all the things I didn’t understand. (Haha!)