Daorier Ky 008 Saver Laser Transmitter Module 650nm for Arduino Review and Code

Today I review the Daorier Ky 008 Saver Laser Transmitter Module 650nm module for Arduino and provide example code.

Overview of the Daorier Ky 008 Saver Laser Transmitter Module 650nm

The Daorier Ky 008 Laser transmitter module includes a standard 650nm red laser on the PCB. This is an incredibly cheap and powerful laser module. This means some care must be taken when using it to not damage your eyes.

This laser diode requires 5 volts to operate which suits most small electronics projects that already run at this voltage. This unit is rated at
5mW which means, as noted above, care must be taken when using it.

Wiring it up to an Arduino

The three pins on the laser diode PCB allow you to easily connect the diode to an Arduino.

The left most pin, labelled S, allows you to control the laser diode and turn it off and on. I have labelled this pin “Pin 5” as this is the pin on the Arduino that I will use to control the laser.

The central pin, unlabelled, is VCC which must be connected to the 5 volt line of the Arduino.

The rightmost pin is GND which must be connected to the GND pin on the Arduino.

Programming the Diode Laser to flash

To program the Arduino to flash we will need to use a single digital pin as shown above. Here Pin 5 is used as the signal/power pin for the laser diode.

#define LASER_PIN 5

void setup() {
  pinMode(LASER_PIN, OUTPUT);
}

void loop() {
  digitalWrite(LASER_PIN, HIGH);
  delay(500);
  digitalWrite(LASER_PIN, LOW);
  delay(500);
}

I use the constant LASER_PIN and define it as 5. This is used throughout the program to refer to the pin that will control the laser.

In the setup method this pin is defined as an output. This allows us to output the 5 volts required to turn on the laser diode.

The main loop function turns quickly toggles this pin, pausing in between each state change. This creates the flashing dot effect using the laser.

Review for the Daorier Ky 008 Saver Laser Transmitter Module 650nm

This laser diode from Daorier is a very nice size and has standard pins that can be used to easily mount to a PCB or attach wires to it. This in addition to the low cost makes it ideal for small Arduino projects.

This is quite a powerful laser so care must be taken but for the cost and ease of use its certainly a nice little package.

Would buy again!