Laser Diode Keyes

"To operate with a 5V power supply, a series resistor is required. I used a series resistor of
1.2kOhhm, resulting in 2V over the laser and a current of 2.5mA, resulting in 5 mW power
dissipation. Connect grounding to the pin marked with a "-". Connect the 1.2KOhm resistor to the
pin marked with a "S". Connect other side of the 1.2kOhm resistor to the +5V power supply."

This is an example of a simple 'raw' laser diode component. It was designed to be driven from a
automatic constant current driver circuit that utilizes the 'sensor' pin from the diode as a feedback
signal to tell the current driver to raise or lower the current to maintain a constant output with
changing ambient temperature, device temperature, etc.

You can destroy this diode by driving it with just a constant voltage. You can power the diode with
a constant voltage source if you include a series resistor of a value that will keep the laser current
below it's maximum allowed current under all temperature variation.

There are laser diode assemblies that have the automatic constant current driver built into the
module thus such a module can be powered from a fixed constant voltage source, but this in not
one of those.
http://club.dx.com/forums/forums.dx/forum.137473

With "S" Contact and middle contact, you use the onboard 10K Resistor -> with 5V no light
output. With "S" and the opposite contact you bypass the resistor. With an additional 100R
Resistor the diode works fine with Arduino.
No guarantee for correctness, measured by myself, because there is no information available for
the module.

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From Ebay ad:
---------
This is the KY-008 Laser Module by Keyes, This is a 650nm 5 volt laser designed to interface
with the Arduino although it does not require an Arduino to work. It produces a bright red dot
visible inside a structure at > 30'. Connect + 5Volt to the S pin and Ground to the - pin.

Arduino Script

/* Tested on arduino mega256 R3 arduino code v1.0.4

connect arduino gnd to - on sensor
connect arduino 5V to middle pin on sensor
connect arduino pin 11 to the S on the sensor
Tones are produced by chaning the delay time in the for loops
You will see a difference in the intensity of the laser beam
between the two loops. Play with the numbers.
*/

int KY_008=10;

void setup()
{
pinMode(KY_008,OUTPUT);//
}

void loop()
{
unsigned char i;//
 while(1)
{
for(i=0;i<80;i++)//output light of one frequency i<80 change the value to another number
{
digitalWrite(KY_008,HIGH);
delay(10);//delay 1ms change the 10 to another number
digitalWrite(KY_008,LOW);
delay(5);//delay 1ms change the 10 to another number
}
for(i=0;i<100;i++)//output light of another frequency i<100 change the value to another number
{
digitalWrite(KY_008,HIGH);//sound
delay(6);//delay 2ms change the 6 to another number
digitalWrite(KY_008,LOW);//silent
delay(60);//delay 2ms change the 60 to another number
}
}
}