The Inner Workings of CD/DVD Drives episodes:

• July 24, 2017Let's take apart a CD/DVD drive, layer by layer

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• July 24, 2017A motor pulls the tray in and out

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• July 24, 2017Move to the side to see how the rotation motor is lifted

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• July 24, 2017A rail and gear push a cam that lifts the motor, driving its spindle through the disk

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• July 24, 2017And then there is the mechanism that moves the optical read/write head . . .

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• July 24, 2017The optical head is the heart of the CD/DVD drive.

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• July 24, 2017Here are its basic components.

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• July 24, 2017The laser passes through a splitter and lens, bouncing off the disk to the detector.

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• July 24, 2017This is the path followed by photons of beam.

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• July 24, 2017The disk's pattern of pits is translated into an optical signal.

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