Open/Close CD-ROM

Projects General Guidance
1

Hello all,

very excited to start programming/designing/and more with Arduino.

My first idea is to design a simple pet feeder using the CD tray as some kind of door.
So I'm trying to figure out how to connect Arduino to the CD or more specific to "press" the eject button.

any help will be great
thanks ,

2

i don't really understand what you mean, but i guess you want to open the CD loader using an arduino, so you don't have to press the 'eject' button yourself, right?

than i would just take an optocoupler and attach it to arduino and the other side to the button (in parallel, so the original button still works too).
that way you can open it up without having your circuitry mixed with that one from the CD player

3

Previous "feeder" discussions of various sorts.

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&as_q=feeder&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&lr=&cr=&as_qdr=all&as_sitesearch=http%3A%2F%2Farduino.cc%2Fforum%2F&as_occt=any&safe=off&tbs=&as_filetype=&as_rights=

4

Sorry being out for a week...

I followed this guide :

tried this particular step and it didn't work neither with cells battery nor the wall-mart, so I googled and there was postings that talked about voltage regulator between the power supply and CD-ROM. someone can confirm ?
I'm looking to follow with steen suggestion... (I bought optocoupler)

5

wuid:
My first idea is to design a simple pet feeder using the CD tray as some kind of door.
So I'm trying to figure out how to connect Arduino to the CD or more specific to "press" the eject button.

Is the CD tray still going to be assembled into a CD reader and plugged into a running PC, or are you thinking about producing your own scheme for driving the motor?

6

I'm not intending to take apart the motor , but to keep the cd-rom as one unit apart from the pc. So I need alternative power source for the eject button to work.

7

wuid:
Sorry being out for a week...

I followed this guide :
http://www.instructables.com/id/Nintendo-Keyless-Entry-System/step2/Cd-Rom-Prerequisites/

tried this particular step and it didn't work neither with cells battery nor the wall-mart, so I googled and there was postings that talked about voltage regulator between the power supply and CD-ROM. someone can confirm ?
I'm looking to follow with steen suggestion... (I bought optocoupler)

The CD drive has four connections, Red and Black are 5 Volts, Black and Yellow are 12v.

I`ve never tried to power a CD drive from a battery, but from the instructable, they are using a 9v and two 1.5 volt cells, which is 12 volt, so I would assume that the battery combo would be connected to the yellow and Black connections to get the drive motor to work.

I do know that a CD/DVD drive will eject the tray with just power applied

8

still trying , don't know why it doesn't work not with the battery & not with the wall-wart...

9

I`ve just tried with an old creative CD CD drive I had, it needed both 5v and 12v to eject the tray.

So, you need a PSU lie this
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-12V-5V-AC-Adapter-Power-Supply-PSU-For-HDD-Hard-Disk-Drive-IDE-CD-DVD-ROM-/150869513942?pt=UK_Computing_LaptopAccessories_PowerSupplies&hash=item23208616d6

Or you do it this way

with a microswitch to detect open/close.