Are cd lasers universal?

[stuntpenguin007]

In my ps1p building adventures I realized that a lot (or at least 3) of lasers have the same general layout. 4 connections raise and lower the laser with electromagnets, and 10 connections run to a prism thing were the light is sent / recieved. The ps1 happens to have an extra 2 connections to tell the system when the laser assembly has hit the end of the tracks.

If I rewired the ps1 ribbon cable to an old, but working, computer cd laser, do you think it would work? Do different lasers function differently somehow? Keeping in mind that the logic board for the laser is left completely untouched.

Thanks for any input!

[gamemasterAS]

Are you talking the whole drive or just the diode?

[stuntpenguin007]

just the diode I think. I'm talking about the whole assembly thing that slides back and forth across the two bars. I'll probably post pics later tonight.

[timmeh87]

While it does not sound too crazy, it is probably just as likely that it wont work. Im curious to see what happens.

[gamemasterAS]

I don't think there is any way the entire assembly could work but just the diode is plausible. If its the same size. Do they have standards for that?