Home made RGB laser

[umloginqualquer]

I'm interested in making a laser show too, but I'm undecided about how to get them to draw complex stuff. Do you know if people usually use mirrors for this purpose, or do they use another method? It would be awesome if you could provide a link explaining how to do complex drawings with mirrors or discussing other methods to draw. Thanks!

[c4r0hv]

@umloginqualquer

It's always mirrors. The idea and principle of operation is always the same. The more complex stuff you wanna draw the higher scanning speed is needed. This is measured in points per second (pps). My galvos are 12kpps if I remember correctly. You can get as much as 50kpps, maybe even more, but the higher speed the more money it costs obviously.

[umloginqualquer]

@c4r0hv Hmmm. I was considering a more DIY approach, using two perpendicular speakers attached to the tip of the laser pointer to control the inclination of the laser in X and Y axis. Maybe they would have less inertia (and greater speed) if they control the inclination of tiny mirrors. I wonder what else I could use for this purpose, besides speakers. This guy used a HDD head: hackedgadgets. com/2006/12/02/ten-dollar-xy-l­aser-scanner/ and I like this video description: watch?v=APO74lvh78o

[umloginqualquer]

@c4r0hv Btw I just found out how Galvos (aka galvanometers or scanners) work. They also use electromagnetic methods, somewhat like the speaker idea I was considering. Probably the key to get greater scanning speed (more points per second) really lies in reducing axis+mirror inertia. See laserfx. com/Works/Works3S.html

[c4r0hv]

@umloginqualquer There's three things: 1. low inertia (low mass of moving parts) 2. high driving force (strong magnets and coils) and 3. good, well tuned PID controller. You ABSOLUTELY need closed-loop control, i.e. position sensor and PID driver. Speaker mechanism can be used for that but IMO it will be very slow and hard to make it work correctly. You can actually build real galvos by yourself - google for "elm chan laser projector".

[umloginqualquer]

@c4r0hv Closed-loop systems, like servos? Very interesting. Now that I know the right search terms, I'll spend a eternity on google. And, if that's not some kind of secret: what kind of hardware and controlling software (assuming a computer-controlled system) did you use? Did you use off-the-shelf products, did you build something accordingly to a existing project, or did you design your own?

[c4r0hv]

@umloginqualquer It's different than servos cause it's faster, but the idea is similar. Check the ELM ChaN projector, you have everything explained there. That one uses capacitive position sensors, but commonly available galvos use optical sensors. All my laser projectors (check the newest one at w w w elektroda pl / rtvforum / topic1676990-0. html ) use LPT port based controllers called POPELSCAN. This is an amateur design which has been used by amateurs many times.

[umloginqualquer]

@c4r0hv I'll never be able to thank you enough. You're awesome, dude! Thanks for all your will to share your expertise and knowledge with other fellow enthusiasts. =D Greetings from Brazil.

[c4r0hv]

@umloginqualquer

Man, I'm glad I can help. You can check my website at c4r0 . skrzynka . org but the server has been randomly up and down for the last several days - right now it doesn't work. I'm working on taking care of that but it may take some time. If you have any more questions, shoot. Good luck with your project!

[hekaesri]

men me gustaria saber como lo hizo, trate de buscar en el link que dejo abajo pero no carga esa pagina

[chucaswatjfan]

how did you get such vibrant blues from a 405? i have an RGB projector that uses a 405 and it cant do blue at all, only violent and cyan. im building a projector now with a 1W 445 so Im looking forward to finally having some blue :)

[c4r0hv]

@chucaswatjfan

I guess it's just the camera.

[kungfumaster12]

hey, could you check to see if you could use a video projector to project an image on to the laser stream, so the image or video shows on the blue light stream?

[c4r0hv]

@kungfumaster12

I'm not sure what you mean by that.

[kungfumaster12]

@c4r0hv nevermind.. i can do it myself now.. :thanks anyway :)

[kungfumaster12]

@kungfumaster12 but if you;re wondering what this comment was about.. it was to see if you could create a hologram with your laser.. using a pico laser projector and your laser.. :)

[actionyakson]

omg! u have to make a.tutorial on how.to make this its awesome!

[cshark87]

Respect! it rocks!

[jigibao]

bravo very nice

[jakub0306]

nice work

[tommyandtammy1]

nice job.

God bless.

[tdneVmo]

RESPECT! OMG i would like to make one of those!

[vespine]

zajebiste

[plasmatron6]

aaweesomee man!

[mroverclocer]

Aha jeszcze jedno, zamień miejscami czerwony z zielonym to nie stracisz tyle zieleni, a czerwony o ile się nie mylę masz dosyć mocny. Zwiększysz moc czerwieni i będzie ok.

ile mW wyciągsz z 405nm??

Niedawno zapadła u mnie decyzja o budowie dosyć fajnego lasera 80mW 532nm + 405nm 150mW + 200mW 650nm taki cfg będzie okay ??

[c4r0hv]

Dichra z DVD działają średnio. Znalazłem tylko jedno które bardzo dobrze odbijało czerwień (100% praktycznie) i dość dobrze przepuszczało zieleń. Reszta kiepsko się nadaje. Zamienić laserów nie mogę ze względu na konfigurację filtrów dichro, nie można tego ustawiać jak się chce tylko jest jedna działająca kolejność. Co do Twojego zestawu stosunek czerwień/zieleń powinien być większy. Jak jest z 405nm nie wiem.  Wpisz dichro na allegro a znajdziesz moją aukcję :)

[mroverclocer]

@c4r0hv

c4r0 podaj mi twoje gg na PW mam mały interesik

[mroverclocer]

Mam pytanko jak dobrze odbijają/łączą światło te dichra z DVD/CD

[Rad86N]

one more thing.. :) those 50k potentiometers in the popelscan scheme are for? easy adjusting the movement of scanners? ..

[c4r0hv]

They are for adjusting gain and offset of the opamps. You don't have to use potentiometers there, you can just put there 20k resistors.

[Rad86N]

Thanks for the swift answer.. Would IRFI540N or BUZ11 do? The first one named seems alright to me..

[c4r0hv]

Both will work fine :)

[Rad86N]

cześć.. I was reading your website and especially the article about this RGB laser project you've made.. I wanted to ask, what values are those capacitors you use at your Popelscan controller.. i dont see that little information in the scheme.. and secondly, if there is an alternative to 2SK2098 at your RGB driver.. I'm having trouble finding that in my local shop. btw. is the popelscan controller entirely your doing or have you found a scheme somewhere else on the net?

[c4r0hv]

Hi. The capacitors may be around 470nF. Instead of 2SK2098 you can use almost any other N-MOSFET in TO-220. I used them just because they were laying around desoldered from some CRT monitor :P The controller is not entirely mine, I just changed a few things (for example the D-latch IC type) and redrawn it.

[CROPECKdotCOM]

are you sure it's safe? ;]

[c4r0hv]

Are you sure that a kitchen knife is safe? It is safe, as long as you think while using it and you know what you're doing :) If you point the beam into your eye you will probably get blind. You just have to be careful and then it's safe.

[exabes]

Awesome ;O

[konanwojownik]

amazing...

[NANOCHIP1]

nice i want only one for my room it will look so good

[FuriousCoyote]

any tutorial how to make thig like that?

[TerreurBV]

Wow, excellent.

*looks at the XBOX360 drive hummmm*

[dasimpsonsrule]

Wow, thats probably the only use of an HD DVD player now :D

[sajuukthanatoskhar]

Wow, just wow

simply incredible mate...