Laser brightness control test

Here's the new power controller for the laser. Now I can finally turn the laser on and off and modulate brightness as I draw things. I still need to write the code, so for now I was just testing it with sox (http://sox.sourceforge.net/). It works great for testing and to generate lissajous shapes :). Here's the command:

AUDIODEV=xyge play -n -c4 synth sine 50 sine 50 0 25 sawtooth 501 70 square 1000

That's 50Hz X and Y (with a 90° phase shift on Y), a 501Hz sawtooth for G (70% off level, because that's the way the circuit is calibrated), and a 1000Hz square wave which is the "safety key" to enable the laser (a small micro next to the USB sound card detects this and enables the laser power controller).

Here's the schematic for the laser driver portion: http://marcansoft.com/transf/laserdriver.png

The new platorm is smaller and lighter (I need to fit this in my luggage for 26c3) ;). I'll never be able to fit the whole RGB deal on this one, so I'll just rebuild it when that happens (wonderful hot glue).

Update: I blew the laser (good thing it was only $18) via a screwdriver accident, but I did snap a picture of the ILDA test pattern: http://marcansoft.com/transf/ilda_new.jpg . Waiting for a new one to come in, I'll work on improving the software meanwhile.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• laser
• modulation
• scanner
• lasershow

[masterpj55]

Try using a diode laser

[SquidMan64]

Awesomeness

[TehMatoking]

Mmm, lazors.

Next update of HBC should probably have a better support for USB. (USB 2.0 support using MPlayerCE cIOS, maybe? Being able to load apps from both SD card and USB stick at the same time)

[Tomas953X]

nais

[joesalad21]

I could see marcan making lazor pronz

[MertenNor]

awesome !

Can you do the HomeBrew Channel music with it next time.. :p

MertenNor

[Alexrose12345678910]

Yeah but can you kill a man from 50 yards with it?!

[therealmetroidmaniac]

kewl.