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Thread: Getting kind of thin on real posts

  1. #1
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    Default Getting kind of thin on real posts

    Seems not much innovation anymore. Posts are getting thin. It's all adverts for buying or selling and not a group buy in ages. Have we reached the end of interest....

    we we need the yellow laser diode.
    we need new ways to control our beams
    we need to move off lines to shaded areas
    we need better control of the low end of the brightness
    we need better color mixing and the ability to gang channels for interesting color changes. Think like servo mixing on planes.

    there is more that can be done.

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    I've noticed the same thing, I check in daily, but there's rarely many posts worth looking at recently.

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    i think part of it is information is spread across photonlexicon, irc, and facebook.

    as evidenced from the last SELEM, there's still large amount of building and experimenting happening.
    suppose you're thinkin' about a plate o' shrimp. Suddenly someone'll say, like, plate, or shrimp, or plate o' shrimp out of the blue, no explanation. No point in lookin' for one, either. It's all part of a cosmic unconciousness.

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    I do think Facebook has taken away from here greatly but, I also know I hear more and more people talking about how busy they have become in their regular lives and have less and less time for laser related stuff. I think that's a dilemma of society. There IS still stuff going on as Chris mentioned but yes, we're not getting the traffic here we used to get and that seems to have been for perhaps the last 18 months or so.
    PM Sent...

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    The reallity is that people don,t build their stuff anymore as china can do things so cheap now. Photonlexicon was driven by self builders who wanted to share knowledge. It was also driven indirectly because you could save money when building yourself. New comers are being advised to buy a china box instead of building and over time that has an effect on creativity aswell. The knowledge on how to correct and stack beams is also going to the backpages of Photonlexicon. Building systems is becoming rapidly a thing of the past wich also the creativity , gaining and sharing knowledge is a thing of the past. Oh well it was fun while it last. I also believe that lasers is a bit of a hype, now its drones that the hobbyworld seems to play with and want to spend money on. Once the chinese has overfloaded that one they move to the next hype. You even had selfbuilders in the past that build their own systems but when the power increased overtime in the market they couldn,t keep up as doing a quad red is not an easy build. Building a 12W machine is not an easy one and not cheap. Buying from china is cheaper but you need 3 machines at least to do a show wich for most people is a too big investment when its only a hobby. From the beginning i said that doing lasershows is not a hobby , its a small bussiness next to people,s jobs and when you need to keep dropping money into its because the approach is hobby it only last for so long.


    Pl is great place but the main purpose was to gain and share knowledge wich was driver partialy because you could save money. Now that china can do things cheap PL is no longer needed. Its a shame but its what it is.......
    Last edited by edison; 10-03-2017 at 03:41.


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    Everything that becomes big will suffer from the "Success syndrome".

    Lasers are now very approachable, thanks to China and eg. Laserdock, when you can buy 1W RGB analog laser for couple of hundreds and do a simple show very easy. It dilutes the community a bit and its pretty much inevitable, happened to many other "fandoms/communities" I've am/was part of.

    However laser topic requires a large amount of intellect and knowledge on the given topic of physics, which is not an easy to come by, so this will never ever die out, thanks to the drive for more knowledge. Quiet? Yes. Gone forever? No.

    Even though I'm a total newbie and my DIY skills are not laser-system worthy and I'm not exactly a person who learns things easily, I've learnt a great deal on this forum about lasers and even about physics, more fun than reading a book as well, so thanks for that!
    Last edited by Melgarh; 10-03-2017 at 06:45. Reason: typos
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  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by kecked View Post
    Seems not much innovation anymore. Posts are getting thin.
    I've got a few things in mind for the coming year. I'm currently waiting on parts for one laser-related project, implementation by a 'unmarried computer programmer' on another project and yet another project just got materials to make it happen yesterday. I think it will be another fun year for lasering for me and I still make (or heavily modify in two cases) the lasers in my environment. Yes, the cost is higher milliwatt for milliwatt as compared with China, but I've got exactly what I want (super tight beams with great overlap, quality galvos, etc.) in the form-factor I need.

    Outside of hardware though, if everyone has the money to buy the lasers and equipment they want these days, where are all the videos of people's new content?? I don't do the Facebooking thing so perhaps I'm just missing it. Or perhaps people are too busy Facebooking to actually do creative things?!

    Quote Originally Posted by kecked View Post
    we need to move off lines to shaded areas
    My project #1 is related to this.

    Quote Originally Posted by kecked View Post
    we need better control of the low end of the brightness
    I think we are already there with single-mode lower power diodes and drivers like BBE's Simpledrive 500mw. However, those powerful multimodes probably come on at 100mw minimum thanks to the driver and the lasing threshold of the diode.

    Quote Originally Posted by kecked View Post
    there is more that can be done.
    Absolutely! Perhaps more feet need to be connecting with people's backsides!

    Oh, and I'd kill for a cheap, decent powered single-mode yellow diode too!

    -David
    "Help, help, I'm being repressed!"

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    Oh, and I'd kill for a cheap, decent powered single-mode yellow diode too!
    That one is on my wishlist for ages. Where the hell are those yellow diodes!!!!


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  9. #9
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    I got an idea!

    Wonder if we can add single mode diodes to the higher power diodes so that below a certain threshold, they come on instead of the larger diodes, now you get better low end control. Expansion of dynamic range is the name of the game.

    You can combine diodes as usual. Might even be totally different wavelengths. Maybe you want 660 for that dim but defined look? We then use a comparator to select the ranges of control voltages that go to which diodes. We can also set the threshold bias voltage lower on the big diodes so they just don't come until they get what they need. Careful selection of a crossover voltage will be important. Depending on what you want, you can set up the comparator to shut off the single modes or let them ring on.

    I see it like this. You take the 0-0.5v range and up shift it to 0-5v to feed the single mode voltage range. Now you got a ten x increase in dynamic control on the low end. You want to put an ND filter on the single modes so while you have increased the dynamic range, you also reduce the output the same so the brightness matches the missing low end of the larger diodes.

    Idea while drinking coffee what you think?

    I started another thread related to content. I think that is the new diy build. Expanding what is possible in art.
    Last edited by kecked; 10-05-2017 at 03:40.

  10. #10
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    Got a second idea. Add in diodes that are out of focus to do area fills. You need to use some of the unused ilda color channels. Not sure how you do that in the drawing software since that function does not exist...are listening Bill...
    No mechanical system needed. It's all combining and software. We only use three channels and six exist. Ways to assign these functions would be a new way to innovate.

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