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Thread: electrically tunable lenses and dual axis mirror (Optotune)

  1. #1
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    Default electrically tunable lenses and dual axis mirror (Optotune)

    I was looking for something like these for another kind fo project but I think they will be useful for laser projectors as well. Individual samples are pretty cheap.

    First is the electrically tunable lense.
    http://www.optotune.com/products/focus-tunable-lenses
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncFXvpnZEJY
    Can be used to control divergence when needed.

    Beam steering dual axis mirror:
    http://www.optotune.com/products/beam-steering
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XMQCnR-K0A
    While not as fast as fast as a galvo I think it is fast enough to add as a third mirror to increase the scanning angle of your projector. Like a moving head laser projector but without the bulky moving parts and motors. Thoughts?

    They have even made a despeckler for lasers.
    http://www.optotune.com/index.php/pr...eckle-reducers
    While I like the speckle effects some people seem to complain about it.

    So has anyone here tried any of these products?

    I'm going to get the lens to add a very fast autofocus to a small video projectors but I can run some other tests on it with lasers if anyone has any requests...
    Last edited by aku; 12-02-2017 at 14:11.

  2. #2
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    I've played with the lens a bit - it's a liquid lens with a thin plastic membrane on one or both sides that is pulled concave or pushed convex by fluid pressure. I doubt it can handle a lot of power.
    "There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun." Pablo Picasso

  3. #3
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    I've used the despeckler. It works, but not as well as a spinning diffuser. It's certainly not suitable for removing the speckle from the images of laser-lit transmission holograms.

  4. #4
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    I’m playing with liquid Lens right now for lumia project. They suck bad. At least my rendition does. I’m using water but tried oil. Just not good because my plastic “bag” lens is hard to control and the plastic is poor surface quality.

  5. #5
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    DIY liquid lens would be pretty hard to implement Id imagine. Besides its a safety hazard, you dont want to risk it popping or leaking to the point that a focused beam goes through it.

    Im a bit puzzled by the specs of their dual axis steering mirror. It says 10Hz in X axis and 10Hz in Y, but in the video they are projecting a simple but I'd imagine complex for 20 points flower graphic:
    https://youtu.be/9XMQCnR-K0A?t=40s
    Last edited by aku; 12-04-2017 at 00:00.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by aku View Post
    DIY liquid lens would be pretty hard to implement Id imagine. Besides its a safety hazard, you dont want to risk it popping or leaking to the point that a focused beam goes through it.

    Im a bit puzzled by the specs of their dual axis steering mirror. It says 10Hz in X axis and 10Hz in Y, but in the video they are projecting a simple but I'd imagine complex for 20 points flower graphic:
    https://youtu.be/9XMQCnR-K0A?t=40s
    I went on to see the defocused beam. Seems underwhelming. Their artistic ability is lacking. I’d like to see how fast they can come from one extreme to the other and if it’s always an all or nothing affair.

    making a lens is not hard and varying it is not hard. Maintaining the shape that is hard. It’s easy if you stay reasonably full unde pressure but then you either have little variance or you need a plastic with amazing compliance. Most stretch and don’t return. Those with good compliance are too thick. It’s a loosing game. I want to try exploiting electric fields to change liquid crystals and see if I can change the refractive index like in a pcaom. Then the pressure and shape stay the same but the bulk changes. Again I’ll bet the change will be small and it will act more like a prism. Still fun to play with. My objective was actually to setup standing waves in the liquid to make controlled lumia. It not looking good.

  7. #7
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    I've looked at the beam steering dual axis mirror previously and if it were inexpensive and had a small enough footprint, it could make for a nice beam bar application. I haven't seen the pricing on these things, but I suspect cheapo-galvos are less money, albeit with a larger footprint.

    The liquid lens (if it could take the power) might be fun for defocusing 405nm beams for soft brush effects on glow-in-the-dark materials. My approach has been a second (fixed) defocused 405nm beam, but a liquid lens or linearly actuated focal lens would provide more flexibility.

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

  8. #8
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    I dunno the damage threshold for the lenses, might be several hundred milliwatts of 3x3mm beam or might be more, they can give an answer for that. The lens I think is in the $120 range without electronics. You can make your own, should be a simple 5v analog signal for switching between the concave to convex states. They have a dev kit but might be too expensive for you.

    Cheapest reliable galvo is AL-15K at $50 but the footprint and weight for a galvo plus amps compared to this is pretty big.
    That said if 10Hz means any kind of rotation is max 10 per second, not just from min to max angle than thats a pretty poor speed.

  9. #9
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    Yeah, I don't think $200 for a lens plus the electronics is too bad, but pumping a 1W 405nm single mode 2mmx2mm beam through a liquid / plastic lens is going to work out well in the long run. I think a glass lens and a linear actuator is a more practical alternative for this scenario.

    Regarding the dual-axis mirror, I totally agree that the footprint of even cheap / small galvos is significantly higher. For my movable-beam beam-table/beam bar application, I'd think a custom controller and a bunch of linear actuators would do the job relatively cheaply with a smaller footprint. That said, the dual-axis mirror is really cool looking! Do we have any idea what the cost is?

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

  10. #10
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    Sure. To me the lens is an unmatched solution for video projectors and cameras which need an instant focusing feature.

    I'm going to email them about some clarification on the mirror spec, will also ask about the price.

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