Resources for Lumia

Greetings, all;

Welcome to the PL Lumia Forum.

Here is something I put on the MIA PL Wiki back in 2013, updated slightly for today:
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As some of you know, I am deeply embedded in the art of lumia these days. I do shows at art competitions and have a big gallery show coming up in October that will involve 17 linear lumia laser projectors.

Pix of my Grand Rapids show are here:

http://mikegouldlaserartist.com/webg...s10/index.html

PL has been of enormous help to me over the years, so it’s payback time. Here is a list of where to get parts for lumia, based on my many years of research.

Hardware
I am currently toiling away deep in the sub-basement of St. Wilfred’s Lumentic Institute, cooking up new nifties and spending a lot of quality time with my new band saw:

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/too...1386_200481386

Ideal for cutting up aluminum for motor and lens mounts, base plates, etc. Note that you want to set it for the slowest speed and you need to keep the wheels clean of aluminum debris. These aren’t really designed for metal work, but if you use a 14tpi blade and keep ‘em clean, they work a treat.

Once you cut your aluminum, you need to clean the edges with a bench sander:

http://www.amazon.com/Shop-Fox-W1828.../dp/B00B4US0SY

This also works to remove sharp edges on lumia disks; just be very careful with the powdered glass this generates. Use a vacuum system and a breathing filter.

Then you need to shoot some holes into your aluminum. I use this:

https://www.ryobitools.com/power-too...e-laser-system

It has not one, but two lasers built into it!

I buy my Aluminum cheaply at Alro, which has outlets around the US. The one in Ann Arbor has an enormous variety of surplus bits and pieces, and has been supplying me and CDBeam for years now. My home away from home…

http://www.alro.com/Locations/Locations_AA.aspx


Motors
To do this right, you need to spin a glass disk or other media very slowly in front of your laser of choice.
I use a DC geared motor: with DC you can easily control the speed and direction of your media. This led me on a merry chase for the last 3 years, but I finally tracked down the ultimate lumia motor:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-12V-2RPM-...-/351900958125

Attn: Dave or other dealers – how about stocking up on these puppies?

Hubs
Next you need to attach the media to the motor shafts – I use these hubs:

http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/1203

Make sure you order the hole size that matches your motor shaft.

I epoxy these to the glass disks I use.

Speed control
PWM (pulse width modulation) is your friend. Lots circuit boards out there for this. For years I used these:

http://www.bakatronics.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=383

A quickie-built kit. I have received some that were missing some drilled holes, easily fixed with a 1mm bit.

Then I discovered these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/271046566081...84.m1439.l2649

Cheaper, pre-built, working well for me with the above motors. I have around 8 of these, and one has died. I am using these for testing while I await the custom 3-channel PWM board my Chief Engineer is designing for me..

Lenses
Surplus shed for these, used to turn laser points into lines:

http://www.surplusshed.com

I buy long cylindrical lenses and cut them into smaller items with this:

https://www.amazon.com/SKIL-3540-02-...R08/ref=sr_1_1


Ideal for glass cutting, but very messy. Do this in a garage wearing a raincoat, as you will be coated with glass dust suspended in water. I also use this to cut up glass vials for torture tubes. This el-cheapo saw works great, but you need to replace the blade with a good one, such as this:

https://www.amazon.com/QEP-6-1008BW-...5Q/ref=sr_1_31

Power Supplies
For my museum install, I am running 3-cond. Conventional AC line to each box, and turning it into 12VDC to run my lasers and motors. I like these supplies:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/370701394876...84.m1439.l2649

Super cheap, and reliable so far.

For wire:

http://www.skycraftsurplus.com/

Again, dirt cheap.

Glass
For lumia, you need to experiment with a variety of textured glass. I am fortunate in living within easy driving range of one of the biggest stained glass suppliers in the country:

http://www.delphiglass.com/

I like this glass, among many others:

http://www.delphiglass.com/stained-g...extured-petals

Note that they have assortment packs:

http://www.delphiglass.com/spectrum-...ral-glass-pack

Now to make your glass disks, you need a circle cutter – I use this one:

http://www.delphiglass.com/glass-cut...ut-lens-cutter

Once your glass is cut, I find it works best to drill out a ¼” circle in the center so the disk is adjustable up and down the motor shaft. First you need to find the center of the glass circle:

http://www.amazon.com/Woodstock-D309...dp/B0000DD4KF/

You drill your center hole under water with this:

http://www.amazon.com/Amico-Diameter...dp/B00880CG0Q/

These are even cheaper on eBay.

The above should help you get started, or ease your way if you are already addicted.
Hope this helps some of you. Thanks again for all the fish.

Lux Plus Esto…Mike

Those are some great suggestions. Thanks

I would suggest adding these to your motor section. I use the .6rpm motors and they are great:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/0-6RPM-120RP...LOUkhRd5xqJdvw

Thanks, great find!
Do you PWM control them?
The price is definitely right, but the size and form factor might be a problem in smaller projectors (like mine).

...Mike

I do pwm control them. I use a dmx LED dimmer. I just have a diode across the motor to counter back emf. They're pretty small, easily managable.

Nice share Mike-- thanks!!
btw we found, finally a motor that is TOO SLOW-- 24 RPDay- or 1 RPH-
it appears to be not moving and thus quite booring to watch- all the way to the edge of a 4 inch glass helps a little as well as the smallest possible beam.
its 24VAC- so afaik not easy to regulate.. I am powering with a doorbell transformer at 12vac-(meters 16vac w/ no load) which *might* be slowing it even more--IDKFS.

you are right about Delphi- I got the textured architectural glass assortment pack --about half are usable.

thanks again--Len

Mike,
I may attempt this at the urges of Adam Burns for my project.
Do you happen to have a step by step guide for a full on newbie? I will be posting my own build of another project in a few months. It will be on display end of June 2017. I was hopping to play with Lumia in the center of my project inside a 3x3 cube.

Regards,
Wally

Hi Wally;

Where are you? Please fill out your info for this forum, as there may be someone near to you who can help you mano a mano.

Here is an article I wrote for Make magazine #20 (which you can buy online):

http://makezine.com/projects/make-20...x-laser-shows/

Here is a graphic I put together as part of our CDRH variance entry which may be of assistance:

Attachment 51820

These are various ways of configuring lumia devices.

Good luck...Mike

Heya Mike..

..Diggin the section.. Nice werk.. Hope we can get our beloved Wiki back, someday, but.. *vigil Till then, nice joerb.. :cool:

..Anyhoo, was going thru some 'Laserium Movepocalypse' photos, and came across this pup.. Thought ya'll might njoy the 'pr0n'.. :) Not quite sure who made these (there's a *possibility* that these may have been a prototype built-by (or, inspired-by, anyway..) Gary Stadtler, of the old-skool 'Aurora PS' fame.. Not sure, tho..) But, what I Am sure of is.. This is the 'Mother of All Lumia Turrets', easily.. Built to withstand WWIII, IV and V.. ;)

Attachment 51833 Attachment 51834

..Each 'layer' was designed to be both indie-rotatable (all fx-positions do rotate, together..) and indie-selectable.. And then the *second-layer* (the 'cover' there..) would provide an additional layer of lumia-sickness, ie: imagine shooting a beam thru a burst-grating, on one layer.. Then thru a lumia, on the second.. or visa-versa. :p

..Of course, the 'box', there, is not set-up (as-shown..) to actually 'pass content' - it is all sealed-up / no beam I/O, presently.. I am guessing this was a 'test-jig' for the stepper-control rig, etc, dunno.. But, could easily be machined-out to provide I/O, and plenty of room for pre-lumia pos'n prisms / lenses, etc..

..as the saying goes, 'They don't build stuff like they Used to', and I'm pretty-sure this is the 'poster child' for that statement.. :) If nothing else, maybe it can provide some 'inspiration' / idea-seeds for the budding Lumia-grasshoppers that visit, herein.. :cool:

cheers..
j

Cool! Thanks for sharing.

...Mike

Richard Goulet had a top secret box that he built with the help of friends at an aerospace company - say around 1984. I never saw it, but that box looks like what he described. He wanted Sam to buy the rights for Laserium to use it. Sam was a lot of - things, and visionary wasn't one of them...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dsli_jon

Heya Mike..

..Diggin the section.. Nice werk.. Hope we can get our beloved Wiki back, someday, but.. *vigil Till then, nice joerb.. :cool:

..Anyhoo, was going thru some 'Laserium Movepocalypse' photos, and came across this pup.. Thought ya'll might njoy the 'pr0n'.. :) Not quite sure who made these (there's a *possibility* that these may have been a prototype built-by (or, inspired-by, anyway..) Gary Stadtler, of the old-skool 'Aurora PS' fame.. Not sure, tho..) But, what I Am sure of is.. This is the 'Mother of All Lumia Turrets', easily.. Built to withstand WWIII, IV and V.. ;)

Attachment 51833 Attachment 51834

..Each 'layer' was designed to be both indie-rotatable (all fx-positions do rotate, together..) and indie-selectable.. And then the *second-layer* (the 'cover' there..) would provide an additional layer of lumia-sickness, ie: imagine shooting a beam thru a burst-grating, on one layer.. Then thru a lumia, on the second.. or visa-versa. :p

..Of course, the 'box', there, is not set-up (as-shown..) to actually 'pass content' - it is all sealed-up / no beam I/O, presently.. I am guessing this was a 'test-jig' for the stepper-control rig, etc, dunno.. But, could easily be machined-out to provide I/O, and plenty of room for pre-lumia pos'n prisms / lenses, etc..

..as the saying goes, 'They don't build stuff like they Used to', and I'm pretty-sure this is the 'poster child' for that statement.. :) If nothing else, maybe it can provide some 'inspiration' / idea-seeds for the budding Lumia-grasshoppers that visit, herein.. :cool:

cheers..
j

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Attachment 53079
Just for the record - it was Lumia produced using Duco Cement that set Ivan Dryer on the road to creating Laserium.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by laserist

Attachment 53079
Just for the record - it was Lumia produced using Duco Cement that set Ivan Dryer on the road to creating Laserium.

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Thank you for sharing. I love these little historical gems!

Where can I purchase Machado gratings? I found one at spectrabeam.de, but they only had one, i'm looking for more, anyone know where to find?

Those are great suggestions but I do find some cheaps equipments that can be found on other site not just on ebay like for example this
Ideal for cutting up aluminum for motor and lens mounts, base plates, etc. Note that you want to set it for the slowest speed and you need to keep the wheels clean of aluminum debris. These aren’t really designed for metal work, but if you use a 14tpi blade and keep ‘em clean, they work a treat.
you can but it in power jack motion company. http://www.powerjackmotion.com they offer much cheaper price than ebay.

Just grabbed a great motor out of a trashed telescope mount. Might even call it too slow. Nice affect.

Been playing with moving my beam over a non moving surface so image doent rotate. I like it better than rotating the lumia optic.

Took a piezo speaker and edge mounted it to a clear little plastic bag. Add a little fluid water oil so far and it make a nice lumia you can kind of control by how the fluid is energized. Think clear ketchup packet vibrating to the piezo making standing waves. Not very efficient reflector and hard to see if refraction is used. It’s a start.

Hi,

I have been building some lumia too and have done some experiments with fluids and piezos (petri dish and standing wave patterns) and linear actuators but I have not come as far as to putting it in live use yet!
I have also been given some broken moving heads lately so lots of good gobo holders and what not that is already DMX-controlled....just missing some workshop time!

This is one of my lumias, build from scratch using my CNC-machine.
http://forumbilder.se/GAERG/photo-20...2-00-46-48.jpg

I will try to post som pics of the mechanics later.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dar303

Hi,

I have been building some lumia too and have done some experiments with fluids and piezos (petri dish and standing wave patterns) and linear actuators but I have not come as far as to putting it in live use yet!
I have also been given some broken moving heads lately so lots of good gobo holders and what not that is already DMX-controlled....just missing some workshop time!

This is one of my lumias, build from scratch using my CNC-machine.
http://forumbilder.se/GAERG/photo-20...2-00-46-48.jpg

I will try to post som pics of the mechanics later.

---

Nice job is that fluid driven?

https://americanart.si.edu/search?query=lumia

wilfred

thinking to combine the wilfred ideas with laser.

SAINT Wilfred, to me...

...Mike
St. Wilfred’s Lumentic Institute

So, being dragged into Hobby Lobby yielded some results. I just found that they have rolled glass here. 12"x12". I only found one or two usable patterns but they have some.

This pattern works extremely well.
Attachment 54532

Yeah, that would work well for making a big wheel. Most of my lumia pieces are pretty small so the Wittemore Glass sampler box can easily make four or more pieces for each 4"x4" sample.

Greetings, all;

I gave a talk yesterday to an ILDA Zoom thang about my new laser art piece, Alien Black Box.
More info here: https://illuminatuslasers.com/alienblackbox.shtml

This piece uses stepper motors to move the lumia disks, and people were interested in sourcing.
Here is where I got the lasers, motors, and controllers:

Red Mitsu 638nm $ 28.00 eBay
https://www.ebay.com/itm/325633537572 2 pieces

Green NDG7575 700mW/1W 520nm $60.00 eBay
https://www.ebay.com/itm/225925505409

Blue Sharp 488nm 55mW GH04850B2G $21.00 eBay
https://www.ebay.com/itm/116171049741

Yellow 30mw 591nm $ 71.00 eBay
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266387712361

Stepper motors 11HS12-0674D1-PG100 $ 50.00 for 2 Ebay
https://www.ebay.com/itm/235390028851

Stepper drivers $12.00 for 2 Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08SG7L54W

Stepper clocks $10.00 for 2 Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D1R5G88C

Laser Drivers
LD driver board (4) $36.00 eBay
https://www.ebay.com/itm/195208878720
TTL modulation

Hope this is useful. I will try to get the recording of my talk online somewhere.

Cheers...Mike

Wow! So many cool and impressive D/G and FX wheels have been posted.

Our search for a good source of lenticular material that matches the FX we already have in one installation has reached a saga of epic proportions. It took a long time for the test selection of LPI counts and animation or 3D sheets to arrive from Los Angeles, and sadly the three sheets we ordered were not the right stuff. It has since been reported that 40LPI 3D plastic lens sheets were the best spec to use, and the owner at vicgi.com has offered to send some scraps up of that spec. He's a super nice guy and it may be that he finds this use for lenticular of interest.

I've attached a couple of bad shots of a basic scanned circle to illustrate. One is from an inexpensive disco projector that was given to us to have a look at, the other is the same image from an OPT projector with the 25 LPI 3D test sheet held in front. As well as being chunky it seems to have a prism like effect. It would almost be worth buying a couple of $150 disco projectors and pulling out the FX wheels. ha ha. I'll post the results when the new lenticular arrives. Had we known about the great FX wheels John makes we probably would have gone that route. All our old LFI projectors had flip wands not wheels, so this is all a bit new.

Cheers,

Craig

Attachment 61860Attachment 61861

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Slide

Wow! So many cool and impressive D/G and FX wheels have been posted.

Our search for a good source of lenticular material that matches the FX we already have in one installation has reached a saga of epic proportions. It took a long time for the test selection of LPI counts and animation or 3D sheets to arrive from Los Angeles, and sadly the three sheets we ordered were not the right stuff. It has since been reported that 40LPI 3D plastic lens sheets were the best spec to use, and the owner at vicgi.com has offered to send some scraps up of that spec. He's a super nice guy and it may be that he finds this use for lenticular of interest.

---

Hi Craig,

Your results in the first “circle” pic are very similar to the 40lpi 3D lenticular sheets I sourced for the group buy many years ago. Hopefully your new source, Vicgi will produce the same (or better) results. I don’t think I have stacked the lenticulars before… interesting stuff possible with multiple wheels, lenses, mirrors, etc.

Greg