Greetings all.
Have been reading PL for a few months now, learning as much as I can, reading some interesting stories, and some very scary stories (Namely what some do with old hospital equipment!)
I have been VJ'ing for a few years now, two laptops and two low end data projectors. Have been enjoying myself at many indoor locations. I have seen lasers in operation, but very low power. (Can only see the laser dot once it hits something, never seen a beam show.)
So I thought I'd jump into the deep end and learn so more about laser projectors and doing displays on walls. (I'm not interested in audience scanning, though doing beams above the crowd with some smoke/haze would be interesting.)
Searching around, I decided that to learn, I'll grab a low end, cheap projector with some software and go from there. Being a visual person, having a laser to see and touch makes the world of difference.
I ended up purchasing a 800mw RGBv projector and Pangolin QS with a FB3-XE USB box from NRG lasers in England.
Several emails to and from Gary (He was very patient with me, being a 'noob' asking silly questions.) resulted in a sale.
1,200 GBP later, and waiting a couple of weeks, a very large flight case turns up on my doorstep.
First things first, I didn't expect the laser to be as large as it was, and as heavy! Secondaly, I couldn't wait to fire it up and see what it could do.
From reading on here, I set it up in a room with no reflective items. (Room was an empty spare room) Hung a large king sized white bed sheet on one wall (Walls have a dark'ish bone colour paint to them) and setup the laser projector on a table, laptop beside it.
Installed QS, Installed FB3 drivers, was all ready to enjoy the new 'toy' when QS decided the FB3 was too new, thus would not allow it to work.
Fired off an email to Pangolin explaining what was happening, expecting to wait weeks for a reply. To my surprise Mr Benner replied 30 minutes later! I've read here that Pangolin do communicate with their customers and on the forums regularly. The timely response blew me away. Chalk one up for Pangolin, they look after their customers!
Roughly two days later, a updated QS file was emailed to me, and duly tested. It worked.
Onto the testing! (Please note, I'm not a professional, like the majority of you lot, I don't have any leaser power level metering gear)
The unit was built with 150mw of 532nm, 350mw of 650nm and 2x 150mw 405nm.
Chroma looks like this:
Slightly off, but usable.
Test patterns as follows. (Note, had to back the camera off 8 stops to stop it blowing out)
Video of tunnel animation:
From what I've read here, all the lasers are TTL. (I believe, please correct me if I'm wrong)
The case has four fans on it (Two blowing in, two sucking out) and multiple fans on lasers and PSU's.
The galvos are reported to be 40Kpps @ 30 degrees. QS setup has them running at about 26Kpps @ full angle. They are slightly noisy in a quiet room, though you would not hear them over music in a club. Still very smooth animation from these units. I have no idea what brand they are.
The only issues I can see with this unit, being the lower end of the market is, the 650nm is rather blurry (I think you lot call it 'jelly bean'?) and does not hit the galvos properly, and that the dichro mounts are solid items, not easily adjustable. Also the dichros are not the best quality, leaking very badly. Photos to follow.
(I may need to do some adjustments since I think the entire unit may have experienced some bumps and knocks on the flight from UK to Australia)
Lasers:
A 'fat' red:
Dichros just not up to scratch?
Showing bleed behind the dichros and red missing one of the galvos:
Overall picture of the unit:
In short, I feel it is good budget start to getting into laser projectors, though has enough room to upgrade. (Yes, I will be looking at pulling the dichro mounts and grabbing some adjustable items, with proper glass)
I'm very impressed on how much white this little unit throws, and the amount of light it produces.
Hoping to learn heaps more of you lot, and looking forward to chatting with you all in the future.
Cheers.
PS: No beam shots, I don't have a smoke machine and the camera seems to be overly sensitive to the laser. It's either total darkness, or full of light. Sorry.