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Thread: My first scanner-WIP

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Wellsboro, PA
    Posts
    71

    Default My first scanner-WIP

    I promised i would post a couple of pics of my scanner. As you can see I'm still have a ways to go yet. I thought I was happy with the alignment but I think I need to start from scratch. I noticed when I took pics with a little smoke the beams are not "tracked" the way I feel they should be. Although I thought the projected image was OK, it would seem that i can do better. I would ask if there are some guidelines on getting a good alignment. Which laser do I set first? The green? cuz it's shooting down the pipe, or maybe the 640 because it has the most bounce? Any suggestions?

    Chuck
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  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Charleston, SC
    Posts
    2,147,489,446

    Default

    Hi Chuck;

    I suggest you align the green laser first, so that it's passing through the two dichros and hitting the galvo mirrors squarely. Then you need to align the red and blue beams to match the green one.

    Remember that there are two parts to the alignment for each laser that is bouncing off a dichro: near field and far field. The near field alignment is based on how close to overlapping the two beams are at the dichro face. You need them to be exactly on top of one another right at the reflective face. To adjust this, you need to move and/or shim the laser that is bouncing off the dichro so that it's beam is perfectly overlapping the beam passing through the dichro.

    The problem I see is that you don't have any adjustment on your lasers. This is going to make your near-field alignment very difficult.

    Once your near field alignment is correct, then you can use the adjustments on the dichro mount to adjust your far field alignment. Far field alignment is how well the beams are overlapping at a point some distance away from the projector. As a general rule, a long throw is better, so long as you can still see the dots or patterns made by the beams. Some people prefer to be scanning a pattern when they adjust their alignment, while others just use the static beams.

    Once you get the red beam perfectly aligned with the green, you start the process over again with the blue laser. Just like before, do the near field first, then the far field.

    Adam

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