Results 1 to 8 of 8

Thread: Max's 110mW laser. I thought I'd share pix of it scanning.

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    SoCal
    Posts
    508

    Default Max's 110mW laser. I thought I'd share pix of it scanning.

    The laser arrived in the mail yesterday! Exciting!
    It is a 110mW 657nm red laser module with TTL blanking.

    The system below is a Pangolin Pro on Cambridge CT6800HPs
    with the CatAMP IV accelerated amplifiers. Some are also taken
    with a proprietary 16-bit frame-buffer based laser control system.

    Most of the pictures below are scanning at 40kpps at about
    20 degrees. These scanheads are tuned to scan the ILDA 12k
    pattern correctly at 30kpps at 45 degrees. I prefer 35k+pps
    because designers who design for 30k usually push the
    boundary of what's acceptable flicker and what's terribly annoying.
    Present was also a small amount of haze from a hazer. I prefer
    hazers to foggers because a moderate sized fogger will
    completely obscure even a 5W argon beam!

    I had an initial problem in that new laser wouldn't completely
    extinguish the beam because of the length of the cable
    to the laser head, the original 5V dropped to 4.6V! This normally
    isn't a problem since most offboard devices are CMOS level
    triggered. Empirical testing showed the laser's blanking working at 5V.

    So I had a burst of ghetto inspiration... Now what I really needed
    was a 74LS244 (octal buffer) to boost the voltage locally to 5V,
    but all I had was a bunch of 7404's (hex inverter) which
    (as it is aptly named) inverts the signal (5V->0V and 0V->5V)
    so I simply tied two inverters together to undo the inversion,
    bringing me back to usable TTL levels. The photos below are
    before I added this corrective circuit.


    The TTL level fix (Complete with capacitor)


    The ghetto bottom.


    With enough heatshrink, you can't see any ghetto!


    So this is the new laser, jury-rigged on top of my scanheads.

    This scanhead normally takes a SMA fibre-fed laser, but aligning
    SMA fibre-feeds is a pain and max did such a good job with
    collimating the optics, that I felt bad about realigning it to
    focus on the fibre optics.


    It's a nice bright red!


    These pictures don't do it nearly enough justice.


    A dino (from Anthro's pack 6)


    A fireman (from Pangolin's 40hr week show)


    The calibration grid. It's actually square, even though it
    doesn't look like it. The camera was at an angle.


    Another shot of it in the dark...

    You can also download a short 4MB clip of it running a beamshow.

    http://12.149.165.76/howdy/newred_beamsho.AVI

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    Florida
    Posts
    802

    Default

    Absolutely Beautiful Yadda...

    I am glad it worked out for you so well..

    That really looks awesome... :twisted:

    Very red and striking....just perfect...

    I am also glad you were able to figure out a great buffer circuit...
    "GOOD JOB DUDE"

    Glad you are enjoying your new toy...


    Welcome Aboard.. Glad you could join us

    *^_^*
    "My signature has been taken, so Insert another here"
    http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/sam/laserfaq.htm
    *^_^* aka PhiloUHF

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    SoCal
    Posts
    508

    Default

    Thanks! It's a great laser... I've been looking for a nice red one with
    modulation for a while.

    This one fit the bill perfectly. I was worried about the astigmatism
    but I found that the circular beamblock on my scannerpair filtered out
    the the stray pattern PERFECTLY! Now I just need to make somthing
    like that for the system it will end up in.



    The beam block filters the stray stuff perfectly!


    Voila, perfect circle!

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    Florida
    Posts
    802

    Default

    Hi Yadda...

    Thanks for sharing that....

    We forget to mention that sometimes to people when they ask about the stray lines...
    Adding a beam block to the path is usually required for these...

    we are still trying to find a way to do it inside the laser without loss of power
    ,,..a very tough thing to do...so far.

    So far we've tried pinhole filters and small rings inside, but still no real luck...

    I have been ordering several different types of lenses from various sources
    perhaps this will be the answer...we'll see .
    One type of lens tryied so far helps a bunch, cuts the strays quite a bit
    but at a 50 percent loss of power!!!

    But I like your method best as it costs nothing

    Keep up the good work... we like what we see...

    Do you mind if we use some of your pix ? we will give credit where do !!
    "My signature has been taken, so Insert another here"
    http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/sam/laserfaq.htm
    *^_^* aka PhiloUHF

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    SoCal
    Posts
    508

    Default

    By all means! Go ahead!

    If you want any custom frames made up for you, let me know.

    Least I can do for such a cool little laser.

    If I were to wager a guess, because of how well collimated the
    stray pattern is, I'd say it's reflecting off the brass housing. But
    as I said, the beam block fixes it perfectly!

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    SoCal
    Posts
    508

    Default BTW

    BTW... I have photos now of the blanking working!





    A short 1MB clip showing the blocks from Pangolin's "Mission Impossible" show...

    http://12.149.165.76/howdy/blocks.AVI

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Norway
    Posts
    1,303

    Default

    So nice

    How fast is your scanners ?

    I just wish i had pangolin software :cry:

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    SoCal
    Posts
    508

    Default

    Thanks! These are CT6800HP run at 33kpps using the CatAMP IV from
    MediaLas... The controller is a Pangolin QM2k Pro...

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •