Getting ready to buy a scanner

[moetpoppin]

Hey everybody. I'm new to posting on the forum but I have been lurking around here and on the LPF for several months now.

Anyways, I am just about ready take the dive and buy my first scanner. I am seeing some of these 20kpps galvos on ebay and was wondering what some of you thought about them.
Others have talked about scanners like spacelas from ebay. I was wondering what you thought about these scanners or should I man up and go somewhere else?
As much as I'd like to get my hands on some DTs or Scanpros, I dont really know where to look for them. Thats the one thing I haven't been able to figure out by searching on here.

Any help is greatly appreciated.
Heres a couple links of what I found on ebay but am unsure of.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWAX:IT
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWAX:IT
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Whats the difference between the 1st and 2nd (if you can tell)? I know one has more stuff but is it necessary if I'm putting together a sound card DAC?
Also, anyone got an opinion on the quality between 1-2 and 3 from space las?

I'm trying to get into this pretty soon so any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Ty

[gottaluvlasers]

i think you would be much better off buying a set of dt scanners or scan pro scanners from a known and reputable seller. Where are you located??

They are more money, but performance wise they would be much better IMO. Do you have a budget you are trying to stay within?

-Marc

[moetpoppin]

Thanks for your opinion marc
I'm located in Miami FL
Obviously I'm trying to keep any prices down. But for the projector set up I'm trying to get away with like $6-800 US.
Thats like including lasers and stuff too. Don't need anything super high powered.

Im not really worried about any animation shows so I dont need anything super fast but would like something that can handle a good angle.
Don't thing I have deep enough pockets for that DT 40W but oh baby does that look nice. I mostly want to get into this as a hobby to help out a few of my friends that are local DJs or have bands and play at outdoor shows.

Let me know if my pricerange is too low for anything half decent to start off with.

Ty

[gottaluvlasers]

Ty-

if you are just looking to "mess around" right now, than the scanners you looked at in Ebay would do you fine for now. When you start to advance and upgrade, than at that point you can invest in better scan systems.

If your budget allowed even the Scan Pro systems (the member "dave" on here sells them) are pretty decent and they are a bit more affordable than the DT systems and perform much better than the systems from Ebay you looked at.

Try contacting him, i think it may benefit yo umore than the Ebay ones.

-Marc

[norty303]

I mostly want to get into this as a hobby to help out a few of my friends that are local DJs or have bands and play at outdoor shows.

I think your budget and this requirement may be at odds with each other.

Unless you can carefully control the environment (i.e. fog) you will need a significant amount of power to produce anything visible.


Also, those scanners you link to are also sold by Dave as their LSP scan sets. I think there is a review of the 20k ones in the review section where they get a pretty good write up. I've heard good and bad things about the Scanpro sets, so the Spacelas ones might not be such a bad option after all. Personally I'd buy them over the ScanPro's, but I'd rather have some DT25's (I think there must be some remaining somewhere)

[moetpoppin]

Ty-

if you are just looking to "mess around" right now, than the scanners you looked at in Ebay would do you fine for now. When you start to advance and upgrade, than at that point you can invest in better scan systems.

If your budget allowed even the Scan Pro systems (the member "dave" on here sells them) are pretty decent and they are a bit more affordable than the DT systems and perform much better than the systems from Ebay you looked at.

Try contacting him, i think it may benefit yo umore than the Ebay ones.

-Marc

thanks for the info
i'll give him a shout
I wish i could get my hands on the DTs but not right now and not for my first project. I see myself evolving with these and having more than one rig pretty quickly haha as I love the multibeam shows when they are set up opposite to eachother.

I think your budget and this requirement may be at odds with each other.

Unless you can carefully control the environment (i.e. fog) you will need a significant amount of power to produce anything visible.


Also, those scanners you link to are also sold by Dave as their LSP scan sets. I think there is a review of the 20k ones in the review section where they get a pretty good write up. I've heard good and bad things about the Scanpro sets, so the Spacelas ones might not be such a bad option after all. Personally I'd buy them over the ScanPro's, but I'd rather have some DT25's (I think there must be some remaining somewhere)

Good point on the outside thing. This set up is more to get me started. I learn hands on a lot better than reading stuff. I can always upgrade =)

and thanks for the advice on the scanpros and spacelas, I was talking to someone on LPF that just went with the 30k Spacelas from ebay and hes getting good results from them. Hes gonna send me some notes to look at and help out. Whatever I end up with I'll post and let you know so I can bounce it off a few heads out there.

I read about the whole DT25s thing that someone was posting. Its a shame when things don't work out.

Thanks everyone

Ty

[norty303]

LSP20 review in case you didn't find it

http://www.photonlexicon.com/forums/...rShowParts.com

[White-Light]

Good point on the outside thing. This set up is more to get me started. I learn hands on a lot better than reading stuff. I can always upgrade =)

I think the point Norty was making here is that outdoor shows really require multiwatt systems to make an impact due to fogging problems.

I've run a 700mw RGY laser outside just in my backyard and about the only colours I could make out were green and to a lesser extent yellow which was itself near invisible. 750nm Red was practically all but invisible and thats when viewed from around 10 feet!!! You can bolster visibility by projecting hot beams rather than fan effects but even so you will struggle with low power. The green I used was outputting around 120mw and the 750nm red around 570mw. Point is outside you need either a very controlled environment (near impossible to achieve without a lot of smoke machines = lots of dollars plus some environmental luck ie perfectly still day) or you need powerful lasers.

If you're on a small budget, start off with small indoor shows as a modest laser will show much better results here and stick to green if on a low budget as its the most visible colour power for power. Some might argue an alternative would be 445nm blue because of the recent drop in diode price. Less visible but very cheap at quite high powers.

[norty303]

No wonder you were having trouble seeing that 750nm red.....