Updated projector. Lets put a little red in there.

[Groover]

Not that long ago I bought a red module and I bet all of you will know from where when you see it. Finally I got around to make a somewhat permanent solution. The two modules (my old green and the new red) are now spring mounted. I dont know if this is a solution that will work out but it makes it really easy to adjust the lasers hight. You can even adjust them a little sideways just by tilting the lasers but not much. I'm somewhat pleased with the mirror mounts. But they are not very precise. Looks nice anyway and they do the job well once you got it right. However I used stuff I found laying around in my apartment and I'm a little worried about strayreflections if the laser hits the acrylic. I think it will have to be painted black to minimize risks.

So, lets bring on the pictures.


The new layout with the two lasers. The modules are parallel even if it doesn't look like it.


The best filter I have will still have some losses but it's not that bad.


You see the green light that doesn't get reflected illuminate the mount. Looks cool but not that safe.


A closer look at the mirror mount.


Spring loaded mount of the modules. Works great so far.


The red module should be mounted on some type of heatsink but its right in front of a cooling fan so I hope this will do at the moment.


My homwbrewed software. A work in progress. I have some cool functions in there. But no sneak peak until it's at least bug tested.


The ilda testpattern without blue. I think I'll have to readjust my amps.


Colortest, I want some blue in there.


The blanking is off sync but I dont know how to fix this other than software.


My assistant laserist.

[marconi]

Very Nice Otto..

Looks like your on your way to having a nice setup
Nice job on the mirror mounts ..I like
Your assistant ...Is a Cool Kat
Enjoy The Hours of fun you will have !!!

[LASER-AD]

Looks Very Cool! If i may ask, What power is your green laser? It looks like you are using the 200mw MAXX red... Im putting in my order for a MAXX red this coming week and am going to attempt the same thing... Happy Lasing!

I just noticed something in your picture.... Are you reflecting green and passing red through the dirhcro?? I plane to pass green and reflect red, to get a higher wattage red to the scanners, did you find differently??

[MechEng3]

Very nice work! Great idea for making adjustable spring loaded mounts. Are you units mounted on Phenolic? I picked up a very nice pair of Thorlabs kinemetic optic mounts off fleabay cheap and thet are very nice to say the least....nearly new. That might help get rid of the illumination problem with the green. How large does the whole unit require for an enclosure? Look to be very compact in overall size.

[Groover]

It's a 100mW green and you guessed right about the 200mW red. There are room for another 200mW red unit and I hope I'll get the cash to get anotherone soon.

Everything is mounted on a 9mm playwood that are normally used for cases. Not that compact, about 35 x 40cm that would be about 14 x 16" baseplate and in the case it's about 9" high.

[jkaiser3000]

uhmm, I sense a bit of envy growing up inside me :lol:

Cool mirror mounts, I like'em. Nice setup

Enjoy the fruits of your hard labor

[aijii]

Hey, nice work there grover!

Couple of suggestions - watch out with mounting your TEC cooled laser modules off the baseplate. These are generally designed to be mounted direct to a metal baseplate or heatsink to disperse the heat. Neat idea to provide for micro positioning the actual laser itself - nice way to avoid using a second moutn with mirror to adjust near field position....

Also - bare in mind having your lasers mounted up on springs wouldn't be the stablest mount - you may find you need constant adjustment between shows...

anyway - other than that... keep it up. You can fix the 'unsynchronised colours' by using a filter design from the Pangolin website..... we are doing a run of PCB's with this circuit for RGB, plus some other useful things on it to use in our projectors.. we'll have plenty left over so will probably sell them... we'll keep the members of this board posted naturally

[LASER-AD]

Well, My red is officially on order!!! YEAH!!.. I will snap so pic of the projector when its modified!

[Groover]

Also - bare in mind having your lasers mounted up on springs wouldn't be the stablest mount - you may find you need constant adjustment between shows...

Thats true. It sucks really. I've found out that these mounts will lose the alignment if you just give the case a good slap. I'll go with some pro stuff asap. But it was fun trying to make some on my own. If you dont plan on moving the projector these would do.

[Groover]

A little update. I spent the cash I got from my latest (and first ) gig on a couple of mounts, one for mirrors and one for filter. I got them from medialas and I must say I liked them. It should be possible to get them a lot cheaper but still, 2 day delivery from another country isn't bad.