Red Laser Power Supply and enclosure help

[MObruin]

Hey guys,

If you read my first post you'll see that I'm in the process of my RGB project. I have the Blue and Green and was looking for a good red.

From researching the forum I heard some decent reviews of maxymodules on ebay so I bought a 200mW 660nm. The only problem is that it doesn't come with a power supply.

Where is the best place to get one? Can I get one where I can vary the current to change the ouput of the laser?

Also, is there a place I can get a good enclosure? I thought to start out I could just use a piece of wood or something to start aligning everything, but if I could get the right box now, I would rather do that.

Any help would be appreciated.

PS- Here are some videoclips of me in action with my current setup. I barely started a couple months ago so it may not be anything great to you guys. Any suggestions/criticisms??

http://www.digitalbreach.net/ClubMo/

-MO-

[MechEng3]

I would probably go to a local electronics supply or the like to get a nice 1 Amp 9 Vdc wall wart and set up a trimmer pot and a resistor to vary the output. As for an enclosure I have used some outdated P/C network equipment and made them into nice cabinets.I do however have a line on a very nice security lock box. Thet are for DVD/VCR's. Removable lid, tilt down front face and is lockable and fan cooled,comes with keys and -18 AWG steel-9"H x 21"D x 20"W. Black powdercoat inside and out. $160.00USD. Trying to find cheaper but this is ready to begin installing components out of the box. I have one coming so I will post pix soon.

[jkaiser3000]

I'm not sure what design MAXYZ uses for their modules, but I'd say that you can't change the laser output by changing the voltage or current through the transformer. For that you'd need TTL blanking or, preferably, analog modulation.

Just my thoughts.

[buffo]

jkaiser3000 is correct. Speak to Maxyz about a power supply upgrade to get analog blanking. (The basic model should support TTL blanking.)

How much power are you running, Mobruin? I looked at a couple of your videos, and from what I can tell it looks like you've got two separate projectors, one DPSS green doing beams, and one either argon or DPSS blue doing gfx... Got some pictures of the projectors?

(I would have downloaded more of your videos, but they're HUGE, and transfer speeds seemed rather slow - suggesting that you might be hosting the files yourself. Didn't want to be a hog!)

Adam

[MObruin]

Thanks for the replies,

the reason I ask about varying the output is because my green has a variable power supply that allows me to vary the output. I was wondering if other laser modules could do the same as long as you get this kind of power supply.

I am running a cheap beam show with the green currently. Its basically just stepper motors. The blue I am running catweasel wideangle scanners (up to 80deg right now) that I bought from Technological Artisans. I am running both so I am not just wasting the green module. Other than for beam effects, everything else on it is pretty cheesy looking with the stepper motors.

So now the goal is to combine the laser modules and have everything running with the scanners.

Do the people that have done a RGB setup have everything in one enclosure? With the current setup I would have to do two, one for the modules and power supplies, and the other for just the scanners and amps. Not sure if doing two is a pain in the ass to align. However doing everything in one might be too big of a box .

Suggestions?

-MO-

[buffo]

Why not put the laser head modules and the scanners in one enclosure, and the laser power supplies and galvo amps in the other one? That way you only have to align everything in the scan head enclosure one time, and from then on it's perfect.

If you need everything in one box, remember that you can put a thin sheet metal shelf in there and put the power supplies and amps on the second level. (Since they don't need to be aligned, they don't need to be mounted on a thick, heavy metal baseplate like the optical components do.)

Back to my original question though. How much power are you running in each projector, and what is your source for blue? (Looks to be DPSS blue based on the color, but I'm not sure...)

Adam

[marconi]

Hi Mo ...Welcome Aboard

You can lower the voltage a little bit..almost down to 5 volts and still have decent TTL control..it will put out about half power at around 5 volts .
But anything above 6 volts and your back to full power.
Our units contain LDO (low drop out) regulators..so some experimenting is in order to use them to get lower power...

Also you can use a beamsplitter plate and get reduced power that way..
Or a ND attenuator plate or just some lossy optics.
Altho I would think this may not be necessary as you might need all of the 200mW to match-up with the other colors..as we have found.

As for a power supply , I suggest a Radio Shack Wall wort that can deliver above 500ma at 9volts..a 1 amp one should run real cool..
or you can tap off an existing 12v supply with an addition of a three terminal regulator like a LM7808 8 volt reg .

Hope that helps some...

[MObruin]

Thanks again for the replies.

sorry if I missed the eariler question.

I am running 2 DPSS modules, a variable Green 532nm at about 25mW right now (can vary from 0-150mW). And the Blue 478nm at 50mW.

Just curious as to what you guys think of these filters:
http://www.edmundoptics.com/onlineca...productID=2433

are these the ones I want to use to combine the beams?

-MO-