Pangolin Discoscan / Dazzler up to 360 x180 ° scans

[White-Light]

I posted this recently on the end of an unconnected thread discussing wide angle scanning.

However, as I think it got a little lost I thought I'd re-post it here for anyone who hasn't seen these before or who missed the other post.

This really is an excellent piece of kit for anyone wanting a wide scan angle - Dazzler 360° horizontal x 110° Vertical, Discoscan 360° horizontal by 180° vertical (effectively full circle when viewed from below 1/2 circle in actuality)).

Right click and save as (12mb video)

http://www.pangolin.com/_Videos/WideangleWMP9.wmv

Awesome pieces of kit.

[dave]

We have a discoscan on a 2w green. They are awesome for a different effect..

[-bart-]

In a traditional xy-setup it's pretty obvious what the output will look like.
Does pangolin have a way of pre-visualising the output of the discoscan and dazzler? Can you effectively program a beamshow offline? Or do you have to "imagine" what the effects will look like in the real world ?

[LASERGUY]

Very good question Bart.... I was wondering the same myself.

Does Pangolin use a plugin?

[White-Light]

That is a good question. Unfortunately Bill is away in Shanghai at the moment so you might have to wait a few days for anyone from Pangolin to reply on that one.

[Pangolin]

HI guys,

Generally we recommend only the Discoscan, as it is a more bulletproof and no-nonsense product.

The Discoscan (and also Dazzler) is a lense that multiplies the scan angle by a factor of 5.1. So you put 36 degree scan angle into it and get out over 180 degrees.

There is "barel distortion" at the ends of the scan field and also because of how wide angle of a product this is and how it is used, it is difficult to visualize.

Right now we don't have any pre-vis methods for this. It's an interesting idea, but so many other things in the pipeline, I doubt we would get to this any time soon...

Best regards,

William Benner

[Laseronics]

Greetings fellow Laserists,
I just installed the Discoscan lens from Pangolin and I wanted to know if anyone has any tips and tricks for setting up a projection zone (the corners of the test pattern role off, wanted to see if someone has worked with the UGC in "projection zones" to make a nice round zone that matches the lens.

First thing I am attempting to make is a single "beam becon" but right now the beam blanks out when nearing the corners of the projection zone...

Any help would be much appreciated.

[Stoney3K]

Do these lenses also increase beam divergence by a factor of 5 along with the scan angle? If so, they could be very useful tools for audience scanning on short range, like on mobile DJ setups.

One of these Discoscans could make a really amazing center effect in the middle of a ballroom.

[White-Light]

Stoney you can see the effects here:

http://www.pangolin.com/_Videos/WideangleWMP9.wmv

Your question on divergence was answered on their web site:

Does the beam diameter or shape change when projected through one of these lenses?

Answer: Yes, but it depends on the beam quality coming from your laser or fiber. In general, any device that amplifies the scan angle will also effectively amplify the beam divergence. And there may be some elipticity at the outer edges of the scan field from both devices. However, these lenses have been specifically designed to keep these distortions to a minimum and also, these lenses are primarily intended for beam effects where distortions would generally go unnoticed anyway.
In addition, increasing beam divergence actually makes audience scanning displays safer. For more details about laser safety, see the laser safety section of our Laser Resource Guide.