My first laser show

[kitatit]

Hi Guys and girls.

Well after all this time I've finally done my first laser show!

It was a small charity event organised by my friend Linni. She asked me several months ago if I could do a show for her event.

There is nothing like a deadline to get you focused.... yeeesh! I put the soldering iron down at 5:30am the day of the show to have 3hrs sleep then get back into it. I can imagine hearing "Welcome to laser shows" from hardened vets of show business

My projector didn't miss a beat and ran for 9hrs with a few little breaks in between.

Only hickup were my ahh, "miscalculations" regarding smoke machine consumables. I quick dash home fixed that. (Thanks andy97 for your help)

Oh, hickup #2 was a computer crash..... Well, I've got to man up here and admit it wasn't Windows E Gad! it was my MacBook that crashed hard and poor Windows XP running via VMWare was left blowing bubble thinking "who's driving this bus" I'll admit, Macs don't "just work" all the time. Buuutt.... lucky I had my iPad with me to lookup the symptoms online and fix the problem. Ahh all is a peace with the world, Apple saves the day Ahhh when will us Apple muppets learn

Yes Yes, I know, use a dedicated laptop for shows, I'm onto it


I'd especially like to thank Dave for offering so much of his time with before and after sales support. Also for making all his slick little boards and parts. Dave was definitely my "phone a friend on show night with tips on Live Pro too.

Thanks taggalucci for helping me nut out how to set up my E-stop.

Thanks loopee for helping with sussing out LED connections on my laser module.

Thanks Tom from EyeMagic for my lovely scanners and for fantastic before and after sales support!

Thanks to Robert and the tech team at RGBlasersystem Int. for answering all my questions and giving me great support.

Thanks to Dnar for your insights on the electronics principals that perplex me and especially for the Display Safety Record you let me adapt for my own show. That was a massive help!

Thanks to gottaluvlasers for kitting me out with my my Pangolin gear and for being a total gentleman when he got the runaround shipping me a sensor for my power meter. He really took one for the team and I appreciate it!

Thanks to Bill and the team at Pangolin for their great products and for making themselves so accessible.

Richard Pearce from Carbonworks Aus for teaching me the ways of carbon fibre!

dsli_jon for being so generous with his professional knowledge to all us new people starting out.

Also I'd like to thanks all the top people I've made friends with in the UK,Europe, Aus, and the States.

And to the many other professionals and enthusiasts who help out and share their knowledge, thankyou and much respect

And of course, I couldn't have gotten this far If our beloved Admin hadn't made PL happen. Thanks Robert

To avoid getting slapped silly, here are some pics and links.

I was hoping my friend with pro camera and skills was coming but he didn't turn up. So here are a few hack vids from phones
further mangled by the tube. There are one or two still from an SLR which were sharper looking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viIpWw4aGC4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6jryMy1Lag

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3Tz8dXoa1c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vzC8hmqHG8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw1KuNRxtmw










Cheers
Kit

[danielbriggs]

Pog on doooode!

[dsli_jon]

Indeed.. Kit, you are a PL-Hero, m8! ..a Big tip o' the hat to you, Sir! Just.. fantastic-craftsmanship! I tell ya - PL would make one hella Sho Co., there is such-incredible talent in this place! ..and isn't the RGB-line just the shizz? Gotta love the engineering / forethought they sunk into those pups.. worth every penny, imo...

Cheers to You and yer Laserventures, Kit.. ttys..
j

[dnar]

Well done Kit and welcome to the club!

Lookin good man... Looking forward to doing shows with ya, my 3 projectors as sats would be awesome! Now finish your other projector!!!

What was the final power reading at aperture?

And... Your first show was fully legal, not easy in Western Australia!!!!! BTW, did you get any comments or feedback from the Radiological Council regarding the safety plan?

Sorry I could not attend, last weekend was the big Bathurst 1000km V8 Supercar race, something I never miss, not even for lasers!

The results are a real credit to ya mate. You have gone the extra mile, 200%, glass full and over-flowing! :bows:

[norty303]

last weekend was the big Bathurst 1000km V8 Supercar race

Nice to see you coherent so soon afterwards mate
I heard they'd introduced beer limits the last few years - 2 cases per person or something terribly restrictive...

[dave]

That is pimping man

[LaNeK779]

Mega!! You got there mate, something to be really proud of!

keep it up, now you are a source of inspiration yourself

[kitatit]

Pog on doooode!

Cheers Dan

Indeed.. Kit, you are a PL-Hero, m8! ..a Big tip o' the hat to you, Sir! Just.. fantastic-craftsmanship! I tell ya - PL would make one hella Sho Co., there is such-incredible talent in this place! ..and isn't the RGB-line just the shizz? Gotta love the engineering / forethought they sunk into those pups.. worth every penny, imo...

Cheers to You and yer Laserventures, Kit.. ttys..
j

Thanks Jon, Yes far field alignment is a snap. With Dave's interface board it's even easier. He added a real nifty feature where you can bypass the modulated signal source for each colour by way of a three push button switches. there is a pot which sets the bypass level sent to the module so you can dial down the power to a safer level while aligning. Once your set up, you just push the switches again and you are back to the DAC as the mod source.

Well done Kit and welcome to the club!

Lookin good man... Looking forward to doing shows with ya, my 3 projectors as sats would be awesome! Now finish your other projector!!!

What was the final power reading at aperture?

And... Your first show was fully legal, not easy in Western Australia!!!!! BTW, did you get any comments or feedback from the Radiological Council regarding the safety plan?

Sorry I could not attend, last weekend was the big Bathurst 1000km V8 Supercar race, something I never miss, not even for lasers!

The results are a real credit to ya mate. You have gone the extra mile, 200%, glass full and over-flowing! :bows:

Final power for the show was around 4.4watts. I didn't get my near field alignment spot on due to me positioning the module around 0.5-1.0mm off the centre line of the scanners. Lost a few hundred mW off one side of the mirrors and didn't have time to clean dust off the optics. Fingers crossed I didn't bake any crud onto the optics

Didn't get much feedback on the safety plan except that it was accepted . When I spoke to them on the phone a few times they said it sounds like we know what we are doing and following the right steps though.

For sure, will be sweet to do some shows together! see you next week.

That is pimping man

Cheers Dave

Mega!! You got there mate, something to be really proud of!

keep it up, now you are a source of inspiration yourself

Thanks Chris i'm very happy to have finally put my plans into action. My Mum,Dad and brother were in town and came along to see the show. It was great to show them what all my "crazy" laser talk was about.

My girlfriend still thinks I'm a bit strange but she can see that all the time spent beavering away in the lab was worth it!

Cheers mate

[carlos3621]

One of the best builds ive seen yet.

[dnar]

One of the best builds ive seen yet.

This is just a proof of concept mock-up, the real projector is yet to be built.