Newbie ~1W Laser Recommendation Request

[Galvonaut]

It's always nice to have a little (or big) smoke machine hanging around for those beams - if this wasn't on your list.

Keith

[wmodes]

Is there a really low-cost laser (single color okay) that y'all would recommend that would be a good place to start playing with ILDA control via the etherdream?

[moved this to it's own thread...]

W.

[wmodes]

Miles, I want to thank you for all the great info here. Point by point answers to my questions. Thanks again! It really helped educate me.

[White-Light]

As you're in the US there are a few things you need to be aware of:

1. If this is for anything other than home use, ie. any kind of public use including university discos, shows etc, then the projector needs to be varianced

2. Audience scanning is all but impossible to do legally in the US for a public performance. There is a special variance available (required in addition to the variance on the projector), but they are very difficult to obtain and only a few companies have them.

(If you need to put on a public show for your art work, you'd be better off hiring a professional company with an audience scanning variance.)

3. The equipment needed to make safe measurements for audience scanning is very expensive, even putting aside the legal difficulties. eg laser power meter, oscilloscope, safety lenses (if needed) etc

Not sure what your budget could be, but have you thought about Pangolin Beyond and using Emulaser?

Emulaser allows you to use a video projector to simulate laser into the audience. You can use it either on its own in place of a laser or in addition to a laser which can be used entirely overhead.

The output from Emulaser is safe and not being laser, doesn't fall within the restrictions on audience scanning.

The downside is you need Beyond which isn't cheap + a good laser projector with a very high contrast ratio (otherwise blacks can appear grey). Pangolin recommend the use of the Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 5030UBe 2D/3D 1080p 3LCD Projector as this has a huge contrast ratio 600,000:1. But it costs around $2K I believe.

Here's emulaser in action alongside a video projector at FLEM video courtesy of Adam Burns:

[wmodes]

Thanks for the suggestions. I know about emulaser. While cool for beam effects, my projections are animations on the floor via custom software.

I am currently exploring all the possibilities for creating the animations I want, including a fallback position of using a high-res DLP. So far, I now know far more than I ever thought I would about MPEs, variances, unit certifications, the CDRH, and the challenges of audience scanning from a technical, a safety, and a bureaucratic standpoint.

Here is the project if I have not previously shared the link: http://modes.io/co-related-space

Wes

[Galvonaut]

Thanks for sharing that White-Light, I hadn't seen how effective emulaser was!

Wes - That looks like an awesome project! What a great ethos - especially the bit about encouraging those who have not yet interacted to do so with new people

Good luck with your project!

Keith