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Thread: Hello one and all, New to lasers but looking to learn from some experts!

  1. #1
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    Default Hello one and all, New to lasers but looking to learn from some experts!

    Hello, Ever since I was a kid I have been a fan of lasers and always wanted to get into working with them, and a little over a month ago I got my first laser projector, a little 3w RGB Chinesium special second hand from some DJ on my local classified. It has pretty bad beam divergence at 10 feet and I am pretty sure the galvos are a little cooked, but for the price and as a intro into the hobby it has been a good starting point into giving me the photon addiction. Have since gotten an FB3 with quickshow, and a small smoke machine, and a few other DMX related things, and have had a total blast learning and playing around with it all so far.

    My main interests are mostly in beam shows for the time being, I would really like to do more with graphics but despite saying it is a 30kppm machine, I am very sceptical my laser is actually scanning at that speed, because the vast majority of the gryphics i have tried are far to flickery then i think they should be... and quite distorted. Would love to get more into laser hardware and build new or upgrade my laser at some point, but I dont have too much money to throw at this hobby yet. And I think it's fair to say it has been a really steep learning curve over the last few weeks just on the software side of things, let alone starting to learn more about the hardware and optics and electronics, but I will get there soon enough.


    Main reason for this post, hoping to meet some cool people and talk about lasers! Give me some heads up and pitfalls to avoid, more or less I would love to hear any advice you wish you knew when you had just started playing with pretty photons. And I would love some more good resources I can look at for learning more about this amazing hobby.


    Here is the first show I have made so far, took about a week to finish, but most of the time was spent learning the software. Rather proud of it but feedback and constructive criticism would be appreciated, am still very new to this all.

    Filmed my show at two angles,

    Inline looking at the projector: (As a extra note am in a small space, so the exclusion zone around the camera lense was rather large, making a lot of the effects that emanated from the center seem out of time on This video. )
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ug4fgtWAqug

    45° looking up at the beams:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2XAP6Tbx_E


    Nice to meet you all and hope I will settle in here soon enough.

  2. #2
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    First it's tikigonewild and now Tikitree. Is this a new trend?

    tikijames.
    Creator of LaserBoy!
    LaserBoy is free and runs in Windows, MacOS and Linux (including Raspberry Pi!).
    Download LaserBoy!
    YouTube Tutorials
    Ask me about my LaserBoy Correction Amp Kit for sale!
    All software has a learning curve usually proportional to its capabilities and unique features. Pointing with a mouse is in no way easier than tapping a key.

  3. #3
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    Well I guess if Tiki has gone wild I am the far more boring tiki who just stands in one place all day, :P

    It is rather strange though, I rarely ever find anyone who shares a username, ⛤tikigonewild⛧ I summon you and wish to converse about your name!

    They also joined within same handful of days as me... extra spooky.

    ~Tikitikitree.

  4. #4
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    If you take some pictures of the inside of your projector, someone here can probably identify the scanner amps and offer some guidance to help you tune them. It's quite common for them to drift off. You might also get some ideas about aligning the lasers and optics.
    Creator of LaserBoy!
    LaserBoy is free and runs in Windows, MacOS and Linux (including Raspberry Pi!).
    Download LaserBoy!
    YouTube Tutorials
    Ask me about my LaserBoy Correction Amp Kit for sale!
    All software has a learning curve usually proportional to its capabilities and unique features. Pointing with a mouse is in no way easier than tapping a key.

  5. #5
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    Nice job on the beam shows. The choreography is pretty nice.

    There are so many things to talk about. As James pointed out... scanner tuning will be good.

    Maybe in addition to the insides of the projector you could post a picture of the ILDA test pattern. I am pretty sure that Quick Show can do that.

    Also along with it an idea of how big it is on the wall and how far away the project is from the wall so we can get an idea of the scan angle. The smaller the scan angle the faster your scanners can go. The typical standard has been 30kpps at 8 degrees. So that means that if you are 1 meter from the wall your image will be 0.14 meters tall I think. tan(8 deg) * 1.0 = 0.14 ... I know someone will correct me if I am wrong. That is the standard however some scanners can go 30k at wider angles etc..

  6. #6
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    Tan 4 degrees * 2 =
    0.139853623887020827333842120646363511935860491937 3612193967 ;-)
    "There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun." Pablo Picasso

  7. #7
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    Ok sorry for the wait, has some running around to do. But got some photos of the inturnals as well as the ILDA test patterns.
    am honestly rather disappointed seeing the optical array, I dont know what i was expecting but it was not that. Regardless, not too concerned with it I dont intend to keep this laser forever, it's more just a good starting point to learn on, I do hope to upgrade to something new sooner than later.


    Laser and Inturnals:
    https://imgur.com/a/p0dg1nV


    ILDA Tests:
    https://imgur.com/a/xN8hHqv


    Distance to wall from laser is approximately 3 meters, so to aim for that 8 degree scan angle I sized it so the ILDA test pattern was 40cm witch should be just under the 8 degree scan angle...

    And just to be clear to make sure i didn't mess up, i sized the large outline box that is out of frame in the photos to the 40cm not the small test box. I am not super familiar with the ILDA test pattern but it seems like my scanners are closer to 20kppm, but do correct me if I am wrong. I am here to learn first and foremost after all!

  8. #8
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    That's remarkably good for a first beam show. Welcome to PL. You're definitely in the right place. I'd normally type a lot more in an introductory post but, I'm coming off nearly a 16 hour work day and just popping in for a sec before going to bed.
    PM Sent...

  9. #9
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    Thanks for the warm welcome Bradfo69!
    But go get rest, I am hoping to be around a lot more in the coming weeks and months so no rush to introduce yourself. ^^

  10. #10
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    Well definitely looks like tuned for 20kpps. The circle is touching the square when scanning at 20kpps. I looked around for Buffo's excellent scanner tuning tutorial... cannot find it. I know the post is here somehwere.

    In the meantime I found this ILDA document for tuning scanners to the ILDA test pattern.

    https://www.ilda.com/resources/Stand...n95_rev002.pdf

    You will need to figure out what pots do what on your scanner amps. Before tweaking them randomly you might want to read the tuning doc a few times and note the position of the pots. Some of the pots should probably not be twisted as they probably control feedback offsets voltages or something. Only adjust one at a time. If you need help with the what does what that let us know and we might be able to find some documents somewhere.

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