Inside of my scanner

[carmangary]

I guess once you have seen one you have seen them all so this will not be too exciting... but here is the inside of my scanner since I promised I would post a picture once I opened it back up.

What you see is:

1) 50mw green (lower left) but limited to 41mw by driver for now.
2) 5v power supply with dual Die4Drive laser diode drivers (lower middle)
3) +/-24v power supply for scanner amps (upper right)
4) Home made dichro mount with Edmunds Optics dichro (middle left)
5) ~147mw red laser (to right of dichro) it was supposed to be 200mw but the diode blew so I am running it using one of Dr. Lavas group buy diodes for now.
6) Chinese 30K scanners that I was selling (top left/middle)

Hopefully someday I will put a blue laser in that empty space... but I will probably create a new layout/enclosure before that happens.

I measured the output of the dichro at 174mw and the output of the scanner at 117mw. So, the dichro works great but the scanner mirrors kind of suck. I might be able to make some adjustments to help out, though.

[allthatwhichis]

Looks nice and tidy. Much more organized than most of my attempts; probably even my current one. You do have a spot there screaming for a blue. Your using die4drivers correct? How well is it running your green? Does it blank it well?

Damn, I like that dichro mount too!

[OSLS]

Nice Job actually and also congrats on the extreme attention too details. I say this because I have seen so many absolute horror stories come in for repair that laser enthusiasts "tried" to build themselves.

Now to your design, well all I can say is wonderful. I believe I am looking at a 1/4" plate followed by a 1/4" to 3/8" rise where the laser is mounted. Thank god you heat sunk everything very well and the components of your projector will return the favor by lasting much much longer instead of crapping out prematurely.

Now the only thing that concerns me on the layout is that the amps for the scanners are mounted so very close to the scan head. From what I am guessing by looking at the picture the laser appears to be a TEC cooled green diode and is mounted very far away from the scan head and amps. I am certain this will absolutely not add any additional heat to the scanners (Fantastic Job), but on the other hand the only other major heat source (And probably the largest) in the projector is the scanner amplifiers and they are mounted directly behind the scan head. From past experiences we now try our very best to mount amplifiers as far as possible from the lasers and or scanners. I am absolutely not trying to say anything negative about your projector because it is a very clean job and also put together very well, but if I were to personally build this system I would swap positions of the +/-24VDC power supply and the scanner amplifiers and that is about it.

Please I wish that you view this as past experience insight and not criticism by any means. Again fantastic job, you deserve it.


**Edit** One more thing I just thought about you may want to dirty up your projector just a bit by adding some silicon grease under the laser diodes and the scanner amplifiers...

[allthatwhichis]

Yea, I notice my scans amp probably produce more heat than anything in my projector. I have them mounted to the top of my... "LaserBoy" box, and the top gets nice and warm... Maybe nice isn't the correct term.

edit:

Do you mean thermal grease? I have been meaning to add that to mine...

Fred, are your enclosures on your site the LaserBoy style?

[dave]

Use this stuff rather than thermal grease, much less mess...

http://au.farnell.com/jsp/Semiconduc...sp?sku=1219148

[allthatwhichis]

Use this stuff rather than thermal grease, much less mess...

http://au.farnell.com/jsp/Semiconduc...sp?sku=1219148

Is it cost effective, comparably to artic silver? $35 seems a lot for a small sqaure.

[dave]

$35AUD, but it leaves no mess, and in my book, thats a major bonus,,,

[OSLS]

Do you mean thermal grease? I have been meaning to add that to mine...

Yes haha that is almost the same answer I get when I ask for RTV at a local hardware store...

Fred, are your enclosures on your site the LaserBoy style?

No and yes. Our projector housings are the LT1000 24" x 12" x 12" projectors that we purchased the rights from Bob (NML) who purchased the rights from Las Vegas Laser. This unit has two 1/4" plates that are milled flat aluminum with 552 drilled and tapped (1/4" x 20) 1" x 1" center to center holes. Side panels that are 1/16th" thick and a 3/4" welded square aluminum tubing that surrounds the base plate.

Then we made a slightly smaller version of the same projector (LT500) with measurements of 18" x 12" x 9". This unit has two 1/4" plates that are milled flat aluminum with 374 drilled and tapped (1/4" x 20) 1" x 1" center to center holes. Side panels that are 1/16th" thick and a 3/4" welded square aluminum tubing that surrounds the base plate.

Both these units come completely certified meeting all CDRH requirements and also as non-certified export units which can come with all the necessary CDRH required equipment but without the required accession number on the product.

We have submitted all the transfer of variance information to the CDRH but they have been typically running in slow motion as of recently. Also we updated both systems to have non-attached side panels with a top aluminum cover so now all the electronic components will remain safely inside the projector and you can also remove three of the four side panels with the system powered up without any light escaping from any point but the desired aperture.

I have many pictures of the newer on shelf models but (Not to complain) we have been so busy that I haven't been able to update the website to show these raw projectors. Also we have only about 10% of our actual stocking inventory on the web (So embarrassing) and because of all the new and exciting ventures we have sunk our teeth into we probably wont have a chance to get it updated for quite sometime but as always we will try to do our best.

[carmangary]

Now to your design, well all I can say is wonderful. I believe I am looking at a 1/4" plate followed by a 1/4" to 3/8" rise where the laser is mounted. Thank god you heat sunk everything very well and the components of your projector will return the favor by lasting much much longer instead of crapping out prematurely.

Now the only thing that concerns me on the layout is that the amps for the scanners are mounted so very close to the scan head. From what I am guessing by looking at the picture the laser appears to be a TEC cooled green diode and is mounted very far away from the scan head and amps. I am certain this will absolutely not add any additional heat to the scanners (Fantastic Job), but on the other hand the only other major heat source (And probably the largest) in the projector is the scanner amplifiers and they are mounted directly behind the scan head. From past experiences we now try our very best to mount amplifiers as far as possible from the lasers and or scanners. I am absolutely not trying to say anything negative about your projector because it is a very clean job and also put together very well, but if I were to personally build this system I would swap positions of the +/-24VDC power supply and the scanner amplifiers and that is about it.

**Edit** One more thing I just thought about you may want to dirty up your projector just a bit by adding some silicon grease under the laser diodes and the scanner amplifiers...

Thanks for the feedback. The baseplate is 1/2" and everything is sitting on aluminum blocks that I milled to fit. When I replaced the diode in my red it lowered the beam height (for some reason) and I had to raise it up by setting in on the shims you see under it. I'll eventually make a new aluminum riser but its ok for now.

I'll keep a watch on the heat. If I change the layout I will correct all of that and put the electronics in a different layer.

[laserLips]

OSLS, I have searched the web everywhere for pre built laser enclosures. Yours were the only ones I found. But I also found them expensive.
Graham. (the price of 100mw Blue. Do you do cheaper versions.
Do the ones on the web come with wholes for ILDA and all that?
Cheers, Graham