The BANTHAI BEAST

[Banthai]

and im not refering to myself ....

YES at last work has started on my new projector ...

seeing that others like to show the work in progress , i thought i would do the same and also describe some of the issues that ive had / having along the way

My new lasers were purchased over a year ago from Dave at lasershow parts , and have been sitting in storage

im re using some of the parts from the old projector inc the case etc and adding a few new parts as well

the old projector was a 400mW green now it is being transformed into a 1.3W RGB ( hopefully )

the case is a standard 4U 19" flightcase with a tripod mount plate fitted in its base
seen here

http://banthai.com/banthai/laser/laser1.jpg

everything will be built onto a 10mm thick ally plate that slides into the case the top side will be mainly optical and the underside will be PSUs and amps etc... the threaded rods are for sevicing so its easy turn the plate over out of the case and work on either side without damaging anything

PLATE




this will eventually slide into the flight case on rails that will support the
plate

thats it so far ...
i will continue when i have got a bit more done

all the best ..... Karl

[andy_con]

very nice mate .

[Pitts]

Looking good...

I built my RGB into a 4RU road case as well.
It's a real handy form.
The main difference in setup is I used wide U channel (about 100mm)
This means the top and bottom plate are tied together firmly.
The whole assembly slides in and out and is easy to work on..

Good work look forward to seeing it finished,

Cheers

Ray

[Banthai]

Thanks guys ....

Its been in the planning stage a long time but its changing on the fly as i the bits go together you see better ways of doing things

the next stage is to drill the plate for the optics and mirrors

i tried laying it out on CAD first but without knowing how the dichros would perform at given angles ... i decided to mount the lasers power them up then decide on optics and mirror positions using the actual beams







the hight is not to far out with each laser .... the blue and the red are spot on .... and they are from different manufacturers ( strange that the 2 CNIs in the same head block are slightly out )

the bad news was that when removing the scanners from my old projector i knocked the mirror off one of my my widemove scanners DOH .... it was really stupid as well i carefully was lifting it out and the phone rang .... i looked up and "ting" the sound of a small bit of glass hit the base .... i did not even have to look down to see what id done i new straight away



the good news was it was intact and had just seperated from the glue anyway i mailed JOJO .... and he explained what glue was required to refit
( 2 part epoxy) so its back together, so thanks JOJO for the fast reply

next installment on to mounting the optics and scanners

all the best .... Karl

[mliptack]

Whats the power on the lasers?

I must say, it looks great Karl! I look forward to seeing more pictures!

[tocket]

Looking good so far.

I like your way of building it... much easier to lay it out with the actual components on the board than carefully doing it with CAD or drawing by hand. I have given up on that. The main disadvantage is the increased risk of damaging your components while doing it though.

Where can you get such cases? They seem pretty much ideal for me. Especially if you can easily slide the assembly in and out like Pitts say. I hope they are not too expensive.

It's either one of those flightcases or I'll build my own box out of 20 mm MDF-board... but I'd rather avoid the latter having already built a video projector like that (it's huuuge... and frickin' heavy).

[Displaser]

Looking good Karl...

I like the idea of using both sides of the plate. Any standard size flight cases are out of consideration for my projector if I stick with the optical breadboard that I now have planned, but I may adopt the use of the underside of the plate as you have planned. Seems like good way to keep the weight to a minimum.

Good luck & keep us apprised of the progress!

[dave]

Nice work Karl,

Good to see those lasers finally getting a final home

[Banthai]

mliptack

Whats the power on the lasers?

the red 635nm laserver is doing 620mW i was originally worried on this one as it was bought as a 400mW .... i ran it today for over 2 hours and it was stable and no heat so im pleased ...

the green is doing 580mW for a 500mw unit the only problem i have noticed today was it is running TEM1 not TEM0 ..... i thought that it may be due to the warming up but it was on for over 2 hours and still TEM1 ... i had only previosly powered it up for about 30 minutes when i got it and never noticed the TEM1 .... but because the beam is so tight i only noticed it at about 30 feet ( 10M ) due to the divergence, bit of a bummer but as i use this for beamshows it may not be too critical, although under modulation it may cause mode hopping ( hope not ) even though at tem1 its still running with no power loss

the blue is 150mw and runs at 152mW but is as stable and as tight as hell

not the ideal colour ballance but i will be able to dial back the green to get a good mix ....

so in total 1.3 watts

tocket said

Where can you get such cases?

these are standard Audio Flight cases made from plywood ..... cost me about £80 uk pounds ( $150 us ) available on ebay

Displaser said

I like the idea of using both sides of the plate

yes i thought of having 2 plates but i found how heavy it would be ... dont like heavy !

Dave said ....

Good to see those lasers finally getting a final home

im glad to get them out of the packaging as well, its looking good, if the TEM1 issue does not go away .... can you get me a price to get it repaired by CNI ..... even though i have not used them , i know its no longer under warranty so i will have to pay the cost etc... thanks ...

all the best Karl

[mliptack]

Karl - yeah not the best balance, but I am sure it will look amazing. I'm still on the fence about the 635nm lasers... I would love to make something like an arctos that would use 18 diodes in a 3x3 pattern for about 3 watts of power (assuming .6watts of losses through optics as a generous estimate) but I'm not so sure of the added size and weight and divergence created with the colmating(sp?) lenses. Is it really worth it?

But then I am sure when I match it up with my 800mw 532nm I would be happy. Or should I go the route of the 635nm at about 1 watt. It would be cheaper (factoring in time as well) it has a KNOWN divergence (I wouldn't know what mine would be with X optics) and has -hopefully- been tested to work -well-

Also, regarding the cases. R&R in Illinois has some of the best cases made... I know for those outside the country this would pose an issue with shipping and all, but those in the US, it's worth the price. And in my opinion worth their weight in gold!

They are extremely durable. Sometimes too durable to the point where they are heavier than the equipment in them. But I've seen a VL3000 case that started on fire (a S4 leko lens on top of it in the hot Cali sun) the case lid was pretty messed up, but from the looks of it inside you would have never know the difference. Also I've seen stuff done to these cases that would have crushed others... Once I finish my projector I am planning on buying a 1/4x1/3 or 1/4x1/2 R&R case for transportation.