RGB progress - slow & painful...

[Stuka]

First shots of my first RGB projector in progress.

SLOW progress (frickin' shame we have to work for a living), but it's getting there. Attempted to assemble everything without drilling any additional holes - and am quickly finding out that probably doesn't work very well, even with a predrilled breadboard!!

400mw CNI 532 nm, dual Maxyz 660 nm, and 150 mw CNI 473nm, feeding a set of ScanPro 30's, all at full power - color balance comes later!

[allthatwhichis]

NICE!!! 100xs better than my first go! Be proud. Must be all that work under pressure you have done for all of us. Actually a good 10xs better than my current set up. What do you mean slow... Looks like all you got to do is to hook up them scanners and you're off.

[godfrey]

Mmmmm...photos...I love photos of laser equipment...especially when there is a bread board table involved.

Looks fantastic! Hook up those scanners! Hurry!


Phil


my RGB is pretty big dipper looking...cause they made it...

[buffo]

Nice work, Randy! You've done a great job of aligning everything!

Will you have a separate level below the optical plate for your power supplies, or do you plan to mount them behind the optical table? What will the final housing look like?

Adam

[Stuka]

Thanks for the kind comments everyone!

Hey, Adam!

I'm still planning on a double-decker design, with the power supplies and support electronics on the lower shelf. I hope to keep everything as compact as possible.

As far as the final design goes - well, what I want to include in the projector seems to change everytime I work on it (which is not near often enough!), so at this point we'll just say that the "final design" is also "work in progress"...

I brought the magic laser footlocker with me to Ft. Eustis, VA (I'm here until early April), so hopefully I'll make progress on the electronics while I'm here. Hopefully, more work-in-progress photos to post soon!!

Randy

[dave]

Looking good Randy!

Yeah, nothing ever seems to fit a pre-drilled beam table, I guess the problem is you Americans use all these weird size screws and bolts I personally prefer just getting a 10mm slab of aluminium, and drilling/tapping the holes I need.. As long as the measuring up is accurate, this way tends to work a lot better, and can be made more compact as well

Keep up the good work

[edit] it would be worth replacing the cni switchmode psu's with a nice big open frame psu.. We have been using XP power supplies for everything and love them

[MechEng3]

Amen on drilling holes in Alu stock! Layout all lasers and optics, fire up, adjust, mark and drill/tap. Done. Almost done with RGB #3. It has worked seamlessly every time. Pix soon.....

[Dr Laser]

Drill/Tap for me as well.

[Pitts]

Drill and tap a term indicating great engineering precision..
Also a real pain the rear end as it takes so long... if you do it right that is.

However as most times we are doing this to screw "things" down to the base plate and high precision is a secondary consideration I have found that a good way to speed things up is to drill the pilot hole (which you have to do anyway) then fit your tap to your variable speed battery drill .... ( geeeezuz!! I can hear all the real engineers yell from way down here).

Go at a slow pace and you have nice taped holes in no time flat. Don't forget a drop or two of cutting oil to avoid spalling and jamming. Keep a steady hand on the drill and don't push it, just kinda let it happen.

I found this made a hell of a speed change. When I did my first greenie I did it "properly" with T handle the lot.... back and fore etc etc..hours of work.. no need for this type of job.

I'm sure some of you already know this but if not give it a go you'll be suprised just how much faster it makes the job go.

Cheers

Ray
NZ

[DZ]

Holy Cow! Very nice work Stuka! Can I asume you will be joining us at SELEM?!?! Let see, FLEM we had 4 working RGB rigs, so for SELEM, I think we may have around 6 or more!

David

ps-I like those newport mounts! Not cheap, but whole lot easier to do alignments...