Tuning the scanners

[Insanity]

Just to add to my last post..

I did a bit of testing again this morning and found an important point for you Laserworld scanner tuners out there. Might save you a little time and heartache.

The scanners seem to have a short warm up period and this is what had been throwing me… I have not heard of or seen this happening before with other scanners….

Last night everything was tuned pretty much perfect,,, Thanks Buffo for the excellent guide.
I turned the projector on this morning and went to the quadrature test pattern only to see loads of undershoot on the Y axis, X was fine. ILDA Test showed the circle bigger than the square on the Y axis and Lasermedia showed galvo’s out of sync. So, I left it as is for about 10 minutes resisting temptation to twiddle any pots and Hey Presto, it is scanning perfectly...

It may be just my set, as it is only on the one axis... But it may be worth your while letting them get settled in before tuning...

Cheers
Mark

[buffo]

The scanners seem to have a short warm up period and this is what had been throwing me… I have not heard of or seen this happening before with other scanners….

That's good information... I've heard people talking about warm up periods before, but I've never experienced the problem you described with any of the scanners I've tuned. Still, it's good to know that it *is* a real phenomenon and that it's something to watch out for when tuning.

As a general rule, I normally let the scanners grind away on the test pattern for a half hour or more before I tune them anyway. Good to know that this is not just wasted time!

But it may be worth your while letting them get settled in before tuning...

Yeah... Might save you a ton of extra work!

Adam

[whiteg]

Adam: Thanks for tips, I will try it.

Mark: I realized too, that my scanner has a warm up period.

So I restart tuning.

Gabor

[rfourt]

ah.. nice tip there insanity.. will remember this when i get back to the tuning.

Tocked, you have this scanners also, right? anything you have discovered also?

Take care all.

/Rick

[whiteg]

Hi,

New tuning laserworld scanner set. Photo's are 8 degrees @30k

waving problem first picture.

Gabor

[tocket]

ah.. nice tip there insanity.. will remember this when i get back to the tuning.

Tocked, you have this scanners also, right? anything you have discovered also?

Take care all.

/Rick

Yes, I have experienced the same phenomenon. It's quite annoying that that the temperature dependence is so large. You can definitely see how the test pattern changes as the scanners warm up.

[Insanity]

Still, it's good to know that it *is* a real phenomenon and that it's something to watch out for when tuning.

Tocket: You can definitely see how the test pattern changes as the scanners warm up.

I have tried to photograph what is going on with the test patterns, but it was difficult. I have to wait for the blue laser to warm up, by which time the scanners are warming up.. So in reality it's a bit worse than what you see here.

These photo's are exactly as the scanners were when I shut down last night, ie; no tuning before the photo's or inbetween them.. This is just what happens to the scanners as they warm up. Hopefully it will illustrate what I was trying to explain before

The first picture was taken as soon as the blue was warm enough for the camera to pick up. Notice the circle on the Y Axis, it's outside the square. Like I say, it's worse when you first start the projector...

The second picture is 14 minutes later and now everything looks fine. Except the very last of the four lines under the square. I tried for hours and couldn't get that any better, so I'm putting that down to flimsy mirrors as mcarrot said..

With all that said, I still think they are good for the money. If you want solid reliability and perfect images you really have to fork out the extra on a set of Cambridge. But for what I am doing at the moment, the Laserworlds are more than good enough...

Cheers
Mark

[White-Light]

Some nice colour to your system as an aside Mark. What projector were you using and what was its specs?

[Insanity]

Thanks, glad you like it...

It is a home built job. It has a measured 312mw @ 532nm, 350mw @ 635nm and 350mw @ 473nm... Laserworld scanners and a poly 20 diffraction wheel... Oh, and a big dent in the bank account

[whiteg]

Scanner draw problem.
Why is the torsion the scanner from 30degr to 60 degrees? It’s normal?
You see the pictures. Maybe laser scanner mirror.........

Thank you,