a few rgb questions

[oliverst14@hotmail.com]

hi all

i have an rgb f2000 big dipper laser. firsty the rgb uses a different interface than ilda so im going to update the scanner in it to an ilda compatible one. im putting a 20kpps set in as the ones that are in are 10kpps. this laser has 300mw red. 50mw green and 50mw blue. i was wanting to update the green and the blue in it. i was wondering that if i put 150mw green in how much more red and blue would i have to put in to give it a nice white?
also i love lasers so i think im going to make a home built laser out of the spare 10kpps lasers. im thinking of using the lasers out of my old sik s59 which has 50mw green 160mw red and was going to buy a 405nm laser off the internet its 150mw rated and is only £70. i know it wont be the best laser but for my first project i think it will be pretty good. the blue has been said to be quite dark but not many people have first hand expirience of them so i think ill try it.
i thought people might be intersted in this project as everyone on here seems to love lasers as much as me

[James Lehman]

If the lasers you have really do the mW you say, then the next thing you need to know is the wavelength of your red. If it is 660nm, then it will look much dimmer than 635nm. Are these lasers analog modulated? A true 50mW of green is pretty freaking bright! You might find that you already have a good match between red and green. The blue at only 50mW will appear to be too weak. If you can analog modulate these lasers, then get a 6V lantern battery and put the outside tabs of a 100K to 300K linear taper pot across the terminals. feed the negative terminal and the pot's center tab to the laser's mod input. Now you can play with the brightness of the laser and see it! If you put one pot on every laser (same battery) you can mix them just right to get a good neutral white. Measure the voltages that go to each laser. This will tell you everything you need to know!

James.

[oliverst14@hotmail.com]

hiya mate

thankyou very much for your reply. you seem to know alot about lasers mate. im a newbie but i love the things. i will have a look at the laser and see if it is analouge modulating. i was just wondering as a rough scale what would make a good ratio would say 1mw green 2mw blue and 4mw red be as good ratio to work on. i suspect my output values are not what are stated cause it looks a bit dim. should a 50mw green laser be pretty bright? the red i can hardly see without alot of smoke. if you could id like to see about building a rgb scanner that is reasonably visible in a light fog. have you got any advice. i was thinking to aim for about 700 mw combined. 400mw red 150mw green 150mw blue. what do u think mate? also do u know any good cheap suppliers of good diodes.
the reason i feel my rgb is a bit poor is i have seen alot of videos where the blue looks really clear but mines abit dim. the white in it looks more yellow and when i do shows (i am a small scale lighting engineer) i am usually behind the lights and i have a 200mw green only laser and i can see the beams really clearly but my rgb i can hardly see the green never mind the red. i know the 200mw will be alot brighter but i would like to get that same effect with an rgb laser.
i think i am going to update the scanners in my f2000 and try this pot thing (you havent got any more advice on that have you) and then start a project to create a new homemade laser projector.
thankyou for your advice that you have already given me and any more will help me loads

thanks again oli

[gottaluvlasers]

200mW of JUST green can light up VERY well. especially in low light and fogged areas. so dont try to judge your f2000 on what youre 200mw green puts out.

i used to have an F2000 actually. it is NOT analog modulated. just TTL. so, unfortuantely you are only limited to about 7 colors. i bet that if you popped it open, you would probably notice VERY poor alignment also. believe it or not, when these units are tweaked, they actually look pretty good! (for what they are) i would suggest you go in and try to align the dichros.

the lasers themselves will not last you very long though. the blue will probaly hit about 200-300 hours TOPS.

the reds are either 650 or 660. DEFINITELY not 635. so, you will need alot more red to balance out if you up the values of your green and blue.

these CAN be wired *somewhat* ILDA by the way. the connector on the back can be wired with a standrard 8 cond. plug to a DB25 coneector. (i have the schem here somewhere if you need it) so that it can be used with standard laser control software.

the following is standard RGB white light ratios:

using 635nm/532nm/473nm:

635- 42.48% of total desired output
532- 25.09% of total desired output
473- 32.42% of total desired output

using 650/660nm/532nm/473nm:

650/660- 70.38% of total desired output
532- 13.18% of total desired output
473- 16.44% of total desired output

-Marc

[gottaluvlasers]

sorry for the double post. but it wouldnt let me add pictures through the "edit post" mode.

these are actual pics of my F2000 in use about a year ago. just to give you an idea...

[mixedgas]

I've used a commecial "fuscha" laser projector with 405 and 658 red combined at a rave. I cant say I'd reccomend 405 for a day to day device. The beams just washed out unless they were static single beam effects, and even then we really had to back off the intelligent lighting.

Steve Roberts

[oliverst14@hotmail.com]

. i bet that if you popped it open, you would probably notice VERY poor alignment also. believe it or not, when these units are tweaked, they actually look pretty good! (for what they are) i would suggest you go in and try to align the dichros.
these CAN be wired *somewhat* ILDA by the way. the connector on the back can be wired with a standrard 8 cond. plug to a DB25 coneector. (i have the schem here somewhere if you need it) so that it can be used with standard laser control software.(quote)



hiya
thankyou for your reply.
firstly i am new to adjusting things with laser. before i just bought them and played around but i really wanna start getting better at using them.
if you could give me the schimatics for that it would be fantastic cause i tried this and i couldnt get it to work. thanks. also i am very new to this but i dont really know what you mean by adjust the dichros. i guess you mean all the mirrors inside.
is there any chance you could put together some sort of tutorial of how i could make mine look as good as your cause those pictures look amazing. nothing like mine. how were you controling it in those pictures.
thank you so much for your help
oli

[gottaluvlasers]

hey oli-

aligning dichros is the process of making sure all of your lasers are perfectly lined up on the optics in front of each laser. the mirror looking optic in front of your lasers is a dichro.

dichroic filters are mirror like optics that reflects a certain wavelength of light while passing other wavelengths of light. this is how different wavlelengths (colors) of lasers are combined to make different colors.

now, in your F2000 RGB projector, it is only possible to get aobut 7 colors.
RED, GREEN, BLUE, CYAN, PINKI"ISH", YELLOW, PURPLE

reason you only get 7 (about) is because the lasers can only be turned on or turned off. (TTL modulation). when lasers are analog controlled, each lasers brightness can be adjusted from "0" or OFF. to 100% or FULL ON. and everything in between.

example-
100% red, 50% green= orange. by adjusting the green to only 50% output, you get orange. you cant do that with TTL modulation.

with analog modulation your color pallette is nearly limitless. in the millions of color combinations. this is also software limited. but you get the idea.

if i were you, if you have never adjusted dichros before, i would suggest NOT trying in this unit. the mounts in these are terrible!!! i broke a mount very easily trying to adjust the dichro.

best way to see if you need adjustment is to just shoot a straight beam. you should have a nice white beam and dot on your wall. (or close to white. prob a little more greenish)

if you have a red dot, with a little blue dot outside of it with a green dot on the other side then it needs to be aligned.
you want as close to a "bullseye" as you can get. one dot overlaying the other dot, overlaying the other dot. red over green over blue. this will give you your white.

if you feel like you want to try and adjust the dichros, there is tons of info here on how to do it. i would suggest reading some of the info FIRST. this will help you to learn. THEN ask questions after.

i am attaching some pics for you. the diagram for wiring is courtesy of "DreamBeamz." a member of this forum. he has a couple of these units. (or used to) and actually sold quite a few. he may chime in here and give you some info also.

-Marc

[soforene]

Excellent post.
That should go in the Wiki (if one ever gets off the ground).

[oliverst14@hotmail.com]

thankyou so much mate. you have helped me so much. i tried doing this and didnt know where to put those connections. that is amazingly helpful.
you are a laser god thanks mate.

im looking to build a laser with analogue diodes im looking to make an rgb version but im going to start with just red and green. is there any tutorials of making a laser from scratch? also have you got any advice of your own in making one. i would like one that was relativly bright probably about 700mw do you think this would give me an impressive laser. also what colours do you get from mixing red and green with an analogue diode?

cheers fella you have been so helpful
oli