Please help a newb with some questions.

[stanwax]

if your knowledge and skills are limited there are many of us on here who could help you out not just with advice - knowing where on the planet you were would be useful.

Rob

[ni-cad]

I'm Taking an extended break from the big smoke at the moment, have a house by the beach. It's the ass end of nowhere though and most post normally takes a week to get out here.

What are my best chances, would it be possible to upgrade a cheeper laser? or re-condition an older one? I've seen a video on youtube of a custom laser, it looked doable, I could probably get a case and some mounting made up fairly cheeply.

[stanwax]

Parts are available to build stuff for similar money to buying pre built. You just need to add your time and enthusiasm and you will likely end up with something of better spec for a similar ammount of money.
It depends on your own capabilities and whether you have suitable skills to do the tasks needed or indeed have the desire to develop those skills
Rob

[ni-cad]

I see.

The laser I'm after would have quite low specks though. I'm all for taking on projects like this but not if it's still going to cost £1000's. It is affordability I'm after really.

How about converting something cheep? maybe something like this

http://www.chinesedepartmentstore.co...roducts_id/126

?

[White-Light]

Hey I love Fistral, do you surf down there?

On lasers, you'll get the best quality by making your own as most on here will tell you but its also more expensive and requires some technical knowledge / electronics ability. Its also not without eye risk although with the proper precautions you should be ok.

If you're going off the shelf, then Kvant (Pelosh on here deals them) pretty much sit towards the top of the shelf but they will cost you. Think of Porsche.

Neo Laser I've heard are OK (never seen them though and their web states diode life as 6,000 hours on some models which is less than many (10,000 is typical)). I'm sure someone on here has seen them and can comment further.

Middle of the road you could go for a Laserworld Pro or RS green with 50K scanners (expect to get 30K performance) and also to have to fine tune them or have them fine tuned for best performance.

Mixture of good and bad experiences on here of Laserworld. Far cheaper on ebay than in Laserworld shop so I'd look on there.

I'm quite happy with my Laserworld RS, great flight case and great quality laser case, although the scanners do need minor adjustment and my red has poor beam width. My green is very tight though.

Ones to really avoid are Cheap Chinese Lasers, (often found on ebay), even ILDA ones, as many have high levels of IR radiation due to lack of IR filtration or are poorly made or claim ILDA but fail to make the minimum ILDA spec. Thats not to say all are Chinese lasers are bad, just that its Russian Roulette if you don't know which.

Maybe the safest thing to do would be to draw up a list of possibilities you've seen then post them on here for some of the more experienced members to take a look at.

Maybe someone experienced could also give you some advice on power levels. I doubt you need huge amounts in smallish venues as green is the most visible colour, but on the other hand, you will want it bright enough to look professional.

[White-Light]

I see.

The laser I'm after would have quite low specks though. I'm all for taking on projects like this but not if it's still going to cost £1000's. It is affordability I'm after really.

How about converting something cheep? maybe something like this

http://www.chinesedepartmentstore.co...roducts_id/126

?

Someone on here posted this earlier in the year:

http://www.veoh.com/videos/v15607563AFMJrZbR

I accept no responsibility for its accuracy.

Might help you understand the point about Cheap lasers though.

BTW, in case you didn't get the Class 1 point, 30mw is Class 3B.

[ni-cad]

I see, not good.

I wonder though if it was going to be hacked anyway might it be good for parts, probably not hey?

Can these sort of lasers be modified?

[stanwax]

I think if you spend right you will be able to build your own and not have it cost as much. I would say pound for pound you will do better building yourself - unless you ARE spending new car money.
I also think its crazy to buy and replace parts in a prebuilt projector as you will throw away lots of stuff you just paid for which is insane if money it tight. OK you can sell off the removed bits but you wont get all the value back and if the bits are so poor as to take out why should anyone want to buy them off you?
Scanners can be had cheap enough - my basic 20k sets are £125 and will do decent graphics and fantastic beams add to this a couple of hundred mW of green in a case with a bit of simple wiring and you got yourself a something that will perform as good or better than an off the shelf unit probably with more power - or a laser source that will be deent quality and last you or at least still be of some value to sell on once you get to wanting more power - which will happen!
If planned right you can leave room for the inevitable stepes to rgy & then on to RGB cos if you get bitten by the bug thats exactly where you will head
Recent experiences on here of lower end systems have not painted a pretty picture. Lookup silverray and or laserworld to see

Rob

[ni-cad]

OK, I can see a lot of you guys are building your own and would help me out, thats really cool, I like places like this

Could anyone here work out a parts list for me and if possible provide me with prices for all the components, Stanwax? I couldn't find any prices on your site, but I don't really know what I'm looking for. I kind of miss understood you before, When you said the parts would be the same as an of the shelf model, I presumed you were talking about a Laserworld £1000 plus etc.

Also.

http://www.djkit.co.uk/product.php?id=4098&cat=308

I found this on one site, how does it fair up? It appears to be able to run custom graphics, but is under £500, I was under the impression it would cost me twice as much to use my own graphics.

or how about this one

http://www.terralec.co.uk/lasers/clu...d/26761_p.html

[stanwax]

Hi Ni
As clearly stated on the site in stock items are priced and have BIN buttons - due to the fluctuation in prices of the laser sources its best for me to give people a price as they want it - that way they get the best deal.
So going with your first link we have
20k scanners £125
green dpss 60mW - our lowest power 532 is 100mW and you looking at around £175 once its shipped and duties paid.
red diode (650nm) 130mW We could offer 2 solutions for this our min 650nm module is 250mW and comes in at about £140 though our 100mW 660nm lasers have a really nice tight beam. You could combine a pair of these with a cube (though they dont have analogue modulation) to achieve maybe 180mW and these are £25 each plus a cube at £22.
now you need a case & base plate to fit (cut from >5mm ally) - price could be anything depending on style and material. If not fussed you could use a second hand lighting housing as I did for my 'little' projector see pic attached. Thi is special as its very compact, with RGB parts packed in but anything is doable
The 2 lasers you linked to have dmx control & these cards are available from our scanner suppliers for extra cost - not certain on this but lets say £40
So building yourself you will get you more power, certainly better lasers and you have the satisfaction of building it yourself with the parts costing you very similar money!
ok you will need other bits and bobs - wire, connectors, time etc but not another 500 quids worth (well excluding time!)
Rob

PS and one other thing that you wont get from the off the shelfers...Service. If you have a question we will do all we can to help. If you have a problem we will resolve it, no silent cold shoulders here.
Rob