OK its time for another stevo's outburst...

[Banthai]

Hi Doc

Quite a few reasons for retiring them really .....

1, i had hit a quite a few speed limitations using them
2, upgraded the projector to RGB so it was ideal time to upgrade the scanners
3 got a great deal on the Laserworld 50k scanners on ebay

as you mentioned before ... they are not the precision scanners that most would require ... but the plus side for them is they can be thrashed for long periods of time with no heat build up... these are ideal for a club installation that runs continuosly every night of the week

the laser worlds i have are based on the Cambridge 6800s and realisticaly are only able to do 30k with out overdriving them ...

as we know some manufacturers love to exagerate

all the best .... Karl

[The_Doctor]

The thrashability is good. Accuracy for large changes is also ok for me. Trouble is, even large patterns often have moments where motion in one axis is small, and that's where they fail. Yours too? And do the new ones have that trouble? (The problem looks like a kind of reluctance to pull out of a momentary stillness, you'll likely know what I mean, having WideMoves to show it to you..) I'm still trying to find out whether this is a problem with scanners in general, though I guess torsion bar types like General Scanning do are immune to it because you have to push energy into to them just to make them move at all. It would be irritating if 6800-type scanners also do it.

[buffo]

Welcome back, Doc! Thought you'd dropped off the face of the earth for good for a while there. Good to see you back.

re: hard times - yeah, I hear you there pal. Things are in the toilet pretty much everywhere these days, with no end in sight. Stick with PL though, and at least you'll have company in your misery!

As for your scanner issues, none of the Chinese clones of the 6800's exhibit the behavior you're describing, though I've heard exactly the same complaints from every person I've ever talked to that has the widemoves. Ditch them on E-bay and get a new set of 30K scanners and you'll be golden.

Now, about this patented beer-filled optical element you're proposing... I'd be willing to do some beta testing for you, provided you will promise that none of the test subjects will be as fat as the one in the picture! (The beer is free, right?)

Adam

[The_Doctor]

That's about the size of it. Even a shameless misanthrope like me can use the company.

Guiness. Actually I doubt even Guiness has the required OD. And a vertically aligned concave line lens might also help reduce the intensity of the emission...

If I sell enough of my 5 mm PBS's I'll try that scanner suggestion. Might be enough to resurrect interest.

[steve-o]

Hey!
As I posted on another thread, good to hear from you again, Doc! We missed ya'.
I'm still here, just concentrating on music more these days (google 'zxyz'), also doing job-hunting and giving the lasers a rest for a bit.

[Laser Ben]

Steve,

I hope those Melles modules are working out well for you! I may just have one left

[steve-o]

Really? Well, there's a diode here waiting for a happy home..

-Yeah Ben, they work well with the mitsu 636s.

[steve-o]

Hey Ben, how much ya want 4 it?