Greetings my fellow Photon addicts I am new to the forum,
I just got back into laser shows recently. In a past life I had a laser show company and sold my share out to my partner some years back. Got married had a kid ect... about a year ago I got the bug to step back into again pretty much for personal enjoyment, and started to research what was happening in the industry. When I started to see the prices of laser diodes and scanners come down (China) and the fact that you could have a a small solid state laser no water 3phase Power noisy air cooling ect... I decided to look into building a small graphics projector for my own enjoyment (I already know there is no money in laser shows from my past life) I saw a projector on ebay for just under $300 bucks it was RGY had 12k scanners in it (not great but a start) 100 mw red and 60 mw green DMX and an ILDA connector so I asked other people that had purchased them if they were happy there was not one compliant they had the units from China in 3 days or less. So with a little
apprehension I ordered one. I have to say its not bad for that money. Now the way they aligned the two lasers was a joke using an aluminum angle bracket with a dichroic filter glued to it if you remove the lasers from the plate you will be there all day realigning it.
I am currently upgrading the projector first I purchased a flex mod and a blue ray diode and have installed it in the projector ( I will have before and after pics to post soon) next I will remove the crappy angle bracket with the filter. I have to Thorlabs KM05 kinematic filter mounts that I made custom brackets out of stock aluminum angle brackets to replace it and add the blue reflect dichro (really purple) and I will have an RGP projector for not a lot of money. I just purchased Dr.Lavas LDS RYIA package which I think is a fantastic price for what you get and since I am doing this mostly for fun (I do work part time at a planetarium they have a projector there and want me to program shows) I cant shell out the kind of money that would get me back in the Pangolin game, Quick show is too limited for me. I will be posting before and after Pictures as the project progresses.
As soon as I recover from the cost of the LDS RYIA purchase (what a money pit this is the purchase almost caused a divorce) I will be upgrading the scanners to 30k that is a must! (even if my wife kicks me out the door) the scanners that came with the projector will not go to waste I plan on putting them in a 4 Position Green only beam projector as a future project.
Cheers
Michael
"If you want to make money get a tow truck don't go into lasers"
L Michael Roberts Laser FX (not exactly how it said it but a very good point none the less)