Lasers, Scanners, Mirrors, FUN ~~~ Photos & Videos

[jtice]

I have had my dual stage Green Laser Pointer for a while now, and have been having ALOT of fun with it.
I thought I would share some of my experiments with you.

The Pointer was modded my fellow CPF member 4sevens, it has an added button for boost mode.
Low mode is 15mW, High mode is 52mW.

Heres a video showing the 2 modes.
Low-High Mode.AVI

So, whats the fitst thing you do when you get a high power laser?
Yep, you grab a black garbage bag /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif 2 seconds flat, if you hold still enough.
Burning Garbage Bag.AVI

So, then you start playing around with mirrors, seeing how many times you can get it to bouce, etc.

All sorts of things can reflect cool looking beams and patterns.
Such a a THOR spotlight reflector.

Heres a vid of it.
thor.AVI

Heres a vid of the Thor sitting in front of a shinny Wock.
thor and wock.AVI

I then took a small CPU fan, and placed a small mirror on the center, that was not sitting on it perfectly flat.
This creates a circle pattern, great for making a tunnel effect.

Heres a video of the tunnel effect.
Tunnel_Effect.AVI

Now, all you have to do is make another fan mirror, and have them spinning offest of each other,
and you can create cool looking elipes etc. You can adjust the speed of each fan to acheive differnet patterns.

Then I took two small speakers, and attached small mirrors to them, on a pivoting arm.
One speaker is used for the X axis, and one for the Y axis.
Crank some music through them, and you have an instant laser show /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Heres a vid of how its made, and it in action.
speaker_XY_scanner.wmv

Another vid of it in action, showing it react to the music.
apoc - behind walk around.AVI


But do you think I was happy with that? noooooo corse not! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin07.gif
I bought this used computer controlled scanner system.
Its the Starter Kit off www.mylaserpage.de controlled by Popelscan software and a printer cable.
Heres a photo of the software

Here it is, in its testing stage, before I install it in a nice enclosure.

The scanner mounts also need to be replaced with something better.

Here is a pic of it in action...

Closeup of the scanners at work...
as you can see, they still need alot of adjusting and fine tuning.
closeup scanners 1.AVI

Heres a taste if the types of beam patterns it can do.
random scan front 4.AVI

Thought I would through this in,
this vid shows the camera picking up IR bounce... very bad stuff!!!
IR Bounce.AVI

Which, brings me to my closing statement~~~

Lasers can be alot of fun, and do alot of really cool things. BUT, they are very dangerous to your eyes!
Be very careful when doing this type of stuff. I had my laser on the 15mW setting for all the scanner stuff, and after about 2

hours of playing with it, I can say that I wasnt seeing quite right for a few hours after that.
YOU ONLY GET ONE SET OF EYES !!!!!

Here is the link to all the videos.
http://www.jtice.com/home_movs/laser/

And the link to my Laser Gallery.
http://www.jtice.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=Laser

Hope you enjoyed the show, I sure enjoyed creating it. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

~John

 

[bajaiman]

Re: Lasers, Scanners, Mirrors, FUN ~~~ Photos & Vi

Jtice...this is great!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif ... would you kindly enough to explain how to create that tunnel effect again (pics of the mirror on the CPU fan would be great) ... I've just got my 22mW laser and I like it alot ... these little experiments are excellent to show great cool stuff you can do with your laser /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Re: Lasers, Scanners, Mirrors, FUN ~~~ Photos & Vi

Excellent documentation, John. Have you ever considered writing a book about it?

 

[jtice]

Re: Lasers, Scanners, Mirrors, FUN ~~~ Photos & Vi

bajaiman,

sure no problem, I will take some pics and post them, with a description. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

PhotonWrangler,

Heh, I very seriously doubt I am the best person to write a book on this subject, just playing around basically.

thanks for the comments guys, more to come /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[jtice]

Re: Lasers, Scanners, Mirrors, FUN ~~~ Photos & Vi

ok, here ya go, i made a quick webpage for it, should tell you what you need to know, let me know if you have any questions

http://www.jtice.com/Lasers

 

[Vee3]

Re: Lasers, Scanners, Mirrors, FUN ~~~ Photos & Vi

That's cool!

Gives me all kinds of ideas. I have piles of first surface mirrors, lenses prisms and small motors.

My six year old boy and I are gonna have some fun.

Thanks...

 

[SteveW]

Re: Lasers, Scanners, Mirrors, FUN ~~~ Photos & Vi

Hi,

Do you have any schematics of your galvo driver board? And does it really have a computer interface? From the looks of it, it was a kit (if not, you've done a great job with your PCB layouts). Any details on where you got it? Ive been playing with some galvo's with my laser, but i still need to get real amplifiers to drive them and some other little tricks ive been thinking about. Any info on your setup would be appreciated.

EDIT: i missed your little bit with the link to that site for the galvo controller. Looks like i need to read everything before i post!

 

[jtice]

Re: Lasers, Scanners, Mirrors, FUN ~~~ Photos & Vi

Vee3, glad I could spark some ideas, sounds like you have some good stuff you could use /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif Just remember to watch your eyes! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif

SteveW, As I said, it is a kit, I had to wire it, but not build it from scratch.
I bought it used, from a person that got it from here. http://www.mylaserpage.de/set.htm

Its setup for 220V, so naturally, living in the US, I had to swap out the transformer on it for a 110V one.

Yes, it is completely computer controlled, via the computers printer port. and Popelscan software.

All that is mentioned in my post above, with pics of all that also.

No, sorry no schematics, just the wiring diagrams that come with it.

 

[Iron_Man]

Re: Lasers, Scanners, Mirrors, FUN ~~~ Photos & Vi

Are you running the software under Win98, XP, or what?
I tried it under XP and it did not work.
Les

 

[Shredhead]

Re: Lasers, Scanners, Mirrors, FUN ~~~ Photos & Vi

looks like fun...can we come over and have a sleepover... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Raccoon]

Re: Lasers, Scanners, Mirrors, FUN ~~~ Photos & Vi

Nice job! Thanks for your contribution to the forum!

I'm impressed with your elliptical pattern experiment involving 2 CPU fans. I never would have thought about that.

Keep us posted when you find other neat experiments to share. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[IsaacHayes]

Re: Lasers, Scanners, Mirrors, FUN ~~~ Photos & Vi

eek, watch your eyes! even if you're not getting zapped directly, obviously you've gotten affected by something, IR, or just being in too dark of a room and looking at bright light.

How does the tunnel effect work with a standard 5mW Red laser? I have one I bought in '98 for 14 bucks(!) and it is super bright for being a Red unit.

 

[jtice]

Re: Lasers, Scanners, Mirrors, FUN ~~~ Photos & Vi

I run the program on XP Pro.
I had to reboot a couple times, but have not had errors after that.

You COULD do it with just a 5mW Red laser, but you will need it REALLY foggy in the room.

Thanks for the comments guys.
I hope to find the time to do some other experiments.

 

[Iron_Man]

Re: Lasers, Scanners, Mirrors, FUN ~~~ Photos & Vi

I loaded the software under Win98Se and it runs with no problems. Now if I just had a DAC and some amps and some galvos I could use it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Les

 

[jtice]

Re: Lasers, Scanners, Mirrors, FUN ~~~ Photos & Vi

Glad you got it working Les. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
I have only tried it on XP, had to reboot a couple times, but then it worked fine.

ah, yea, its, ALOT more fun with the rest of the setup included though /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[LaserMod]

Re: Lasers, Scanners, Mirrors, FUN ~~~ Photos & Vi

Great post Jtice /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

I'll have to get a set of those scanners. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[jtice]

Re: Lasers, Scanners, Mirrors, FUN ~~~ Photos & Vi

Just alittle bump to the top, of this old thread I made a while back.

Took some video while testing the scanner the other day.
Calibrating it, for the arrival of a 100mW 532nm Green Module :devil:

http://www.jtice.com/home_movs/laser/red_scanner.wmv

~John

 

[allthatwhichis]

I need that scanner, or a map to make something similar... :kewlpics: too!

 

[ajohnson]

Dang. This thread made me break down and buy a kit off ebay that comes with 3 servos & software. I can feel the money sink growing...

 

[allthatwhichis]

Dang. This thread made me break down and buy a kit off ebay that comes with 3 servos & software. I can feel the money sink growing...

Which one did you get? You have a sink that spits out money?!! and you seem to be upset about it getting bigger...