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

I don't know if the url will work, but here goes:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Laser-SHOW-DJ-Bands-Light-Scanner-Galvo-dpss-argon-hene_W0QQitemZ230005805467QQihZ013QQcategoryZ14984QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Eww that's ugly. If it doesn't work, just search for "Laser SHOW,DJ,Bands,Light Scanner,Galvo,dpss,argon,hene" - which is the title of the auction. It say's he has 10 available.

I've no idea if it's any good or worth the $$.

Yea, I've seen that one there for a while, and have been tempted myself. It is usually $99, so you got a decent discount. Definatly keep us posted. I was thinking of building something, but would like to look at a kit first. Just to start off on the right track...

I dont mean to be the baror of bad news but....

I am fairly sure that only has 3 galvos and software,,,
and that is does NOT include controller or power supplies for the galvos.

Please keep us posted when you get it.
If the galvos are as good or better than mine (which arent great) then its probably still a good deal.

~John

I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, so, for that price, you did get a good deal .

On the other hand, what he sells are not really considered galvos, they are usually called open loop galvos, but are really stepper motors, so you'll be limited to liquid sky, time tunnels and spirographs (no graphics or words).

The add is a bit misleading, though. The software is free, the three sttepers are not really worth the 125$ he states, and the instructions, as far as I know (I don't have the kit) are very easy to follow.

So, all in all, in my opinion, this is a good kit for the begginer, as long as the price is right

As an alternative, you may take a look here. A bit easier for the begginers, as the steppers are just connected to an audio source.

Figured I'd better jump in here, Jtice- excellent work!! Like some of the others said, I want one now!
Here's a video I made myself with a setup I had. Don't want to steal your thunder, but thought it would fit into this thread perfectly.
http://media.putfile.com/Laser-Wicked-Laser-Syncd

nice vid wondergimp

Thanks for sharing.
Seems you took the cones off, and just attached the mirrors to the center voice coil?
How did you get it to make that wider beam when there was no sound, instead of just a still beam?
Is that a fan I see to the left?

~John

Its actually a 3v motor with a mirror on the end. It was actually more of an accident, but when the motor is running, it generates vibrations on the speaker mirrors which results in an X-axis scanner when no sound is playing through. The main purpose of the motor is for the tunnel effect when the first speaker is repositioned. Its a pretty slick setup, stumbled upon by an accident. Go figure.

ahhh, ok, that makes sence, very cool

yep, some of the best things are discovered by accident.

~John

@wondergimp, your supposed to pan the camera and show us the "show" not the beam... Nice set up though. :goodjob:

whaaaa?

naaaaah, I like seeing the BEAM, or rather, the WALL of beam

The sqiggly lines it draws on the wall arent as cool, IMO.

~John

allthatwhichis said:

@wondergimp, your supposed to pan the camera and show us the "show" not the beam... Nice set up though. :goodjob:

Click to expand...

Crap....sorry Jtice, should have made my own thread, I'm stealing your attention....:laughing:

Well, sorry for my lack of camera skill'z', I'm not much of a filmographer, I just put the camera on a tripod and called it good. I should have done a little more panning, I know, just laziness kicking in.

lol no problem, happy to see what others are doing,
thats what got me into all this !!!!

~John

jtice said:

whaaaa?

naaaaah, I like seeing the BEAM, or rather, the WALL of beam

The sqiggly lines it draws on the wall arent as cool, IMO.

~John

Click to expand...

I like the beam too, but it takes both to make a show, right?

wondergimp said:

Well, sorry for my lack of camera skill'z'...

Click to expand...

That's cool I was just talking trash...:touche:

Made a new video using the GBS-100 100mW module
http://www.jtice.com/home_movs/laser/gbs-100/gbs-100_scanner_7-20-06.wmv

~John

jtice said:

Made a new video using the GBS-100 100mW module
http://www.jtice.com/home_movs/laser/gbs-100/gbs-100_scanner_7-20-06.wmv

~John

Click to expand...

:rock: I WANT ONE!!! :goodjob:

ajohnson said:

I don't know if the url will work, but here goes:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Laser-SHOW-DJ-Bands-Light-Scanner-Galvo-dpss-argon-hene_W0QQitemZ230005805467QQihZ013QQcategoryZ14984QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Eww that's ugly. If it doesn't work, just search for "Laser SHOW,DJ,Bands,Light Scanner,Galvo,dpss,argon,hene" - which is the title of the auction. It say's he has 10 available.

I've no idea if it's any good or worth the $$.

Click to expand...

Did you get this beast yet? I am curious how much control the program gives you.

jtice said:

Made a new video using the GBS-100 100mW module
http://www.jtice.com/home_movs/laser/gbs-100/gbs-100_scanner_7-20-06.wmv

~John

Click to expand...

That looks awsome. If I had one of those I would have my own personal Pink Floyd laser show.

Yes I did get it, and I'm afraid you guys were right, it wasn't that great a deal. To be fair, I did get exactly what it said I would get. Here's a sort of review of the package and what it can do:

First, here's the entire kit

3 Galvo motors with front surface mirrors (price sticker on box saying $125 for the three)
1 cd (price sticker saying $325) with a pdf file, a laser pattern generator program, and a readme file. The readme just says that the pattern generator program has been renamed from what the pdf says, and that the galvos in the kit may look different from the pictures in the pdf.

There's disclaimers all over everything about the dangers of laser light and electricity, and an EULA on the cd sleeve saying you can't reverse engineer the software or otherwise copy it/use it on more than 1 computer.

Here's a couple closeups of a galvo



Testing on the galvo makes it appear to take +/- 5v to swing the mirror to it's fullest extent in either direction.

The pdf file explains how to make your own galvo's using pager motors, but doesn't seem to deal with the difference between a galvo and a motor that rotates a full 360 degrees. It shows examples of using an optical bench with some inexpensive hardware to mount the galvos and a disassembled laser pointer attached to a battery pack for continuous use. It further suggests attaching the galvo's to the right & left speaker outputs on a stereo with the volume adjusted so as to not burn out the galvos.

The program looks like this:


It appears to be a pair of oscillators (right/left) along with code to display what the image should look like, which is actually kinda cool. Some of the noises coming from the speakers are kinda weird too. I gotta take it home and see if it makes my dog freak out.

At this point I may play with it the way it is, but I think I also want to look into getting some sort of d/a converter that I can control with my own software. I ran across a usb one that was around $100, but I may just make my own using the printer port. I haven't decided yet.

Thanks for the info on that kit.

wow, those mirrors are huge!
that can be a good and bad thing I guess, will be easy to line up

Where did you see the USB board for $100?
Is it just the controller board? and you are responsible for wiring it up to a power supply and galvos?

~John

I'm having trouble locating the one I saw yesterday. I think this one is similar:
http://www.labjack.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=LAB&Product_Code=LJU3

but now I like this one:

http://www.elexp.com/tst_k805.htm


I happen to know my way around several programming languages and quite a bit about electronics too, so desiging a kit around something like this is within my abilities.

edit: oh by the way, the mirrors are 1" square