aaxa released the l1 laser projector before showwx in the US

After seeing the aaxa l1 laser projector on engadget last week, i ordered one...got it today.

Usually, i'm not one to register or post but this was too good to show off. I've been following the showwx for awhile and got a tip from this forum while lurking a few months ago. Couldn't wait any longer, got the aaxa and can't complain.

First off, this thing destroys LED based projectors. Secondly, I read on Cnet that this aaxa one compared to the showwx is also completely different in design and laser.

from Micro-Projector.com-All about pico, mini, micro, and mobile projectors.
"According to Max Hu, marketing director at AaxaTech, in his interview with CNet:
“Our engine uses an LCOS panel vs. their beam-steering MEM’s design. The diffused laser light allows higher brightness and classification as a FCC Class 1 product vs. a focused beam design which has eye safety issues. In that regard, our design has the potential for much brighter designs in the future (which we are currently developing).”"


Don't really know what else to say about it, so I took pictures. It says 20 lumens but, like all lasers, seems a lot brighter. color quality is excellent, build quality feels expensive, and it is packaged nicely with a fancy carrying case.






Its a little steep in pricing. It also says preorder but I just got mine from my preorder last week so they are shipping now. I'm in california so my mail is faster.
AAXA L1 Laser Pico Projector - LCoS Based Hand-held Pocket Projector - Laser Micro Projector

That looks really awesome. I'd love to know more about its insides...

-Trevor

haha. i've thought about taking the thing apart before it even arrived...

however, i can't. its still too new and warranty doesn't cover me blowing up my $600 laser projector.


green, it is actually about that bright. the throw distances aren't super far and the images that i have are maybe 2.5 feet wide or so (with dimmed lighting...definitely a bright light across the room on)

at that close, though, i had to increase shutter speed drastically because the laser image was actually "too bright" for my camera to take in at that close while taking in room lighting.

relatively, it looks about that bright in person if not a little more so. the images are crystal clear which is what i'm most impressed with.

Pretty cool. It'll be even better when they ever get green diodes into these things.

Also, have you seen any literature about if the blue is a diode or DPSS? My quick googling couldn't find a specification for the wavelengths for this particular device, and I'm sure the green is DPSS and the red is a diode, but I'm curious which is used for the blue.

pullbangdead said:

Pretty cool. It'll be even better when they ever get green diodes into these things.

Also, have you seen any literature about if the blue is a diode or DPSS? My quick googling couldn't find a specification for the wavelengths for this particular device, and I'm sure the green is DPSS and the red is a diode, but I'm curious which is used for the blue.

Click to expand...

I too, am interested. Also, how do these things render an image? Is it galvo based? I would pay $600 for galvos and blue lasers..... Especially if I could modify it. This thing probably just cycles across like a CRT, if I could modify it to get manual control of the galvos it could be very bright!

will

i haven't been able to find any literature on the subject either. i'm assuming diode.

by blue diode do you mean 405? I thought that even <20mW blue diodes cost as much as the projector itself.

That is great! Hope to see more pics or vids of this if possible

ossumguywill said:

by blue diode do you mean 405? I thought that even <20mW blue diodes cost as much as the projector itself.

Click to expand...

No, he means blue.

Blue diodes cost hundreds or thousands when you're ordering just a few of them, like we would be doing on LPF if we ordered them direct. However, when you're mass-producing a projector with them and buying thousands of them, they get a lot cheaper. Not quite as cheap as violet, most likely, but still a lot cheaper than what we pay.

There's really not much difference in how they're made, the cost just comes from the economies of scale. Violet diodes would be thousands of dollars to us too, if Blu-Ray drive makers weren't ordering millions of them.

I'm only assuming, of course, as the price tag on each unit is 600 bones. I'll have to dive further

Alright, good. Does this mean we could extract the diode? Or even take manual control of the MEMS and make a decent laser projector (like an honest to god galvo one) but in a really small package? It would be a lot cheaper than ordering your own blue diodes or micro green assemblies.....

Actually I just spoke with one of the tech guys at AAXA (I own a P2 pico projector which I love). The guy mentioned that he believes the blue diodes are coming from Japan, which I'm assuming means that they are Nichia diodes that cost thousands of dollars for samples. I don't have the balls to order a $600 L1 to dissect but those with larger brass ones than myself may feel free to confirm this!

Amazing... But apart from the LD's, I am extremely interested in the projector mechanics. I don't think it to be galvo-based cause this way it should make noise, remember the times for second for fotogram should do to raster an animated image, lets put 25 fps, and 480 scan lines, thats 480x25=12000 scanlines per second, and dont forget that every scan line has, for example another 480 points. In this case we will need a 12000x480=5760000, thats a 5760 kpps galvo. I think more on it like a laser with expander optics (thus the low bright images) passing throug three LCD filters, one for each waveleng, and controled digitally like any other lcd. This way it should be silent, and low in power requirements, and infinitely more durable (if we keep low the laser power to avoid toasting the RGB filters). Anyhow... as said, an amazing gadget.

magonegro said:

Amazing... But apart from the LD's, I am extremely interested in the projector mechanics. I don't think it to be galvo-based cause this way it should make noise, remember the times for second for fotogram should do to raster an animated image, lets put 25 fps, and 480 scan lines, thats 480x25=12000 scanlines per second, and dont forget that every scan line has, for example another 480 points. In this case we will need a 12000x480=5760000, thats a 5760 kpps galvo. I think more on it like a laser with expander optics (thus the low bright images) passing throug three LCD filters, one for each waveleng, and controled digitally like any other lcd. This way it should be silent, and low in power requirements, and infinitely more durable (if we keep low the laser power to avoid toasting the RGB filters). Anyhow... as said, an amazing gadget.

Click to expand...

It's not a galvo, you're right. It's an MEMS chip. Basically a super small piezoelectric galvo.

A little more info on the size of green laser on the new pico-projectors.

"The laser device produces green laser light with a wavelength of 532nm by changing the wavelength of laser light that is emitted from a quantum dot laser and has a wavelength of 1,064nm with SHG (second harmonic generation) devices.

The new green laser device features a wide operating temperature range (up to 60°C without cooling), resulting in lower power consumption. It operates at a voltage of 2V, and its wavelength can be modulated at 500MHz or higher. It is sealed in the general-purpose package "TO-56" with a diameter of 5.6mm."

It looks to be direct conversion to 532nm Green with one crystal.

Larry