Is it worth my effort ?

Hey Guys, Iv been watching youtube videos of how people mix RGV lasers to make "White" lasers, and make cool colours in general.

I figgured, hey; I have an arduino and a few cheap lasers i can spear, why not try make some sort P W M colour mixer.

So I got my arduino out and built this.




Arduino RGB Mixer using 1 Potentiometer - YouTube

It lets you select a brighness for each diode (so that they can all have compleatly difrent brightnesses and THUS being able to produce difrent colours. Right?
I have no experiance in mixing lasers so If any one can answer that would be a real champ!:thanks:

Well Anyways, i built it with a few LED;s and it worked GREAT! and then i put a 5mw red diode to it, and it also worked great, i could Dim it and make it brite. Not sure if i should be botherd pulling apart my spear lasers for this or not.

Heres a pic of what i plan on doing in the end





Dose anyknow know how to mix the beam? And like lead me in the right direction to any tuturials and explenations to mixing a beam ?

I like the intense detail and majesty your pictures provide I've never tried to mix beams myself but from what I've read it can be a lot of work, like a lot lot. There is a unit sold on ebay though that mixes color for like only $140. Maybe get one of those and experiment.

What I would suggest is buying one of those RGB units from eBay and then trying to control it using the Arduino. That way you can concentrate on the controls aspect and not with all the alignment stuff which you'll need some stiff surface, mounts, and dichros for.

Oh you're in Australia, so it may not get through customs... Well you can buy dichro sets (the mirrors used for combining beams) online and then try to manually get the lasers to combine.

Bionic-Badger said:

What I would suggest is buying one of those RGB units from eBay and then trying to control it using the Arduino. That way you can concentrate on the controls aspect and not with all the alignment stuff which you'll need some stiff surface, mounts, and dichros for.

Click to expand...

Do you think that really has a 473 in it, I thought that would make it's price much higher.

Hi Badspella,

You can control the laser driver using the Arduino PWM outputs.
Here is a thread that will help. http://laserpointerforums.com/f42/making-ttl-driver-dx-200mw-greenie-51916.html
In simple terms, just put a transistor across the voltage ref and hey presto - a PWM controlled driver ;-)

Easy to combine beams using dichroic mirrors - difficult to get them aligned though - use good adjustable mounts ( you normally only need 2 dichroic mirrors. as one of the beams is aligned on axis.)

As BB says, your Arduino could control one of the ready built RGB units - bolt your arduino on top for a nice multi colour Labbi style.
You'll pay more for the individual components, so it's a good buy for experimenting with.

Here is my RGB hand held laser :- http://laserpointerforums.com/f40/rgb-hand-held-laser-77311.html

Keep up the good work.

ATB
MM

Bionic-Badger said:

What I would suggest is buying one of those RGB units from eBay and then trying to control it using the Arduino. That way you can concentrate on the controls aspect and not with all the alignment stuff which you'll need some stiff surface, mounts, and dichros for.

Click to expand...

Guess what i did emediatly after reading your post....



I also had a look at dichro mirror sets and that was EXTREMLY helpfull!


Also, Multimode Thats verry helpfull. I was going to connect diodes straight to the pwm outputs because they are 3 volts. But conecting outputs to the switches is a great idea!

Do you guys want to be keped up to date with everything ?
Should i make a tutrial when my RGB arives on how to use it with Arduino ?

You guys are realy realy helpfull Thanks!

Wait a minute - there's 80mW of 473 in there? Typo?

To answer your question directly, have a look at what Things wrote, its an excellent page!

Dichroic Mirror - Projector Reference

TheDukeAnumber1 said:

Do you think that really has a 473 in it, I thought that would make it's price much higher.

Click to expand...

Well, while Laserlands claims it is 473nm, I think he/she is just quoting the manufacturer's erroneous claim. The claim that the 473nm lasers are single diodes, not DPSS, is also quite dubious. Laserlands later modified some of their listings to show 445-473nm probably just to cover their butts.

It's still a nice RGB module regardless.

I still want to see an all-diode single mode RGB laser... but that's definitely not 473nm because I'm not broke

In the OP, i like the detail of the self drawn paint diagrams! he even drew his penis on the stick figure!

Fiddy said:

In the OP, i like the detail of the self drawn paint diagrams! he even drew his penis on the stick figure!

Click to expand...

Nice catch!

@OP you can look at the link in my signature for a beginners guide of dichroics.