Consider my mind BOGGLED!

After watching that video... I think I need an adult :cryyy:

I want to have my own lasershow.. but 1 thing keep on standing in my way.
KNOWLEDGE

I'm pretty much CLUELESS when it comes to lasers , and when it comes to laser projectors , you can cave my head in with a club and I'll talk about much sense about laser projectors as I do now.

So some help would be much appreciated.

I've got a few questions really.

ESPECIALLY at the 1:23 mark.
How the hell does a galvo go that smoothly??
Most of the time all I've seen is a pan style light curtain , but NEVER a wave.
How the hell did they do that??

Secondly , isn't crowd scanning a bit dangerous?
How do they ensure the light ray won't exceed the MPE level?
Can hobbyists achieve that too without selling a kidney ,a lung ,a bollock and an eye?

Thirdly , I keep on seeing that illuminated spot in mid air....
How the hell did they make a SPECIFIC point in the ray particularly brighter than the beam itself??
There can't be a glass plane... if there were we would see the refraction right???

3:10
LOOK AT THOSE BUTTERFLIES!!!
HOW DID THEY DO THAT????
WHAT THE HELL?
That's NOT A LASER!!


3:34
WHAT???
IS THAT A HOLOGRAM??
WHAT?

Hologram without holographic planes???
WHAT?



My mind is SO BLOWN RIGHT NOW




SOmeone PLEASSSSE!
Tell me what is going on ... :huh:

And more importantly... how can I be one with the laser gods
:bowdown: :angel:

That is impressive, but there are a few more awesome ones! knowledge may be holding you back, but i'm guessing those projectors would be $75,000+ at least. i would also love a laser projector

NKO29 said:

That is impressive, but there are a few more awesome ones! knowledge may be holding you back, but i'm guessing those projectors would be $75,000+ at least. i would also love a laser projector

Click to expand...

Do they accept body parts payments?

HAHAHAHA im sure you can sell body parts somewhere in Asia. im not sure if you can directly trade body parts for lasers though

NKO29 said:

HAHAHAHA im sure you can sell body parts somewhere in Asia. im not sure if you can directly trade body parts for lasers though

Click to expand...

But seriously...
How did they do it?
Specifically???

i am no expert, so correct me if i'm wrong...
this looks to be a single laser projector to start off...
The creators of the show program the show into a software that "hooks" into the laser projector. this software contains coordinates, speeds etc that the machine uses to make the projected image. the machine works with 3 main parts:
Laser assembly
Mirror array
Motors
using the rotation of the mirrors by the motors the machine projects an image of whatever shape that can be physically projected by the machine. And im almost 100% sure smoke has been used here. smoke simply allows you to see the light more easily.
^by doing the above, at the right angle you can make the images look like they do and to make an amazing laser show!

I'm sure i have missed alot of things as i said i am no expert at all, but i hope you can get an idea of how these BASICALLY work. -Josh
How A Laser Light Show Machine Works - YouTube

NKO29 said:

i am no expert, so correct me if i'm wrong...
this looks to be a single laser projector to start off...
The creators of the show program the show into a software that "hooks" into the laser projector. this software contains coordinates, speeds etc that the machine uses to make the projected image. the machine works with 3 main parts:
Laser assembly
Mirror array
Motors
using the rotation of the mirrors by the motors the machine projects an image of whatever shape that can be physically projected by the machine. And im almost 100% sure smoke has been used here. smoke simply allows you to see the light more easily.
^by doing the above, at the right angle you can make the images look like they do and to make an amazing laser show!

I'm sure i have missed alot of things as i said i am no expert at all, but i hope you can get an idea of how these BASICALLY work. -Josh
How A Laser Light Show Machine Works - YouTube

Click to expand...

Thanks for your input but thats like the Teach Yourself GO TO THE MOON DIY Kit lol

i actually think that was a cheap laser projector that the guy took apart...

I'll subscribe here, considering I was going to open a thread exacly like this.

Hammy, heres some collaboration to your thread.
Projector Reference

Leodahsan said:

I'll subscribe here, considering I was going to open a thread exacly like this.

Hammy, heres some collaboration to your thread.
Projector Reference

Click to expand...

Its not exactly Sam's FAQ but it'll do for a day or 2 as I read up lol

EDIT: Correction. 30 minutes

EpicHam said:

Its not exactly Sam's FAQ but it'll do for a day or 2 as I read up lol

EDIT: Correction. 30 minutes

Click to expand...

For the average joe its more than enough :beer:

That still doesn't really answer how did they do isolated spots and holograms in midair without a holographic plane tho

Your questions:

1. Any set of decent galvos are capable of moving that smoothly.

2. It can be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing, rest assured these guys well and truly know what they're doing. One way to do it safely is using power attenuation, which most laser show software is capable of, another is to use a lens in front of the projector to diverge the beams to eye safe powers.

3. Using a fine mesh. Many people use mosquito netting to get the same effect. However, the butterflies etc are done using a projector, not a laser.

Things said:

Your questions:

1. Any set of decent galvos are capable of moving that smoothly.

2. It can be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing, rest assured these guys well and truly know what they're doing. One way to do it safely is using power attenuation, which most laser show software is capable of, another is to use a lens in front of the projector to diverge the beams to eye safe powers.

3. Using a fine mesh. Many people use mosquito netting to get the same effect. However, the butterflies etc are done using a projector, not a laser.

Click to expand...

Ahhhhh!!

So thats how..
As about the software part.
I see that most people are using either iShows or Pangolin Quickshow for their shows.
Is there something that is you know..... free?

Not anything decent, no. iShow is the cheapest, but it's also a heap of shit and shouldn't even exist, LSX is probably the next cheapest, but you also need a DAC for it, I think LSX + an Etherdream and the FB3/QS end up roughly the same price, with LSX a little cheaper. Good software is not cheap.

Then you have to consider - Quickshow comes with the DAC so you get both hardware and software with that one. Granted, the quickshow DAC could be built for about $100 in parts, you also get a heap of shows with the quickshow set, plus a lot of other content.

I believe some of those special laser effects where the spots can be seen in mid air (for example, the part where the laser is sweeping from left to right as a vertical line of different colours) is being projected through a water fountain.

Things is right. The butterflies etc are a regular video projector, not a laser.

A set of Galvos (like things said again) which are decent enough can do all that. Then you just need a trio of analog lasers (red, green and blue), and a bunch of hookup wire, along with a thick aluminium baseplate (to stop stuff drifting as the whole shebang warms up (heat = expansion = stuff going out of alignment) and some dichroic mirrors (dichros for short) and you got yourself a projector.

Then you just have to wire everything up without electrocuting yourself (mains wiring is pretty minimal in these things though) or popping stuff, line it all up without blowing out an eyeball, or setting fire to the curtains (guilty of that one myself with a 1 W green), get the software working with your hardware, iron out any ground loops and your away

That last paragraph is a worst case - most people get it right on the second try. Their first is usually simply due to wiring errors. Theres a lot of wires in these things.

Yes crowd scanning can be dangerous if it isnt done properly. And yes that same youtube video is what sparked it all for me. I have a video on you tube of a cheap chinese projector doing a show (not the same show) to the exact same music (Titans, by Vangelis)

Things said:

Not anything decent, no. iShow is the cheapest, but it's also a heap of shit and shouldn't even exist

Click to expand...

Agreed. Ishow is such a headache for everyone who buys it.

Get your galvo's and a green laser first. Then know your mirror size. My mistake is I got the DT40W (ok its not a mistake - they're damn decent galvos) with mirrors that will only fit 3-4mm beams. This rules out a LOT of red lasers. However, with the single mode diodes sold by DTR, I reckon I can build a 1W projector with those galvos in mind. (See my sig). For the other one (using my 1W greenie that behaves as though its 1.5 watts), I'll put in a set of DT30's with bigger mirrors so I can use a cheaper (per mW) pair of multimode diodes (mitsu 500mw) and a single corrected A140 blue diode.

Oh yeah and this show is the same one that started it all for me too. Ministry, you suck - made me drain my wallet again