Help me to choose: Laser Stage Lighting Projector

Wanna buy one of these below

DealExtreme: $50.50 50mW Green + 100mW Red Laser Stage Lighting Projector with IR Remote + Tripod (100V~240V AC)

DealExtreme: $54.00 Portable USB Rechargeable Green + Red Stage Laser with Blue 3-LED Light (Green 30mW + Red 100mW)



Any recommendations?

Kind of depends on what you need it for. Otherwise they appear pretty much the same.

I have had two models near the first one, the one that works on mains. These are really cheap and worth the money IMO. For a tiny lasershow this can be enough. But keep in mind that these ones get boring quickly due to the lack of patterns. You can combine them with other lighting effects to get ride of that. Remember these are for tiny shows, like a garage or so... Anyway I enjoyed very much my two models. But in the end i finished dismantling them for use in another project, had TTL, electronics, optics, box. Definitely worth the bucks.

DealExtreme: $48.46 50mW Green + 100mW Red Laser Stage Lighting Projector with IR Remote + Tripod (100V~240V AC)

that one?
thats the one i was looking at when i was at your stadium. the patterns seem to chance nicely onto the music
whatya think

DJNY said:

09-02-2010

Click to expand...

Xd i was fooled! Why you....

I also do that simetimes....search the forums...see a thread....my mind completly set on the topic...then see a question or funny comment id like to reply on and suddenly i spammed and gravedigged :/
It could be this newbie didnt do this on purpose.

Np

I ignored him for spamming his products. But in the end at least it was thread-related!


Did you ever posted pics of your projector Borg?

Hey, would these lasers show up if i ran them through a fog machine?

I thought that DX projectos only projects.. stars? Anyone know that? I've seen one personally in a big shopping center LOL.. they are longer as a new wish pen and projects small stars..

you can find those on ebay for around $32 shipped

any one has an internal view of one of these projectors?

Hopefully I'm keeping this related to the original topic and the responses enough...
I am interested in making an RGV unit that I can use a a source for an old laser graphics kit that I bought many years ago. (It runs from BASIC computer programming. Might have a bit of a problem with THAT part as I haven't seen anything that uses BASIC language for some time now but it also has full analog control too. If I can find my old Commodore64...)
Now I'm going against the grain here and I very much DON'T WANT anything strong enough to "burn" through anything as I am using it in close quarters with smoke effects and lights, mirror balls, etc. so there will never be a perfect assurance that a stray reflection won't bounce back to the viewer. I'm hoping that the interference from smoke/fog and the loss of power from reflecting through normal rear surfaced mirrors on the associated items will help to reduce the power of the beam coupled with the incredibly short time of exposure keeping things safe enough for the couple of times a year I might use it all.(What can I say. I'm getting old and just can't party like I did back in the early 80's.)
So I think I might direct the question more to magonegro : In your opinion, would it be a useful start point to buy one of the discussed units of the thread to souce the red & green heads and drivers ? The other parts being a bonus with sound sensing and activation, diffraction lens(es), etc. that can be worked into the processes as well.
And then if using these as a atart, what sort of power for a 405nm (or similar) unit should I expect to use for keeping it balanced with the others.
BTW. I expect to end up making my own variable voltage power controls (LM317's are perfect for this, aren't they ?) eventually, if not from the start. It depends on the advise I can get from this knowledge base.
---My eyesight is starting to show my age and I won't accept putting anybody else at risk. Just want to be able to have some safe fun of a type that I have only dreamed of for so many years. (YES 90215 concert tour with dual screens above the audience showing smoothly animated laser graphics was quite the impact back then !)
So all help or words of wisdom are appreciated.

Mmmh not many choices there, since most projectors are more then capable of damaging your eyes. Especially with a disco ball you dont want a strong projector...
You can however build one yourself, if this is really your dream. Then you can decide everything.

Thanks for the comment.
My dream isn't so much to build a unit as to have one. I also feel that understanding the build and associated properties of the equipment being used will help me in having an in-depth knowledge of the whole thing. I understand that any white projection laser system could easily cause permanent eye damage if used unwisely. This is also why I would like to have an in depth knowledge of the system as a whole.
However, the question still remains, for those who might have more experience than me. (Pretty easy at this point !) Is there a better suited power output range for a blue/violet laser to match the outputs from one of the aforementioned laser units from this thread ?
-The red is usually a 100mW while the green is 50 mW in those units.
While perceptions of these colors is, ultimately, unique for every individual, there are generally accepted ranges for human veiwing on the whole. Based on the usual power outputs for these combination units, it would seem that a red laser needs to be at least twice the power output of a green one for the projected effects to be comparably veiwed. (From some of the threads I've read it would seem more like a 2.5 to 1 ratio is better.)
But from all the reading I haven't been able to determine how the perception of the blue/violet compares to these other two. (I am still looking around to find out more...)
The cost of a comparable unit would also have to be considered as it might require a considerably high power output to be comparable, which when combined with the others to form a white output could be far too much for my modest needs.
As mentioned in the previous posting, I am more than willing to build my own power supplies to bring down the outputs of the red & green units but again I would need a generally defined basis to start from.
For example : If an unmodified 100 mW red and a 50 mW green from one of the units described, say, would require a 250 mW blue/violet unit to be of comparable perceived output AND the cost of said 250mW unit would be in the $150 range WITH the total output power of the white beam registering at a blistering range that couldn't be considered safe in a closed room then obviously it would require significant modifications. The point would be, in this example, to know that the blue/violet laser needs to be 5 times the power of the green to be veiwed comparably. Then I would build power supplies to reduce the power of the red and green units and purchase a lower power blue/violet unit that is about 5 times the anticipated output of the green. (For future considerations I would plan on having slightly adjustable power supplies that would allow an increase of up to 100% above the low balanced setting in case I get a chance to use the unit in a larger venue and need to tweak the output for greater distances and larger areas, but that's another story...)
Still, I can't get started until I know that first number. Anybody with experience in making a combined RGV unit, can you tell me (and everybody else who reads this) a good range of output power for a blue/violet laser that compares with the red & green units that you may have used ? -mathmatic ratios would be great ! Any notes about the efficiency of your dichros and such would also be helpful.
Thank - you.

Hi Shorty, fellow noob Canadian here.

I good place to start some research on your venture would be the photonlexicon.com forums. It's a great source of all sorts of laser projector information.

When mixing colors to make white many things need to be considered. Not only the power (mW) of the lasers but also their wavelength (nM), beam diameter and divergence, optical loss and other technical stuff like rayleigh scattering. A program like Chroma which can be found on the PL forum will get you started in the right direction but for best results more calculation and visual adjustment is needed.

Here's a Chroma example.

So, if the red is left as is at 100 mW it looks like a 150 mW bluray turned down to 130 mW and your green turned down to 30 mW would make for a nice white. At these power levels, as long as your not directly scanning the audience or highly reflective materials (disco ball), I think you should be fine for eye safety.

One option might be to buy a cheap RGV Chinese unit. I don't own one but I have been reading about the PF-114 in THIS thread and a few others. From the pics it looks to be a pretty decent little scanner for the $250 you pay if you buy direct from the manufacture. I'm not sure if it would be compatible with the software you were planning on using but I'm sure you could redesign and upgrade/downgrade as needed.

Borg, I know you were, at one time, looking at this projector. What are your thoughts on it? I don't think you could build it for less and it looks like a good platform for upgrades.

ideas said:

any one has an internal view of one of these projectors?

Click to expand...

I just got one of these and the second thing I did was took it apart and took a bunch of pictures and videos of it.

I don't have them up yet but if you are still interested I will post them.

The unit is fairly simple inside...
There is a red module, a green module inside a heat sink sleeve a single dichro, a stepper motor with a refraction grating on the end of it and the drive electronics.

It gives off a pretty decent effect for the price...

I was going to make a new post, but since this one has some recent activity, I'll just hijack it instead.

Since DinoDirect has their special gift card deal going on through the end of the month, I started looking at the various projectors they sell.

Can anyone recommend a decent (not great) system in the < $175 range? I want something that can at least do basic shapes, not just "stars" and would prefer to eventually be able to hook it up to a PC and load in some additional patterns. I know I'm asking for a lot, for nearly no money. This will be my first purchase above Spirograph level, so it doesn't have to be mind blowing.

A few that caught my eye:
200mW 445nm Star Party Auto Sound DMX512 ILDA PC Single Blue Stage Laser Projector Reke-91B - DinoDirect.com
60mw 532nm Single Green Laser Party Stage Projector KL-A6G60 - DinoDirect.com
DJ Equipment 50mw 532nm Green Laser & 200mw 650nm Red Laser 250mw RGY Animation Laser Light (Autu&Sound & DMX512&ILDA PC) Reke 94RGY - DinoDirect.com