How hard would it be to do this?

First of all, damn you all for getting me into this addictive hobby...like I don't have enough things to spend my money on already! Second, I have a question. I'm thinking about building very basic and limited laser show for my band...nothing that actually syncs to the music...just a couple of effects. It will still blow people's minds that we even have such a device, as none of the other bands in the area have anything this cool! It'll reside behind my drum kit, along with a smoke generator and angle upwards from behind the kit. P.S. - I also don't want anyone in the audience blinded, so it has to be low power.

Comprised of...
- Two 5mW green lasers...maybe I'll utilize a couple of DX "true" 5mW pens.
- One will reflect off a mirror for a tunnel effect...maybe with a pulsing option.
- The other will scan back and forth in a "V"...again with a pulsing option.

I figure the tunnel effect should be easy enough to accomplish with a motor and offset mirror. The pulsing should be easy as well, via a mechanism to switch the power on and off to the driver. The problem I'm running into, is a cheap and easy way to scan the second beam back and forth. Any ideas?

You can get green only scanner (laser shows) for not much money on eBay. Check them out before you decide to move into this part of the hobby.

I think that you will be much happier with even the cheaper green scanners available than you will be with your first attempt or two at building a scanner. If it was just for you, I would say, "build it." However, you are going to be using it to support your band's image

Peace,
dave

It would be pretty straightforward to do. I'm a die-hard DIYer, but I feel compelled to mention that you can get simple green projectors with stepper motors that will do what you want very cheaply on ebay.. something like this would work great:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Green-Laser-Lig...in_0?hash=item3ca5fbe18e&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

EDIT: DAVE!! stop reading my mind and posting first. It's just not fair!!!

ElektroFreak said:

It would be pretty straightforward to do. I'm a die-hard DIYer, but I feel compelled to mention that you can get simple green projectors with stepper motors that will do what you want very cheaply on ebay.. something like this would work great:

★★ Green Laser Light Stage Party DJ Disco Projector SL1 - eBay (item 260482785678 end time Oct-03-09 19:00:20 PDT)

EDIT: DAVE!! stop reading my mind and posting first. It's just not fair!!!

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I love you to ElektroFreak!

It has been awhile since I looked at these little scanners. DAMN SAM! The price is crashing quickly. It's a wonder everybody doesn't already have one of these for their kid's parties!

Peace,
dave

Damn, that is cheap, but it wouldn't have the same gratification as doing it myself .

Being that it's coming from overseas though, I have some concern about safety. 20-30 mW...I thought anything over 5 is potentially hazardous. Also, I would hope that it has an IR filter, but I doubt I can be guaranteed of that. I doubt the manual is in very good English, if at all!

Any power over 5mW can be hazardous, but since the beams are constantly in motion the hazard is reduced greatly. As long as you generally avoid the eyes of the audience you will be fine.. There is most likely no IR filter, but again, at that power the hazard is minimal..

Wait! Can these be shipped to the us??????

^ They say:

Item location: hong kong, Hong Kong
Ships to: Worldwide

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and the indicated shipping price for US is still $29,99

so i suppose yes

Nice im gonna order one pretty soon here

I would advise spending some extra cash and getting some DT25 scanners. If you buy a cheap scanner you will just want to upgrade. So start off with a TTL green module off DX and grab a set of scanners. Peace

deam_87 said:

Nice im gonna order one pretty soon here

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You can anyway do some DIY mods (but this depend from how much space this projector have inside, and how is assembled) ..... just as example, getting a 30 / 40 mW red module with a driver that have a modulation input, use a little circuit for modulate it, like, with the external sounds or a little mic, and couple it with the original green one (just coupling it, you have a double beam, coupling and aligning it, as example with a PHR dichroic mirror, you can get a single beam that turn from green to yellow at music rhythm ..... )

well i was thinking about modifying this $60 one because its something cheap to start with,

so you have any links FokoF for the DT25 scanners if its not that big of a price difference then yeah i would agree with you (by price difference i mean not more than two times as much lol)

I use the DT25's, and they are worth every cent IMO.

Although, they are about $500US, so maybe a bit over your budget if you are not willing to go that far.

yeah 500 is over my budget lol and im guessing that its only the galvonometers so its probably gonna be like 800 for the whole thing

If you want 2 colours (Actually 3) then oyu can buy a projector from Dx:
DealExtreme: $67.95 Green + Red Laser Stars Light Show Special Effects Stage Projector (Green 50mW + Red 100mW)

They are from New-Wish and "good" quality + DX offers free shipping!

Best regards
game

Yes, but seeing the descriptions and pics, they look just diffraction gratings projector.

I think the OP was referring to some sort of "scanner", not just spyro or stars, at least if i've understood right