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FrozenGate by Avery

My new project! (BIG pics!)

Pontiacg5

Pontiacg5

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Dec 23, 2007
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Here is what I've been working on all day long. I started with a normal hard drive, opened it up and started to hack away. I used a cutoff wheel to cut the platters down into front side mirrors and then used a air saw to cut the hard drive in half. I used a file to clean the edges of the mirrors up and now I gotta work on wiring. Here is what I have so far.

Here are the mirrors, its a pretty rough cut.

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Here is a quick pic of me cleaning the edges.

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Here are the edges after some TLC.

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Here is 1/2 of a hard drive. These things do not like to be cut in half, I don't think my hand will stop shaking for a week. Those air tools can vibrate pretty good.

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Now, a quick question. Do you think 22W RMS of audio signal through the coil will burn it out? I plan on using a old car stereo just because it's easier than building a amplifier.
 





Here is a video of it in motion, and another showing the X axis modulation. I'm going to need to limit it somehow, its way too steep like I have it now.





I've added rubberbands to limit the modulation a little, I need a better way to hold them on though they keep flying off!
 
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Try to limit the axial inertia as much as possible, the easier it rotates, the faster is goes.

If you can get the mirror in line with the axle of the reading arm, and cut of the rest of the arm, you'll have a faster end product.

As far as physical limitations go, it's not a good idea, you get clipping of the signals; just turn down the volume. :p
 
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It might make some kind of fun disco light if you added some gratings or something to it. Pretty worthless as a galvo alternative, though.
 
22W would be ok, if the coil shakes too fast, try turning the volume down
 
LOL ! ..... Do you read mind from there to Italy ?:crackup: :crackup: :crackup:

Sorry for the threadjacking, but your pics are extremely similar to the ones that i was taking from my trials for use old hard disks as cheap galvos, some weeks ago ..... an old experiment that i stopped for lack of time ..... judge yourself that what i mean:

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if we was not in different countries, i can almost think you come at my home and took pics from my experiments, LOL :p :crackup:
 

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lol you know what they say, great minds think alike!

As far as getting faster scan speeds and stuff, I'm not too worried about that. I'm just trying to get a sound activated spyro on the cheap. With longer arms I get more modulation=bigger patterns at shorter distances.

I'm at a halt at the moment, my drill died and I can't drill the holes for the hodge-podge frame I'm building. I've found a way to mount rubber bands easily to control the modulation a little and thats about it so far..
updates soon!
 
I'm finished, now I just need to find something more sturdy to put it in. Here are some pics and some videos, sorry about the quality of the vids!

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A quick video, I ran out of fog so I only got these random beamshots :D

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this is my 594nm yellow

Picture030.jpg

My 7mW 635nm

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My 125mW fusion, I moved :D
 
I think it looks great!Very, very cool.The beam shots were nice too.
When I take hard drives apart, I go in for the NIB magnets.It is impossible to have too many rare earth magnets or lasers.

I really enjoyed the post, thank you!
 
I've took the rubber bands off of one of the coils and added springs instead. I plan on doing the other one too, but it will take more ingenuity because there is a lot less room on the 2nd one. I fit a better rubber band over it though, this one has lasted a lot longer without breaking. It came out of a cassette tape player :D

If I get bored more often I just might shrink the mirrors and arms down and try to project some images, I've tried a sine wave generator program and got some things close to squares and triangles. I think I could pull it off with some work, a lot more work!

Here are some pics of the spring setup and a quick video showing the output at about 6 feet. It projects a pretty big size.

Lasers001.jpg

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HIMNL9 said:
LOL ! ..... Do you read mind from there to Italy ?:crackup: :crackup: :crackup:

Sorry for the threadjacking, but your pics are extremely similar to the ones that i was taking from my trials for use old hard disks as cheap galvos, some weeks ago ..... an old experiment that i stopped for lack of time ..... judge yourself that what i mean.

if we was not in different countries, i can almost think you come at my home and took pics from my experiments, LOL :p :crackup:
Click to expand...

You *both* must have used your brainwave-stealing machines to capture my design - I put this together a little over a month ago :crackup:

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Great efx on a dime!!!
not everyone can afford scanpros and dichros---
speakers- headphones- HDs- steppers-spiros-lots of fun music driven visuals and LOW cost

one question tho-- is there any advantage to working so hard cutting up HDs when there are free FS mirrors- most easy to cut- to be found everywhere?

no limits, except ones imagination.
 
Very nice one :D
I have question.. I have two hard drives, but if I place each one in the classic position of the stepper motors, the arm goes down and doesnt move correctly =/
Can you know how to fix it? Thanks
 
hakzaw1 said:
one question tho-- is there any advantage to working so hard cutting up HDs when there are free FS mirrors- most easy to cut- to be found everywhere?
Click to expand...

Hey Hak, could you give some examples as to where to find these mirrors? I'm in the market for some free FS mirrors but currently don't have a hard drive to tear up. Until reading this post right now I didn't even know you could harvest FS mirrors from a HD.
 
Plan B said:
Hey Hak, could you give some examples as to where to find these mirrors? I'm in the market for some free FS mirrors but currently don't have a hard drive to tear up. Until reading this post right now I didn't even know you could harvest FS mirrors from a HD.
Click to expand...

Hey Plan B

What hes actually referring to in cutting FS mirrors is the platters of the hard drives. These are pretty shiny, and reflect a laser beam quite well, however you will find a "real" FS mirror will reflect better, but for a free mirror, the hard drive platter chop up is great thinking :)
 
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I believe it is possible to strip the backing off of a regular glass or acrylic mirror with acetone. The reflective material, whatever it is, will probably tarnish with that coating removed though.

Some hard drive platters are ceramic, those are rather hard to cut (Impossible would be a better word.) I believe most newer drives are some sort of aluminum though.
 
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