New Spyro Project Thoughts

Hello all!

Normally i hang over in the Gas Lasers section but decided to pop on over here now that i have my SP127 HeNe and LaserPhysics whiteline laser up and running and start thinking about what projects i'd like to play with, 1st being a spirograph.... of sorts.

heres my thoughts,,,,
4 motor/mirrors
a beam chopper (plastic disc w/equil cutouts in pie wedge)
a color wheel from a projection tv (RGBC)
and if i can get my alignments close enough, on the final mirror, an x/y movement of some type.

i'll be building this in open frame "breadboard" style so size, power reqs, ect are not an issue. i'd like it to be able to function with any laser type (gas, diode, whatever).
as for mirror mounting... i plan to use a yoke like design with multiple adjustment locks for tweaking angles and beam paths. think, microscope underlighting mirror kind of but with 3 degs of movement (aside from the central rotational point). this would allow me to change the mirror angle to axis as well as incidence angle.

a beam chopper (for obvious reason, lol)

and color wheel cause... well when ya have a whiteline, why not???

lastly, IF i can get the beam path tight enough, adding x/y movement to the last mirror/motor to provide "liquid sky/wave" effects. thinking liner motors to just move the whole motor mount a few degs in each direction.


any thought/advice?
has anyone seen or built anything like this?
i've looked around and found some designs/build that use a few of these ideas but none that utilizes them all in one unit.

Looks like a nice project... Don't forget
to post pics when it's up and running or
even on the way to running.

Jerry

lasersbee said:

Looks like a nice project... Don't forget
to post pics when it's up and running or
even on the way to running.

Jerry

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ohh of course! i plan to make a nice build thread for this project. step 1, build an optical bench! lol
i'll acquire parts as one does but this project may take a yr or so until i can call it complete.

FRITZ HID said:

ohh of course! i plan to make a nice build thread for this project. step 1, build an optical bench! lol
i'll acquire parts as one does but this project may take a yr or so until i can call it complete.

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I wish you good luck, Fritz. I'll be looking forward to seeing whet you come up with.

so has no-one done this or any combination of the above? any ideas as to the effects of these ideas? :/

well

I gave up on more than 3 motor/mirrors..
You need to be able to cntrl both direction and speed of yr motors and use center off DPDT switches.
your mirrors should be FS.
your beams can be close together or stacked or not.
Its a fun and not too complicated build that every member should do-- and awesome to do it with a son or daughter or nephew/niece.. lil brother or any friend.

AND for many ( me included) a spiro was our first taste of lasers. mine was just two MMs and a small red HeNe..
and tho its beam was thin.. it was easy to see..go figure...

LEM , best wishes for your 70°th birthday even if in a hurry! :beer:

Its Len bro not LEM... but since I am a huge fan of LEMs world wide--I have been called 'LEMLen'

next LEM--Berlin... sept 30 to oct 1 laserfreaks.

That one is closer to you than me.

see 'The LEM thread'

Sorry Bro ! Len :beer:

Replace one of the four mirrors with a Dove prism. Lets you introduce offsets and orbits to the pattern...
Thank me later..

Steve

LSRFAQ said:

Replace one of the four mirrors with a Dove prism. Lets you introduce offsets and orbits to the pattern...
Thank me later..

Steve

Click to expand...

Got any examples of what that looks like Steve? Interesting in seeing the effect. :beer:

I have a dove prism ordered. I understand that the rotation of the beam is twice that of the prism. There are also other effects such as image inversion and polarization of beams dependent on wavelength. Was planning on experimenting with the one i have coming.

Pics needed