Spencer's Laser Projector

I saw a thread about this projector on another forum, which linked to another thread at PL:
Laser Projector (Red, Green, Purple) "Laser 3D Party Light" from Spencer's

I just got my own animations up and running, and I thought I'd share my experiences as this is a great starter projector at a very digestable price point of $170.
I've been itching to get in on a projector group buy, and this has only added more fuel to the fire

There is an SD Card inside the projector that contains a bunch of .ild files and another file that has the order to play the files in.

It is easy to just drop in .ild files that can be found on the net, or you can make your own. I used LaserBoy as recommended in the other thread. LaserBoy is an incredible powerful designer but it does have a steep learning curve. There are a few settings that must be tweaked in order to generate ilda files that are compatible with this projector.

There is also another program called bmp2ild that can vectorize bitmaps and export ilda files. I have found that it works best with black and white sketches. I vectorized a few cartoon characters in one of the videos below. I also used bmp2ild to create outlined text from an image I created in Photoshop.
ftp://89.179.238.101/upload/ftp/Software/bmp2ild/bmp2ild_v2.exe

More complex graphics (~1000 verticies) will flicker, but some tweaking in LaserBoy can help mitigate this.

A great enhancement for this projector is to upgrade the 405nm purple laser to a more visible wavelength. Someone on PL mentioned that DTR's 450nm Osram PL450B is a direct drop in replacement, and I can confirm that it is. The 450nm diode is much more vibrant and visible. I had to remove the bottom portion of the module since it is so close to the back of the projector.
The only problem with swapping the blue laser is alignment. I had to pry off the old glue with a razor, which wasn't difficult as the glue was brittle. Then the four screws on the heatsink mount had to be adjusted. Once I got it aligned well, I added hot glue to help hold it in place. I also had to add some teflon tape to the lens threads because the lens fit so loosely into the module. It is very tight now.
450nm Osram PL450B Diode In Copper Module W/Leads & Three Element Glass Lens

I ended up cutting a hole in the top of the housing to access the SD card without having to take everything apart. I also added some neoprene washers to the side mounting bracket knobs. It would get very tight and hard to loosen when it was just metal on metal. Now it stays in place securely, but the knobs are easy to loosen.

I used a wingnut to attach the mounting backet/stand to my camera's tripod so I have a nice portable, stable stand for it.

This is my first foray into projectors and it was a lot of fun learning and making my own animations. Can't wait until the next group buy fills up so I can get my hands on a real projector. (PM me for info on the GB)
I got almost all the info I needed from the thread at PL, but feel free to PM me if you get one of these and need help with it.

Stock animations included with the projector:

Some custom animations & graphics I made for a show I am putting together for my nephew's birthday party:

The internals:


New 450nm blue laser module installed


Old 405nm laser module


Empty projector housing


SD Card


The "business" end


SD Card access


Detail

:beer:Nice job Bungy

What is the number of the chip nearest the SD card? (fine pitch jobbie) ?

ATB
MM

Not sure what the numbers are, they're all scraped off

There's a high res pic over at PL that you might be able to decipher:
Laser Projector (Red, Green, Purple) "Laser 3D Party Light" from Spencer's - Page 8

They have gone into pretty extreme detail on this projector over there.

I dont know how many numbers there are but I can make out 9327502, there may be 2 number at the front, cant tell.

Here is the show I made for my nephew's 5th birthday party. He absolutely loved it, as did everyone else in my family. It's about a five minute show, and he made me replay it for about an hour! It has some of his favorite characters, and he recognized them all - some of the graphics were very flickery due to the slow speed of the projector. I reused some of the stock animations, and used some of the built in animations in LaserBoy.

I had the handheld pointers out earlier, and people lost interest after a few mins of beaming in the night sky. I don't think anyone really knew what to expect when I told them I had a laser show planned. But when I kicked it off, they were saying "WOW!" instead of "Why?" (you were right, hak!). All the adults were asking if I'd make a show for their birthdays!

The cowboy looks like he is freaking out or tripping or something. Dude looks nuts haha. Great looking show though! And yeah, hak is usually right lol. Although I haven't succumbed to the projector group yet....one day, but it is not this day.

Maybe tomorrow then! Haha

This projector is basically a toy, it can do some pretty cool stuff, but I'm hungry for more. Can't wait for the current projector GB to close - there's 4 to choose from.

Woody does look like he's on something. The source sketch I used is even worse, I should have edited it before I ran it through bmp2ild. I tried to give him some life with some color, but he just looks like a zombie.

Did you create the files and store them to the sd? Or was it all run live from a computer

Good job man!!!

Hi Bung,

For $170 the PJ does a great job, much more than the price would suggest.
I tried the link to bmp2ild, but I couldn't get it to open...any ideas?

It looks like the tracing double lines everything, giving the galvos twice as much work as then need to.
Can bmp2ild run just single line tracing?

ATB
MM

BTW, how many points has the Woddy logo have?

That's sooo good... for the $ you can't go wrong.

Seriously considering one of these.

chipdouglas said:

Did you create the files and store them to the sd? Or was it all run live from a computer

Good job man!!!

Click to expand...

Thanks, and yes I created the files and ran it off the SD card. There is no way to run the projector directly from a computer.

Multimode said:

Hi Bung,

For $170 the PJ does a great job, much more than the price would suggest.
I tried the link to bmp2ild, but I couldn't get it to open...any ideas?

It looks like the tracing double lines everything, giving the galvos twice as much work as then need to.
Can bmp2ild run just single line tracing?

ATB
MM

BTW, how many points has the Woddy logo have?

Click to expand...

Here's another link, if that doesn't work, just try searching bmp2ild_v2.exe in google
http://c4r0.elektroda.eu/_hv/lasers/bmp2ild_v2.exe

You're right about the double lines, there aren't many options in bmp2ild to reduce them. But you could probably manipulate the original file in photoshop to make them thinner. LaserBoy reports 2998 verticies on this frame.

Look into a program called ILD SOS, it's quite a powerful program and can do point optimization. It's a little spendy, but definitely at the low end of price compared to the professional lasershow software, and worth it.

I have just read on another forum that they paid but never got the software.

So be warned!!!!

Looks good!
What kind of mirrors do you use to reflect both beams on the projector?
The mirrors I've found are quite expensive and I'm wondering if there are cheaper versions that would also do their job.

wannaburnstuff said:

The cowboy looks like he is freaking out or tripping or something. Dude looks nuts haha. Great looking show though! And yeah, hak is usually right lol. Although I haven't succumbed to the projector group yet....one day, but it is not this day.

Click to expand...

^^^ That was said SOOOO long ago-- like last month??!!

now he is asking ALL kinds of Qs - just like a noob that wont search-
i SEE THE SIGNS- Wanna will be getting the PJ habit sooner than he thinks.
its a powerful addiction.. been and done that too.

Your overall acceptance rating will go up many points- you will not here anything like- 'laser projector uh? what good are they' more likely it will be 'DOOOD! I got to get me one of THOSE'!!

IMHO you should not buy on impulse- cheap is ..cheap and some PJs are a mess even when they do work- cheap soft is useless- waste of 100$
AND.. if you price parts for a DIY you cannot possibly build a LK SD or LK PD 2. even if you place zero $ or your labor- the parts will cost you more..


I have been working off and on(+2yr s) doing my own from scratch 2.5W RGB analog- 35K scanners- I am afraid to actually add up how much I have spent in parts.
Easily 2000K$ and there are still a few of the safety items needed to ever hope for an asscention number and variance and be complaint.

I have a pile of tricked out Servo based Reke1's in production, and not enough galvo based gear. The Servos are *ok* for awhile, but they get on my nerves with their hectic motion and are obviously nowhere as smooth as even rock bottom 10k galvos.

One thing that caught my attention with the Spencer is the mirrors look pretty good size, which means I have some wiggle room with my 638's and can retrofit them over.

Cool thread. Just wondering if I buy one of these if X-Laser will have FDA paratroopers rain down from the sky and arrest me