A big hello from Cheshire England.

Hi Everyone,

I've just spent the last 3 hours on this great forum and just had to join.
I've been into lasers for about 10 years now. Ever since my school physics teacher
helped me obtain my first He-Ne laser from a supermarket barcode scanner.
Since then I've added to my collection, and last year was finally able to afford
£800 towards my hobby. (it went on a 350mw RGY DMX scanner, usb to dmx interface, software, and a laptop.)

Welcome to the forum!
and I want some pics of that RGY.

I will try and get some pics of my RGY laser for you.
Lasers aren't easy to get good photos are they?. I've tried before.
I asked my cousin today if I can borrow his smoke machine that he uses
when he's DJing for parties. Hopefully that will help make the
beams and stand out better on the photos.
if I can get those star shaped screws out of the case, I'll do some pics
of the insides. It may be useful to see how exactly they mix the beams
and how the motor and mirror assembly works.

I looked though the glass window at the front. (with it turned off, of course.)
I could see what looked like 2 red laser modules combined though a glass cube
beam splitter, then onto a 45 degree mirror/dichro, where it was mixed with the green
laser output, then onto the x/y mirrors.
I could also see lots of spring loaded bits with screw adjustments, that were
coated with what looked like blobs of paint. I presume that this is to
stop the screws coming loose with the vibration from the x/y scanner assembly?

I think there is be some TLL type of switching for the lasers, as when doing certain effects, the
red and green lasers switch on and off quite quickly.

Hey there heidi, hope you have a good time here at LPF, I'm from cheshire too as it turns out, Northwich to be more precise

I'm just south of Crewe. Small world isn't it?

yep! gets smaller by the day

Do you get a good view south from where you live?
I want to try an experiment.
I live on a hill overlooking most of south cheshire and often treat them
to a laser show when it's a misty night.
Think I'm responsible for a few ufo sightings in the local paper to be honest. :-X

A few months ago I got my cousin loose with my 10mw green pointer and I could see
it from the next village at the bottom of the hill where I live. (2 miles away)
Quite scary how visible it was when in line of sight.

I know they can see them in Crewe (6 miles away) as my friend lives in a tower block
near the railway station there. But, could you see them in Northwich if you have a clear view south
and I use a combined 350mw beam from my RGY scanner?
35 times the power and using google earth to work out the exact direction to point it in.
You may see something + can work out the distance too.

haha sounds like a great idea but i live in a built up area so i think my view would be blocked by street lamp light pollution :-[