Hi guys,
I have been reading these forums for a while now, I thought it was time to join and say hi. Thanks for all the valuable info I have gleaned from this forum, I have learnt a lot about lasers here (including NOT to pot-mod, despite trying this myself on a 10mW green module that R.I.P. several hours later).
In total, I have destroyed 3 diodes now, 2 x 1mW reds and 1 x 10mW green. :cryyy: The lessons have been invaluable.
Now I am running another 10mW green module in a BIG heatsink (4"x4"x1") and it has been running sweet for a long time at 280mA, and is quite bright for me, well enough to have some fun at night in my lab.
I have tried all sorts of mirrors, from back reflective to CD's, finally I have settled on hard disk platters. I cut these carefully with a coping saw to approx 15mmx15mm. They work incredibly well. I am not sure how much better FS mirrors would be?
My experiments started with the usual time tunnel (very cool!) and then a 2 motor spyro. I am using 60mm PC FANS as the motors.
The other day I picked up 2 x Hitech digital servos (0.2sec/60 degree) and wired them to an Arduino. Not bad! I quickly had a nice scanner running that was producing a horizontal scan of a few degrees that slowly panned around the room. A nice mod was to scan left/right very fast approx 3 degrees and change the center spot randomly at 5 second intervals. Looks pretty cool.
Last night I pulled an old 3.5" floppy drive out of my collection and wired the step and direction signals to an arduino. I used the head sled to convert the stepper motion to a linear motion. A mirror attached to a small model aircraft hinge attached the mirror to the end of the sled and a small spring keeps the mirror in contact with the moving sled.
The result is a much faster X scanner. By stepping 5 steps quickly and pausing for 10mS for a total of 5 spots, produces 5 nicely stagger beams!
Next on my experiment list is to add simple mosfet blanking to the LD and blank the laser while moving.
Has anyone used a 3-wire PC fan for a time-tunnel? What I am thinking is this, use the tach pulse to synchronise the blanking. This would enable cool effects such at a circle that moves from 360 deg down to 0 and back etc. I might play with this tonight.
This is all great fun, but what I am working towards is a low cost X/Y scanner built either "on the cheap" or out of surplus junk.
I'll post some photos later.
Cheers.:yh:
I have been reading these forums for a while now, I thought it was time to join and say hi. Thanks for all the valuable info I have gleaned from this forum, I have learnt a lot about lasers here (including NOT to pot-mod, despite trying this myself on a 10mW green module that R.I.P. several hours later).
In total, I have destroyed 3 diodes now, 2 x 1mW reds and 1 x 10mW green. :cryyy: The lessons have been invaluable.
Now I am running another 10mW green module in a BIG heatsink (4"x4"x1") and it has been running sweet for a long time at 280mA, and is quite bright for me, well enough to have some fun at night in my lab.
I have tried all sorts of mirrors, from back reflective to CD's, finally I have settled on hard disk platters. I cut these carefully with a coping saw to approx 15mmx15mm. They work incredibly well. I am not sure how much better FS mirrors would be?
My experiments started with the usual time tunnel (very cool!) and then a 2 motor spyro. I am using 60mm PC FANS as the motors.
The other day I picked up 2 x Hitech digital servos (0.2sec/60 degree) and wired them to an Arduino. Not bad! I quickly had a nice scanner running that was producing a horizontal scan of a few degrees that slowly panned around the room. A nice mod was to scan left/right very fast approx 3 degrees and change the center spot randomly at 5 second intervals. Looks pretty cool.
Last night I pulled an old 3.5" floppy drive out of my collection and wired the step and direction signals to an arduino. I used the head sled to convert the stepper motion to a linear motion. A mirror attached to a small model aircraft hinge attached the mirror to the end of the sled and a small spring keeps the mirror in contact with the moving sled.
The result is a much faster X scanner. By stepping 5 steps quickly and pausing for 10mS for a total of 5 spots, produces 5 nicely stagger beams!
Next on my experiment list is to add simple mosfet blanking to the LD and blank the laser while moving.
Has anyone used a 3-wire PC fan for a time-tunnel? What I am thinking is this, use the tach pulse to synchronise the blanking. This would enable cool effects such at a circle that moves from 360 deg down to 0 and back etc. I might play with this tonight.
This is all great fun, but what I am working towards is a low cost X/Y scanner built either "on the cheap" or out of surplus junk.
I'll post some photos later.
Cheers.:yh:
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