"hdd galvos" Experimentation and project in the works

i finished my Spirograph and now im onto a new project working with hdd galvos and Ive been getting most of my info around the web and mostly on here. and im starting to build the circuitry to drive my "hdd galvos" this circuit so far is of my own design because i like to be original and develop things people haven't done. i got two matching drives and tore them down. now im working on circuits that i can input in these galvos and get some cool shapes. i plan on building the galvos as a separate unit with 3.5mm jacks. one for x and one for y so i can input two of the circuits shown or just one to both x and y with two jacks. then im going to have one jack input for left and right audio wired to x and y and a switch to switch left and right back and forth between x and y. this is my progress so far. ------>YouTube - hdd arms circuit in the video i have both arms hooked up to one circuit flip flopping polarity (positive/negative) between the two leads of the arms. polarity one way the arm goes left, flip the polarity and its the opposite way. in the video the one on the right just wiggled loose so i just filmed the one on the left for the remainder.

Looks interesting, I know I have plenty of dead HDDs around!

im going to be taking videos along the way so if you want to follow along your welcome to ask any questions

Can't wait for a video or pics.

yeah i have a link up in my first post on this thread

i know its been a while but i have a new circuit in the works and should have a video up once i get my hard drives mounted and work out some audio problems. my new circuit has increased speeds and multi-speed and alternating speed settings along with a smooth transition between audio and standard control.

When you get this all sorted out I would be very interested in how it works.
Please Keep us updated.

this is a pic of the the hdd's with the mirror rails. the rails aren't permanently secured yet because i have to make the mirror slides. im waiting for those so i can check to see if i get good x and y alignment. however the body of the hdd's are quit sturdy which i have mounted together

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in a few days i should have a video of the new driver circuit up and running. there sitting on machinable plexiglass and the reason it looks brown is because i still have the protective paper on the bottom. the post with the rubberbands are just limits to help reach higher frequencies with audio as well as standard control (just a sqaure wave) to. i experimented and post's work better than rubberbands( only if you have a single polarity which i dont) and springs proved to be way too noisy for my taste.

:anyone:

Anyone what? Let us know when you have something working.

awesome, i love your idea using the hdd arms. our hdd galvo ideas are almost the same exept mine use's the spindle motor. can wait to see this going. keep us posted

thanks. i do have a working circuit but im still waiting to get my mirrors mounted and once i do ill put a video up. until then i could put up a picture of my circuit if anyone would like to see that.

just sandblasted and mounted my mirror slides and arms a few hours ago i should have a few more pics up later after i get out of work. i tested them with a 30mw green and i got some good results i just have to shorten the travel of the arms a bit more to obtain higher speeds.

op:op:
subscribing to this , looks very interesting, i'm a terrible cheapskate myself
op:op:

driving the arms with audio for the first time. the audio input is to the right and my zune is the audio source.



showing off the set screw



front view of the mirrors

right here i did have a pretty lengthy paragraph going into detail about how the audio was along some pro's and con's for certain functions i have or wanted to add but i accidentally pressed backspace and jumped back to my previous page ill probably elaborate more on that kinda stuff once i put up a video or maybe tomorrow.

as of today i now have 3 operating modes 1. standard (variable frequency) 1 control circuit for each axis 2. audio L/R between each axis 3. hybrid mode or audio/standard. the standard axis by default will be one of the two standard control circuits which will be determined by the layout of the user panel. for the audio going to the other axis you can switch between L/R because if you happen to design some audio files to be played you can switch between the two channel's. and the reason i say "axis" now is because in the circuit i have a "flip flop" function. *edit* the flip flop function flips x and y.