My first scanner build - Work in progress

The content here has been deleted, as I will start a seperate thread later with the appropraite media.

This isn't a 445nm anymore, now a 532nm single color, and the original layout and internals have been changed greatly... so previous content isn't really relevant.

Nice bunch of caps in the box - what voltage are they?

Will this projector work as a sound to light visualiser, or will it be run with software like spaghetti? I like the compact size!

vk2fro said:

Nice bunch of caps in the box - what voltage are they?

Will this projector work as a sound to light visualiser, or will it be run with software like spaghetti? I like the compact size!

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Hello,

The caps are random, IIRC 2 of them are 24V, the rest are either 150V or 450V.
Some of them are mostly leftovers from a gutted VFD. (they range from 2-3 millifarads to 100 for the 24V ones)

This projector is meant to be run off some software, I was planning to use LFI Player for this.
Does a sound to light visualiser require software? or just a uC board (Like a DMX) that does it for you?

A sound to light visualiser does one of two things:

1. drives one galvo with bass, the other with treble (this is how my first laser show worked, with a 40 milliwatt argon laser!)
2. drives the galvos like an oscilliscope, fed via winamp. A sawtooth is applied to the horizontal axis, and the music signal applied to the y axis. Thus making a (low resolution) oscilliscope. This is how my second one worked. An oscillator generating a sawtooth feeding the X axis, and the music signal (I think it was the right channel I used ) feeding the y.

DMX boards can be used to produce laser shows - these contain from 40-200 patterns on board, and change according to the music. They get boring after a while though. These can be hard to find, unless you get your hands on a defunct projector. Usually the lasers or galvo amps go in the cheap chinese ones, but the dmx boards are fine.

The best way to have fun with a projector is to control it from a laptop PC or desktop PC and syncronise it to music using software like spagetti and a dac, or a hardware software combo like Pangolins Flasback 3 and Quickshow. The hard/soft combos get mighty expensive though! It does give you more options though - such as the ability to activate cues on the fly, and also the ability to make your own shows to your favourite tunes.

Whatever your choice (soundcard dac, spaghetti, Pango Quickshow etc) DO NOT TOUCH ISHOW - many folks will agree it is worse than crap!

I have a frame streamer express 2.0 which is a dac that works with LFI, mamba, he laserscan, spaghetti and a few other programs. I will be upgrading to a pangolin quickshow in the next few weeks, as it opens up a whole library of artwork and laser shows to me. The cost of that system is not just the hardware and software, but also the content that you get access too.

BTW where do you intend to use this projector - 2W seems like an awful lot of power! Hope you have saftey goggles on when working on it with the laser "hot"

Yeah, that helps clear a lot up, thank you for your input.
Some other member here told me to go to photonlexicon, so I lurked around there (didnt register yet though) and both searched on this forum, ive concluded that Ishow is not the way to go.
IIRC it has random blanking issues, skips, etc?

Reason im going with a DAC and LFI player is due to the cheapness of the hardware, and the software is free.

There is some software I had my eye on, easylase, quick show, and I hear they are good.. sad part is they will cost more then my damn projector!

The location of the projector was going to be used in my living room.. its medium sized, so I will be tonning it down quite a bit, main reason is just 2W as reserve, not nessasarly a constant running power, most likly I wont go past 1W, but since there are two diodes there, I expect some very decent lifetime out of them.
I would want to try full power at some point, If I manage to find a place to do it at.. 2W needs some space alright.

Today though:
I attached the drivers and galvos into place, and did some wiring, its comming along far faster then I expected, but thats what you get when your bored and no school for the day.

I need to make the laser block itself, some extra boards, and I should be good to go for a first test.

Your moving along quicker than I am!

(but then again yours is single colour, where as mine is RGB)

your scan amps are tiny - look at mine compared to the size of the 150mw green head, or the galvo block. DT40's have huge scan amps!



This is a mock setup so when I get my ILDA breakout I can test out my galvos, then I'll mark out the base plate, take it to hackersspace and drill and tap the holes, and start assembling the system.

DT-40s have a LOT of tuning controls.. makes for very precise output. I've got a couple DT-25s here that I got before they quit making them. I love them! I've also got several sets of sonima scanners (aka scanpros) and I really like them too. Spacelas comes in third in my personal rankings. I like their products, but their scan amps get quite hot due to the onboard voltage regulators. The output is very clean though.

Build's looking good GBD!

Thanks for your input guys :beer:
I figured Ill use these galvos rather then the kind you guys use, main reason is the cost, I bet those DT-40s are just amazing in comparason to what im using.

The heating issue really isnt that bad I found it, I ran these drivers for about 10 minutes once on random input signals (from tone generator + amp), and they only got warm, not too hot for me to be concerned with myself.

That bieng said, this projector will have a good number of fans here and there, so everything should stay just nice and cool.

Im still assembling the thing, attaching fans and doing some more wiring.
I still need to etch some PCBs and start on the laser block.

Also, this projector will be turned into an RGB at some point.

GBD said:

Thanks for your input guys :beer:
I figured Ill use these galvos rather then the kind you guys use, main reason is the cost, I bet those DT-40s are just amazing in comparason to what im using.

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They had better be amazing - I paid a small fortune for them - hopefully next week I can test them with the little green laser in the picture

looks like quite a build! Wow, those boards sure have a lot of trimpots

Going from your pictures it looks like you intend mounting you laser on a seperate platform from your galvos (not the case it will flex), if this is so its not a good idea.

You want you laser and galvos absolutely rigid and locked together ideally on the same baseplate.

Good luck.

jaycey said:

Going from your pictures it looks like you intend mounting you laser on a seperate platform from your galvos (not the case it will flex), if this is so its not a good idea.

You want you laser and galvos absolutely rigid and locked together ideally on the same baseplate.

Good luck.

Click to expand...

The case itself is alot more studier then it appears to be, I didnt have any flexing issues thus far. (which suprises my self, considering its just slightly thicker then 1/16" thick steel).

I will be mounting the laser right next to the galvos themselves in that empty area next to the projector, and the laser itself will be mounted then on some thick aluminum I have around. (1/2" thick IIRC)
Today I aligned the galvos for a 90 degree reflection when idle, and used a pen laser to do the actuall alignment, its a bit crude, but it works to get the galvos set up in the right direction.

So on that aspect, the laser moving around to the base flexing and mis-aligning the laser to the galvos is very unlikly to happen. (keep in mind my laser is also adjustable to begin with, so I can aim it at most general angles and have it secure at said angle.
when I will get around to finishing it, I will post a picture with it mounted in place, so it should give a better idea to how it will be placed finally.

I also shot a random vid of it (with the green pen) just getting the 90 degree alignment done, for some reason my camera made the fans seem alot louder then they actually are, but those fans are good. mains powered and pushing alot of wind into the projector. :yh:

As usuall.. youtube completly rapes the already bad quality of my video and makes it worse:

hehe yep those fans are loud (according to your video camera) - u sure that thing isnt an argon

Nice to see progression - and its fun to see the galvos moving the pen laser beam around - gives you motivation to get the blue laser finished and mounted

GBD said:

... This will be a 2W 445nM scanner, (2X 1W with PBS and beam corrective optics).

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Remember that to combine two 445nm beams AND correct their beam profile, you will either need 1 wave plate + 1 PBS, or 2 sets of corrective optics + 1 PBS. I suggest using a waveplate as there will likely be less losses.

Or the industry favorite thus far: knife edge with one set of corrective optics.

Are you going to have enough room for RGB?