planning out my scanner build

so guys im planning out my projector/scanner

so this is my shopping list so far what do you think suggestions are welcome and highly appreciated!

galvos: pt-30k's(paid for:eg

lasers: meierlight 300mw analog 532

diy 445 2x lpc-816 combined with PBS cube

i will be using the badpip 4channel driver (PL)

Dichros: already harvested from cr@pio projector

DAC: sound card

optics mounts will be diy like andy-cons here Adjustable Mirror Mount


base plate and case will be decided once i make a layout of everything to find the size needed


so hows that look am i missing anything :thanks: for the help guys :beer;

COOL!! Looks like a good starting point. Almost identical to my build. Losses are pretty high with these dichros, but if ur like me its just a starting point. Your gonna want a lot more red... Your obviously planning on doing beamshows though, so you could possibly get away with using those cheap high powered 655nm with crappy divergence. Or spend a little extra and invest in 635 at lower powers which is much brighter to our eyes.

I went with a quad red, lpc-826's ~1w and it still isn't bright enough.

whatsupadrian said:

COOL!! Looks like a good starting point. Almost identical to my build. Losses are pretty high with these dichros, but if ur like me its just a starting point. Your gonna want a lot more red... Your obviously planning on doing beamshows though, so you could possibly get away with using those cheap high powered 655nm with crappy divergence. Or spend a little extra and invest in 635 at lower powers which is much brighter to our eyes.

I went with a quad red, lpc-826's ~1w and it still isn't bright enough.

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crap i didnt know i would need that much more red:thinking: was your quad lpc knifedged the cubed or just knife edged? also is it worth it to buy other dichros?

thanks for your link and input :thanks:

i like to share this advice that was given to me by elektrofreak...

you know if the colors are off, the audience doesn't.... so just use the colors you have and have the drivers turned to the max current the diode can handle and color mix in the software. if you dim down your green and blues to match the red then you wont be able to ever just have a kick ass beam.

michael.

chipdouglas said:

i like to share this advice that was given to me by elektrofreak...

you know if the colors are off, the audience doesn't.... so just use the colors you have and have the drivers turned to the max current the diode can handle and color mix in the software. if you dim down your green and blues to match the red then you wont be able to ever just have a kick ass beam.

michael.

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:thanks: good point i can always add more red later :beer:

also, find dichros that let you put you weakest laser closest to the galvo.

chipdouglas said:

also, find dichros that let you put you weakest laser closest to the galvo.

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OK modwerx;no o-like:no so im guessing there more expensive?

Get the 3 axis (almost typed aixiz there) dichro mounts. They will make your life a hell of a lot easier.

To balance out 300mW of green, 2x 660nm red diodes wont work. You'll need 1W of 660nm or 400mW of 640nm. I'm not sure if anyone has done this yet, but 2x 635's would work well (run them at a lower current for long life) you'll need some fancy optics though... PBS cube, wave plate, Prism pair, maybe g-1 lens'

Use a breakout board. Make the wiring easy, make your life easy.

Use thick aluminum. Anything less than 8mm isn't a good idea IMO (I got 3/16th aluminum, it's warping)

Don't use c-@$$-io dichros, the loss on the green isn't worth it.

Don't use a sound card DAC. It's a pain to set up (just look at the "audiolaser problem" threads) get a FB3 or RIYA DAC. (Spaghetti is great software) You can use a sound card DAC, just expect to spend some time setting it up... I nearly wreaked my galvo's trying to get mine to work. I ended up getting it to work, but it wasn't worth the trouble IMO.

DON'T cheap out on stuff, when I was starting to make my first projector, everyone told me this. I sort of listened and now it's bitting me back. I have to upgrade my dichro mounts and DAC (started with audiolase, sold it for RIYA) and now i'm probably going to upgrade to Pangolin's DAC+Software

Don't use the aixiz module mounts (they suck)

lazerz is making modules to fit the aixiz mounts well and i think im gonna stick to making my own optics mount i like DIY also ill get different dichros no that you guys have twisted my arm

ill keep the baseplate advice in mind when im looking

and ahhh i thought i would be ok with the audio dac but i guess not thanks for the help glad i got your advice

bennett326 said:

lazerz is making modules to fit the aixiz mounts well and i think im gonna stick to making my own optics mount i like DIY also ill get different dichros no that you guys have twisted my arm

ill keep the baseplate advice in mind when im looking

and ahhh i thought i would be ok with the audio dac but i guess not thanks for the help glad i got your advice

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No problem, just make sure you have a backup plan if your DIY mounts don't work.

Will do :beer:

I did exactly the same thing when I built my first scanner - went cheap. Sure, it worked, and it got me hooked, however the upgrades were never ending!

The cheap galvo's were crap, you'd be lucky to get any sort of text out of them, the green laser was horrible under modulation and probably only did like 50mW (200mW rated), and the soundcard DAC was a pain to get working properly as others have stated.

I'm much, much further along now (Since I got hooked), however it's not until roughly $3K later that I was actually satisfied with my projector. An upgrade that consisted of replacing all the lasers, buying a FB3 and rebuilding the whole thing around 4 times.

But, on the other hand, if you'e just getting into scanners and don't know much about them yet, it's better to start with cheap components in case you mess something up

For example, I started with a cheap stepper RGY from eBay about 4 years ago.

Here is a crude timeline of my scanner over those 4 or so years:



One thing I can tell you is, DON'T cheap out on the dichro mounts, unless you are fine with realigning your projector before every show (Or every time you use it)

Cheers,
Dan

My red is all knife edged, shaving off a lot of the corners of the beams.
Making your own dichro mounts will be fine, just use some strong springs and very fine threads because farfeild alignments are a pain.

FYI, if I didn't spend $150 on audiolase sound card dac i would be that much closer to Quickshow + FB3.. and also im still sportin the casio dichros but i went with 400mw green so it doesnt bother me too much yet. Spaghetti does the job for some people, basically it allowed me to tune my lasers/optics, but I got it at a blowout price of 20 bucks(maybe he will do it for xmas or again next summer)!!! Well worth it @ that price.

whatsupadrian said:

My red is all knife edged, shaving off a lot of the corners of the beams.
Making your own dichro mounts will be fine, just use some strong springs and very fine threads because farfeild alignments are a pain.

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that makes allot of sense actually, the finer my threads the finer i can adjust the mount :thanks:

@things you don't think the 30ks will be enough? i thought those where on the decent side .....

also there's no way ill be able to afford fb3 anytime soon:cryyy:

when i was planning out this i was thinking go for the best but the price was just way out of my world so i guess i'l have to reevaluate my list:thinking:

I haven't personally tried those scanners. Their rated speed is one thing, their actual speed before distortion is another.

In other words, they'll probably work fine.