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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

Simple text display

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Not sure if this is the correct place for this...

I need to figure out how to display text with a laser. I've seen DJ equipment that does this, but it all seems a bit much for what I need.

All I want to do is display ~20 characters about 3 feet away, and nothing else. No fancy fonts or special effects. I've seen a couple projects online using different motors and mirrors, but I honestly have no idea how to go about building this stuff. Is there an off-the-shelf solution?

Thanks for any advice.
:D
 





Things

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20 characters is quite a few for a laser projector. The only way to do this is to buy a galvo based projector (or build). I'd stay above at least 30Kpps. The higher the better, but you won't get much higher than that from an off-the-shelf system.
 
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just letting you know 20 chars is not simple thats complex unless your talking about stick letters. but if you want letters like in things avatar you will want to go for a good pair.
You are looking at around 250-500$ in galvos alone.
 
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your going to need very good galvos for 20 chars.

you could probably get away with dt40 scanner and using a single line font.
 
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Thanks for the responses! I suppose I thought it would be easier based on stuff like this I found:
Mechanically scanned laser display microchip pic

That is about as good as it needs to look. Unfortunately, when I look at the schematics, etc. my eyes glaze over and I have no idea how to go about actually building something like that. Which should have given me a hint that it isn't that easy.

Thanks for the advice, I'll look into getting a scanner. Do they tend to be easily programmable out of the box?
 
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That's an interesting concept.. no doubt that would be less expensive in terms of money than a galvo-based system but also much harder to construct, so more expensive in terms of man-hours and expertise..
 

Things

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You could do it with a PIC uC, but you'd still need some way of actually scanning the characters.

The DT40's aren't tooo expensive, and should do 20 characters without too much flicker. I think they are around $500US. I paid $500US for my DT25's (Now discontinued), so pretty nice price.
 
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That's an interesting concept.. no doubt that would be less expensive in terms of money than a galvo-based system but also much harder to construct, so more expensive in terms of man-hours and expertise..

Yep, looks like I'll be paying for it one way or the other...
 
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You could do it with a PIC uC, but you'd still need some way of actually scanning the characters.

The DT40's aren't tooo expensive, and should do 20 characters without too much flicker. I think they are around $500US. I paid $500US for my DT25's (Now discontinued), so pretty nice price.

they will only do 20 char of single line text without flicker.
 

Benm

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What is the character limit with LFI?

You could perhaps get it to load a txt file and then set the frame repeat to infinite to keep it from scrolling (which is the default behaviour).

It'd probably not be very pretty using 20k scanners, but perfectly legible even at larger scan angles, if that's the purpose.
 
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I don't think there is a character limit as long as the text is scrolling. Once I loaded an entire chapter of a book into it and it scrolled the whole chapter across the wall, but with still text i don't know since other than some experimentation I don't really use it for text. I make custom text in any font and style using ILD SOS from drlava coupled with Inkscape. Using this combo you can makes frames out of anything you can draw or trace. It works beautifully for custom logos, images, animations and text.
 
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Hey EF can you explain to me the whole ILD SOS?
I have inkscape and stuff but i hear a lot of people talk about ild sos and never know what it can truley do.
Is it worth the money i for th longest time have been using a free program where i can use a picture and then plot the points on it a member here i think made it.
Is there any reason that ild sos is better?
Thanks
 
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gave exdeadguy a price of a projector with dt40's, never heard back... dont think he liked the price lol
 
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Hey EF can you explain to me the whole ILD SOS?
I have inkscape and stuff but i hear a lot of people talk about ild sos and never know what it can truley do.
Is it worth the money i for th longest time have been using a free program where i can use a picture and then plot the points on it a member here i think made it.
Is there any reason that ild sos is better?
Thanks

Inkscape can create, edit and export vector graphics files in the .dxf (AutoCAD) file format. ILD SOS can open .dxf files, which it then allows you to tune to specific scan speeds for the least possible amount of flicker and then export as a .ild file. Having never used the software you're speaking of I can't say for sure if it's better or worse. It sounds a bit like it combines some features of Inkscape and ILD SOS into a single program, which sounds neat, but I do enjoy having all the editing features of graphics-specific software like Inkscape.

gave exdeadguy a price of a projector with dt40's, never heard back... dont think he liked the price lol

Well Andy, if you'd just stop trying to make money for your hard work your prices would be cheaper. DUH!!
 
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lol people want something for nothin else days.

i want a basic 30k RGB scanner, got a budget of $500...

how is 30k and rgb basic?

seems to be a number of these type of posts around recently, on here and PL
 




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