Welcome to Laser Pointer Forums - discuss green laser pointers, blue laser pointers, and all types of lasers

LPF Donation via Stripe | LPF Donation - Other Methods

Links below open in new window

ArcticMyst Security by Avery

another first DIY spirograph w/ red, green, bluray

Joined
Feb 28, 2008
Messages
1,809
Points
0
made a spirograph the other day, first i used cut up CD's as the mirror but they aren't really great, i think they are rear surface reflective, which gave a strange look. so I bought a handheld mirror and broke it up into sections (anyone know a good way to cut glass? diagonal cutters and scissors both failed miserably) and picked out the ones closest to circles and tried to mount them in the center of mass. i also had to add an extra 3 V per spinning motor circuit. i had 9V before and it wasn't cutting it for these 12V DC cpu fans. i'm using 2 10k pots and 2 switches to turn them on. each circuit has it's own 9V and 2AA 3V battery packs. [link=http://www.laserpointerforums.com/forums/YaBB.pl?num=1215290917/26#26]here is some pics before i did the modifications[/link] i also mounted it on the other side of the DVD case, so i had room to put the 2 extra 2AA battery packs, and it also gives it a better feel being raised a bit.

PICS!
[link=http://www.hightechdealz.com/images/categories/lasers/blurayspiro.jpg]
blurayspiro%20copy.gif
[/link]
[link=http://www.hightechdealz.com/images/categories/lasers/redspiro.jpg]
redspiro%20copy.gif
[/link]
[link=http://www.hightechdealz.com/images/categories/lasers/redgreenspiro.jpg]
redgreenspiro%20copy.gif
[/link]
click for bigger pic

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOsZ19wDQ2I[/media]

:)
-Kendall
 





Joined
Jun 7, 2007
Messages
1,771
Points
0
Re: another first DIY spirograph w/ red, green, bl

your mirrors are at a tilt correct? are the perfectly centered or do they spin in circles from being off centered?
 
Joined
Feb 28, 2008
Messages
1,809
Points
0
Re: another first DIY spirograph w/ red, green, bl

nah i didn't really tilt them. it seems to work like all the other spirographs so i think it's fine. i've read that u are supposed to tilt them though.

they aren't perfectly centered, i couldn't get the mirror to a circle so it's not perfectly in the middle.

cool little device though. i'm going to make a 3 mirror spiro w/ the small motors inside the dvd burner next time, with some nice circular mirrors. whats a good source for them? only place i know is ebay.
 

daguin

0
Joined
Mar 29, 2008
Messages
15,989
Points
113
Re: another first DIY spirograph w/ red, green, bl

sk8er4514 said:
nah i didn't really tilt them. it seems to work like all the other spirographs so i think it's fine. i've read that u are supposed to tilt them though.
they aren't perfectly centered, i couldn't get the mirror to a circle so it's not perfectly in the middle.
cool little device though. i'm going to make a 3 mirror spiro w/ the small motors inside the dvd burner next time, with some nice circular mirrors. whats a good source for them? only place i know is ebay.


Getting them tilted usually isn't an issue. You can get them tilted too much. It is actually more difficult to get them to lie flat enough to be a problem.

As long as they spin without too much vibration they should be fine

Try here for mirrors. Their inventory changes so if what you want isn't there, look again in a couple of days

http://www.surplusshed.com/pages/category/mirrors_1.html

Peace,
dave
 
Joined
Feb 28, 2008
Messages
1,809
Points
0
Re: another first DIY spirograph w/ red, green, bl

so, http://www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/l3129d.html this item looks to be what I need. I have no idea why they show it as brown though?? it says mirror... so im guessing they photographed the back of it.

im gonna buy like 8 of them for this spiro and future ones :)

edit: hmmm i think their shopping cart is a bit strange. i accidentally bought 14. and their paypal doesn't work... it just says to follow their paypal "link" which goes to www.paypal.com. lame. i think i'll just not pay for that and use a credit card instead.

also @ daguin below. thanks for your help :)
 

daguin

0
Joined
Mar 29, 2008
Messages
15,989
Points
113
Re: another first DIY spirograph w/ red, green, bl

sk8er4514 said:
so, http://www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/l3129d.html this item looks to be what I need. I have no idea why they show it as brown though?? it says mirror... so im guessing they photographed the back of it.

im gonna buy like 8 of them for this spiro and future ones :)


Yeah. It is an aluminized surface, so it IS silver. It just looks funny because of what it was reflecting, probably.

It is only 17MM dia. Are you sure you want to go that small? It is cool, if you are aware. I just wanted to make sure you noticed. 17mm is fine. You can go significantly smaller ;) They just require you to be careful about the amount of "tilt" on the mirrors so you don't reflect outside the next mirror.

I have some of these exact mirrors.

Peace,
dave
 

daguin

0
Joined
Mar 29, 2008
Messages
15,989
Points
113
Re: another first DIY spirograph w/ red, green, bl

FireMyLaser said:
"Front surface mirrors? Ha!"
;D

Front surface or first surface mirrors are needed to eliminate the "ghost" reflections you get from "normal" (second surface) mirrors

Peace,
dave
 
Joined
Apr 29, 2008
Messages
1,562
Points
48
Re: another first DIY spirograph w/ red, green, bl

daguin said:
[quote author=FireMyLaser link=1218691225/0#4 date=1218720952]
"Front surface mirrors? Ha!"
;D

Front surface or first surface mirrors are needed to eliminate the "ghost" reflections you get from "normal" (second surface) mirrors

Peace,
dave[/quote]
He was referring to the Dr. Altman Meredith Instruments advertisement.
 
Joined
Jul 28, 2008
Messages
91
Points
0
Re: another first DIY spirograph w/ red, green, bl

sk8er4514 said:
hmmm i think their shopping cart is a bit strange.

Yes, their internet-fu is weak. You basically need to treat the 'ordering' process on their website as separate from the 'paying' process on Paypal... just include your order number in the Paypal notes and they will figure out how to join the two.

Also: their search engine never shows [link=www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/l1313.html]these[/link] 17mm front-surface mirrors, 10 for $6.

Also also: damn nice spirograph you have there.
 
Joined
Jun 7, 2007
Messages
1,771
Points
0
Re: another first DIY spirograph w/ red, green, bl

sk8er4514 said:
nah i didn't really tilt them. it seems to work like all the other spirographs so i think it's fine. i've read that u are supposed to tilt them though.

they aren't perfectly centered, i couldn't get the mirror to a circle so it's not perfectly in the middle.

cool little device though. i'm going to make a 3 mirror spiro w/ the small motors inside the dvd burner next time, with some nice circular mirrors. whats a good source for them? only place i know is ebay.
that's close to what I'm doing, I have mine built inside a PC Power Supply.
Yes I noticed that when the mirror is not centered then it produces a line, and if the mirror is tilted it produces a circle. From what I could see when it was not tilted and perfectly centered it produced nothing, but a reflected dot, so I need to know exactly how to position my mirrors.
 

Kenom

0
Joined
May 4, 2007
Messages
5,629
Points
63
Re: another first DIY spirograph w/ red, green, bl

Essentiallly your trying for very little tilt. By trying to mount it flush, your going to fail. but that fail is a good thing. it's not so off center that the mirror is going to come loose while turning and your beam isn't going to go so wild it will spill off the other mirrors.

In my illustration below you can see 3 different colors. Each represents an angle of the tilt on a mirror and the effect it will have on a laser.

Green represents a flat mirror with no tilt. You can see in the illustration that it easily bounces from one mirror to the next with no effect on the laser at all.

Red represents a mirror with correct tilt to it. Very close to flat. As represented in the illustration it causes the beam to vary in it's path by a certain angle. usually the less the better to a point. While it varies, it still stays on the entire surface of the mirror. Also the size of the "image" from the spyrograph is smaller and more defined.

Blue represents a mirror with TOO much tilt. The angle of reflection has increased and it's actually causing the laser to sometimes overshoot the second mirror and you have no output at all. When it does shine off the second mirror, it's output is going to be VERY large and your images are not so well defined.

Hope this clears things up.

jpg.jpg
 
Joined
Feb 28, 2008
Messages
1,809
Points
0
Re: another first DIY spirograph w/ red, green, bl

sweet. thanks for the explanation kenom :)

makes sense that with the larger angles the spiro will output larger designs. i didn't think of that before. i must have put a small tilt into my spiro on accident that turned out to be good, as you were saying, "good fail " :)

edit: also, thank you Foobario for the link. I bought a 20 pack for $17 :D
 
Joined
Jul 24, 2008
Messages
1,415
Points
36
Re: another first DIY spirograph w/ red, green, bl

Foobario said:
[quote author=sk8er4514 link=1218691225/0#5 date=1218721523]hmmm i think their shopping cart is a bit strange.

Yes, their internet-fu is weak.  You basically need to treat the 'ordering' process on their website as separate from the 'paying' process on Paypal... just include your order number in the Paypal notes and they will figure out how to join the two.

Also: their search engine never shows [link=www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/l1313.html]these[/link] 17mm front-surface mirrors, 10 for $6.

Also also: damn nice spirograph you have there.[/quote]


DONT BUY THOSE MIRRORS they are out of stock and no longer have them. they only have the 5 dollar mirrors
 
Joined
Jul 28, 2008
Messages
91
Points
0
Re: another first DIY spirograph w/ red, green, bl

thesk8nmidget said:
DONT BUY THOSE MIRRORS they are out of stock and no longer have them. they only have the 5 dollar mirrors

Eep, then I wonder what they put in the box that should arrive here Monday?

I'll report back here when I get the package.
 
Joined
Feb 28, 2008
Messages
1,809
Points
0
Re: another first DIY spirograph w/ red, green, bl

Foobario said:
[quote author=thesk8nmidget link=1218691225/0#13 date=1218821808]DONT BUY THOSE MIRRORS they are out of stock and no longer have them. they only have the 5 dollar mirrors

Eep, then I wonder what they put in the box that should arrive here Monday?

I'll report back here when I get the package.[/quote]
yeah, i bought a lot of those and they said they don't offer it anymore... they gave me a discount on the $5 mirrors though b/c i wanted so many, i bought like 18 for $3.90 each about.

not bad.

i hope to make a few 3 mirror spiros in project boxes and sell them. should be an interesting venture :)

i'm also going to use mine for parties and try and find a automatic pot to switch randomly between different values to change the design, that would be awesome. anyone know how to do that?

-Kendall
 




Top