Update2: The second part of the project can be found in post 16: http://www.laserpointerforums.com/forums/YaBB.pl?num=1233639271/16#16
Contains TTL and microcontroller + 16 color beamshot.
My next project is to build a yellow laser by combining red and green like rog demonstrated, however in a more controllable and adjustable way (I'm not confident in my glue and wire optics-aligning skills). This build is turning out to be more complicated than I anticipated because of all the holes that need to line up. The drilling and tapping takes a fair chunk of time as well.
Work so far:
Bottom:
The o-rings and screws allow fine adjustment of the up-down angle of each laser (as well as the height of each to a small extent).
And here is the plan for the optics:
I will be doing a similar setup for the optics, the splitter will rotate forward and backwards and the mirror will rotate side to side to allow aiming across all axes of both translation and angle.
I did some playing around with the optics and discovered that the PHR beamsplitter transmits red very efficiently no matter what the polarization, and reflects green and violet very efficiently as well. Between the front surface mirror and the beamsplitter, this setup should allow near 100% efficiency for making yellow or magenta. Since both modules are held in decent aluminium heatsinks, I can foresee some substantial power coming out of this unit.
I chose plexiglass for the base mainly because it was all that I had laying around, an advantage to a non-conductive material is that I wont have to worry about the case polarities of the various lasers. I plan to paint the touching surfaces of the heatsinks with some clear nailpolish to electrically isolate them.
I'll see if I can finish it up tomorrow. Unfortunately all I have for lasers is some 5mW reds and greens so there wont be much I can do with it until my 22x diodes show up (shipping is taking a looooong time).
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Update starts here:
Ok well I ended up procrastinating a fair deal and then I managed to break my 4-40 tap working on another project (First tap I've ever broken, I heard that you could shatter the tap by repeated heating and cooling and then I turned the part I was working on into an aluminium puddle...), and forgot that two of the holes in the acrylic needed to be threaded (was too long since I worked on it...) so I ended up remaking the mount for the beam splitter.
Almost done...
Powered up and aligned. Alignment was pretty easy however when I do it again I will be drilling all of the unthreaded holes slightly undersize. As it is, turning the screws can shift the parts around very slightly. Also, you need to hold it by the acrylic base or the heat sinks will shift slightly under the pressure which is somewhat inconvenient.
Beamshot, using a pair of dying AA's. Right now I am using a 5mW aixiz module and a 5mW o-like module. The green completely overpowers the red normally but after the batteries start to wear down you get some nice yellow/golden colors.
Beamshot #2. Since the beams are both so weak I had to use a crapload of smoke, which may be responsible for the beam changing colors over its length. Either way, it looks super cool.
I learned a a lot of things making this and I will probbably track down a 0-80 tap for the next build. I am hoping to compress this down into the width of a CR123 battery. I have a few drawings where everything fits so I just need to collect some material and get working.
This thread is far from done though, once it gets darker I'll replace the batteries, hook it up to a microcontroller and put together a many-color beamshot for you all.
Update2: The second part of the project can be found in post 16: http://www.laserpointerforums.com/forums/YaBB.pl?num=1233639271/16#16
. One thing you will come across is the disparity in beam diameter, which is more noticable up close, at a distance the eye seems to filter out that difference and you will perceive a good yellow. Nice project.
