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Cheap Galvo's off eBay

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seanharrison

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Hi, I am going to start building a budget laser scanner. I brought what were advertised as galvo's off ebay, but turns out they might just be stepper motors. they have not arrived as yet. Problem is, I am unsure how i am going to control them, they come with a basic driver schimatic for using soundcard output to drive them. but dont think this is really going to work too well.

h ttp://boomerssupply.com/GalvoInfo.asp < These are what i have brought

Anyone got any idea how i can use these to draw basic graphics, and beam fx. I dont want to be making silly spyril fx. i need some control over them

I am wondering if i build the basic control that they provide the schematic for, then use my soundcard as an DAC. will some FX software be able to make these motors generate graphics. or will that just simply not work.


Hopefully someone knows of a driver i can get to power these motors. :-/

one other thing that has come to mind is, If i the sound card option does work, how do i apply blanking, and what software does it via a sound card ?

hope you guys can help

Cheers

Sean
 

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sorry to tell you but those galvos (if they are indeed stepper motors) will not work like regular lasershow systems but can be controlled via a microcontroller like I had experimented with - it would require programming and the effects would be fairly lackluster - but it would work

graphics beyond some basic shapes are not gonna happen, sorry
 
by the wiring in that schmatic they look like galvo's, if they are, how would you recommend i control them ?
 
I actually have bought that same item previously :P They are indeed stepper motors - and if you follow all of his instructions, you CAN get a few rudimentary shapes, but they look "curved" due to the slow speed of the motors.
 
Been there... tried that..... I never got that circuit to work :(
 
Im still unsure if they are steppers or galvo's, I thought steppers had more poles ?

Am i right in thinking that these motors have 2 poles, one pole holding it in its centre position, then the second pole uses the audio wave top to bottom to moved the mirror to either the left or right?

And a Galvo uses 3 poles, The centre pole powered to hold the mirror at its centre position, and 1 either side with +/- voltage to move the mirror left or right?

Now i know you must thing i am mad, But i am going to try to draw graphics with these motors.

I am going to try this route:

Cheap eBay (Gavlo/Steppers)
Stereo Audio Amp (To drive the Steppers)
USB Sound Card - 6 Channel
Sound Card Op-Ampf
3x FlexMod 1.1 Laser Drivers
650nm 200mW Red Laser
405nm 100mW Violet Laser
532nm 50mW Green Laser
PC Power Supply for Stepper/Laser Power
2 dichroics

Then i will use laserboy as the test.

If i dont manager to get any graphics out of it. i will then i will at least have some cool looking FX with Modulated Colours. something fun to play with until i can afford some ScanPro20's

i am waiting for my parts to come, i'm going to get the basic setup running with just 1 laser (Green 50mw) for now just to see what i can get out of it.

Any suggestions would be great guys

Specially if anyone knows how i can power these motors other than with a stereo amp, coz i dont wanna burn the motors out? I dont want any EPROM programming like andys attempt, I wanna try stay analouge with this.

cheers guys


Sean
 
stepper motors can have anywhere from four to eight wires, maybe even more - my galvos have 8 wires each, but some of those are also for position feedback
 
binned the stepper motor idea off, brought some ScanPro20's instead :D

cant wait,

cant wait,

cant wait, ;D ;D ;D
 
Right, The stepper motors came from eBay, LOL, yeah deffo steppers, and lol, Epson, They are from laser printers, seen these before. Maybe one day i will make a little project with them but for now they can go in a cupboard. I have my lovely ScanPro20's now :D
 
First of all: Sorry to bring up this old topic!
Secondly: It saddens me that you quit this project, cause I've won the auction of two of these, and now I feel hopelessly abandoned. The product page says 'galvos', but now that I've found out they are from laser printers, I don't really want them anymore. Should I tell the seller I don't want to pay for the motors because I feel mislead, or should I pay and try to do something usefull with them? I really wanted to build my first scanner, but I don't really know if this is the way.
 
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