Handheld laser music visualizer

[Lase]

Now I don't want to start another thread where people bash WL. (not that I'm defending them) I just want to know the plausibility and method behind this idea.

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Would it really be possible to build a handheld laser that reacts to music and how would one go about doing it?

Lase

 

[sopark4000]

I'm sure it's possible but it will probably end up being bulky. It will also need some serious battery capacity. Unless it is going to use a microphone they would have to include some kind of audio input. In the end the price will probably make it more worthwhile to buy a stage laser machine that has audio input. Of course even if they do design a working model there is the incredibly difficult and complicated procedure of getting WL to put the laser in a box, put a shipping label on it and putting it in a mailbox in under 6 months.

 

[Cyparagon]

^Yup.

Amplify the signal from a microphone and send it to a galvo mirror. It can be made pretty small and pretty cheap, but the power requirements are rather high. Although it wasn't very small, Spencer's gifts had a "fireball laser" that did this for $15, and it needed 12V 700mA wall adapter.

 

[DrSid]

Speaker with mirror glued on it works rather well too. As you don't need precise control, galvos are IMHO overkill.

 

[Cyparagon]

I don't mean quality-galvos, I mean a coil of wire, magnet, rubber, and a mirror.

 

[DrSid]

In other words, a speaker

 

[Cyparagon]

Yes, but much smaller and with much wider deflection angle.

 

[DrSid]

You made something like that ? I'd like to see it ..

 

[ShortyInCanada]

This was covered before (more than once) but the last time someone was trying to do something like this it was suggested that they take a couple of small cheap speakers and cut off all the cone and outside hardware leaving just the centre magnet and coil assemblies. Then they glued or attached small lightweight mirrors and arranged them so that the laser(s) could bounce off the mirrors. One assembly for the right sound channel and one for the left. Instant audio influenced laser displays. With all the elements that produce the actual "sound" removed the unit is almost silent too.
With the latest in "speaker" technology you could probably find some super small transducers or something with almost no weight but full range response for maximum effect.
I would set it up so that two lasers are being used bouncing one off the left first then the right and the other on the right first then the left. You might be surprised at how the projected results differ and are similar.
That's my two cents anyways.
:yh:

 

[DrSid]

Yep, I did something like that some time ago, but it was just proof of the concept, nothing small or pretty. It is also important to set the mirror is such way, that the coil tilts it, not just moves it up and down.

 

[ShortyInCanada]

I would mount the mirrors so that just one corner is stuck down with a small bit of flexible adhesive and the rest is slightly angled across the moving parts. (Hold a square mirror at an angle like a diamond and fix down just one corner on the non-moving exterior. Lean the mirror on the moving part at whatever angle serves you best.) This would allow for maximum movement and can be changed by the angle of the unit using gravity as well to keep it variable. Put the whole thing on something that also vibrates (like a sub woofer box) and you multiply the combinations possible.
If I had a couple of spare laser modules I would throw one together this weekend just for fun. I've got old speakers and all the rest out the ying-yang...just no lasers.

 

[sopark4000]

If wicked does it I wonder wether they would use an audio input on it..... probably not but either way they'll probably charge an arm and a leg for it and as I said before "Of course even if they do design a working model there is the incredibly difficult and complicated procedure of getting WL to put the laser in a box, put a shipping label on it and put it in a mailbox in under 6 months." Honestly even if WL cleaned up there act and became the best laser company you could possibly purchase from I still don't think I would be able to bring myself to make a purchase after all the crap they have (ant still do) pulled.