@Last: lol no worries, I'm glad it was motivational : D Good luck and I'd love to see a video response when you're done!
@Benm: couldn't the angle of deflection be controlled pretty accurately with opposing coils? (1 for each edge of a small square mirror mechanically constrained at the back of its center, give it lots of current so the mass of the mirror doesn't affect things too much?)
And the price on that controller really IS good! Is that a per-channel price? (ie if you're trying to control 3 beams independantly would you need three controllers?)
I'm sure homebrew would drop the costs some, but not enough to make development worth-while except to hobbiests and enthusiasts...
Having said that, I'm in those last categories so if people are actually interested, I'll totally help make the controller, it'd be a fun D to A project.
(Expected cost breakdown of homebrew:
$8 - beefy microcontroller, USB2.0 for PC connection
$2 - Darlington array IC, 8 channels, x 2 chips for redundancy / MORE POWER
Overhead: (~$20)
PCB, connectors, coil wire, bits of iron, mechanical connection stuff, solder
Free:
Bits of mirror
a computer power supply to power the transistors / coil
EDIT: and a buck a pop for MOSFETs to control the lasers themselves too!
)
