I'm ready to align my mini RGB. Some advice please.

[Morgan]

Hi All,

I've been working on a tiny RGB setup and am finally able to start the alignment process for the first time. I have some older version Laserwave dichros, (very kindly donated!), and just want to clarify a few things and seek advice.

I have done some searching and looked through a few threads too. This one was particularly helpful over at PL -http://www.photonlexicon.com/forums/...=RGB+alignment - but didn't have exactly the info I'm looking for.

The dichros I have are: Pass green/reflect red, and pass red and green/reflect blue, (pretty standard stuff). I'm also pretty sure I have them the right way round! Red reflects from the side that looks reddest, blue from the side that looks bluest, etc. Correct?

I would just like to clarify, "near field alignment", and, "far field alignment", and the best approaches for both. I think I'm correct to say that I start with the green and go from there but from there this is all new!

With near field, is it as simple as moving the beam to make sure the reflecting beam is hitting the dichro at the same point the passed beam(s), leaves the dichro? Should The beams be mixing as well as possible at this point too? Better done with smoke?

After this, the dichros are tweaked for the far field? Is the green nailed and move all the others to it?

Many thanks on any tips you can offer and I apologise for any clear ignorance in my questions. This is a bit of a weird homebrew setup so I dare say I'll have to work around a few problems but I will show how it turns out with some pics.

All the best,

M

 

[Solonar]

The red should meet the green at the exact same spot on the dichro, then the blue should meet the green/red at the exact same spot on the next dichro. Most likely your beams will be different sizes, so do your best to center the red and blue over the green.


As the green should be going straight to the galvo, make sure the other beams match the green exactly. Then adjust the dichro for the red to align with green in the far field, repeat for blue.


If they are aligned perfectly in both near and far field, you shouldn't have to realign if your projection distance changes.

 

[Morgan]

Thanks Solonar. I had a try at aligning tonight and experimentation showed exactly what you have just said there so all is good in Morgan world!

Have a look at the updated photos from tonight in my thread - http://laserpointerforums.com/f47/sneaky-peak-updated-17-06-10-a-51801-new-post.html

This is a bit of an unconventional setup but the same rules seem to apply. The near field and far field setups are not as straight forward but a little tweaking an developing a system is going to be fine.

Any comments are welcome.

Many thanks,

M

 

[Solonar]

Looks great!

I assume that since your dichros are fixed, you can adjust the angles of the modules?

I imagine that will be a PITA. getting both near and far field alignment is hard enough being able to adjust the lasers and dichros.

 

[Morgan]

Yes the heatsink and module have the adjustment. It's actually working out ok. First I'm aligning the the three modules without the dichros in place so that they all exit parallel and perpendicular, then I'm installing the dichros working the near field from green through to blue and just tweaking after that. It took a while for the near field but the far came in a couple of minutes, (if that!). I actually missed though, and ended up stacking the beams last night but this was only noticed when I took the unit upstairs to play with whilst smoking! More smoke in the air whilst aligning tonight will make this a much more accurate process. It's then a case of fixing the alignment as I have a suspicion it will be delicate if left. I have a solution though!M