Laser Harp kits - Batch 2 - Finished

[Things]

Re: Laser Harp kits - NOW PRE-ORDERING!

Hey, good to see progress!

To spread the harp out a bit more, you will want to adjust R2 on the board. Turn it as far as it'll go, until the beams at each end stop moving and they start getting squished up. If 2 dots at one end are close to each other, try adjusting R5 to move them apart.

If you move R5 but you still can't get the 2 beams far away enough, you may need to switch out R4 for a slightly lower value (5-8K or something).


Cheers,
Dan

 

[532 with Envy]

Re: Laser Harp kits - NOW PRE-ORDERING!

Hey, good to see progress!

To spread the harp out a bit more, you will want to adjust R2 on the board. Turn it as far as it'll go, until the beams at each end stop moving and they start getting squished up. If 2 dots at one end are close to each other, try adjusting R5 to move them apart.

If you move R5 but you still can't get the 2 beams far away enough, you may need to switch out R4 for a slightly lower value (5-8K or something).


Cheers,
Dan

I tried adjusting the two R5 and R4 but there wasn't that much of a change in what was going on. The beams spread out a bit but not much and the two at the end still seems too close. I'll see if I can find these POT's online in a 5-8K value.(if you know of a US source for these that might help....i'm finding quite a few different kinds of POT's at the 5K value)
Also I'v been reading on PL that there may be an upgrade to the board for the blanking on the slower galvo's like mine 20k, and that might fix the dim power look? If this is so, what would I need to do for that? Do I need to buy and learn the Audrino? or is it something else?

Almost there with this....just a couple more things and i'll be harpin' about!

 

[Things]

Re: Laser Harp kits - NOW PRE-ORDERING!

The red pot will spread the beams out, the yellow one will help if 2 dots at each end are too close to each other. If you adjust the yellow pot, and they do move apart but not far enough, then try replacing the orange resistor with a lower value, such as 5K or 8K.

As for the update, it probably won't do much for laser power. If you're using a green laser, it's brightness hugely depends on how well it copes under modulation. The update just allows you to change the scan speed a bit if it's too fast for your galvos.


Cheers,
Dan

 

[532 with Envy]

Re: Laser Harp kits - NOW PRE-ORDERING!

Glad I asked. I was looking at tearing out one of the POT's...lol, thanks for saving me.
I'm sure that will fix the problem, i'll hit the parts store tomorrow and see if they have the resistor.
As far as brightness, well it is a cheap laser, so I may have to replace it with a better one.
I got them off ebay and they didn't cost much....:beer:

 

[camvo]

Re: Laser Harp kits - NOW PRE-ORDERING!

HI Dan,

I am interested to buy a kit. I have the laser 275mW-532nm, a galvo set.

Your kit is the answer to all my problems.

Is the kit still available?

 

[Things]

Re: Laser Harp kits - NOW PRE-ORDERING!

Hi camvo. We are intending on doing a 2nd run, yes. Just waiting on a few things before we go ahead.

Cheers,
Dan

 

[camvo]

Re: Laser Harp kits - NOW PRE-ORDERING!

Hi Dan,


Thanks for your quick response.

What terms do I have to think about? Day, Weeks, Months,....

Regards
Peter

 

[Flaminpyro]

Re: Laser Harp kits - NOW PRE-ORDERING!

Got mine that was quick shipping, Thanks
Now I can't wait to work on it...

 

[GoolGaul]

Re: Laser Harp kits - NOW PRE-ORDERING!

I recently decided to put off my Harp build, until after Halloween (and all the Halloween prep) but I am not feeling Halloween asmuch as I wanna build my Harp.

Wifey is bothered by this. She couldn't care less about the Laser Harp, and is consuned with Halloween. But as is the case with many a married woman - she can't do any of it by herself, so I am putting up the H'Ween deco in record time... ;-)

I am thinking about setting the harp up with a sampler and some screams moans and other HWeen sounds.

If I could only sell her on the idea.

again, the harp waits.

 

[Things]

Re: Laser Harp kits - NOW PRE-ORDERING!

Haha, that could be interesting!

Put it on it's side and shine it across a path, when people walk through the beams it screams at them

 

[GoolGaul]

Re: Laser Harp kits - NOW PRE-ORDERING!

i thought of using some lasers for just that concept. I live on a main road, across from an Elementary school. I can't have wires and stuff strung out all over the sideway for triggers, I tried motion detectors, but the cars kept triggering...

 

[Tonga]

Re: Laser Harp kits - NOW PRE-ORDERING!

Things that is a great Laser Harp you've got there:beer:. I said I was really interested before but the more I read with your thread I think it's way beyond me to build:undecided:. Beautiful work sir!

 

[cyborgTR808]

Re: Laser Harp kits - NOW PRE-ORDERING!

This is amazing. I truly want one of these kits to build a harp for my midi gear. Im so impressed. Amazing.

 

[a2dconverter]

Laser harp is operational!

Thanks to Dan and Craig in getting my kit to me in a timely manner...

I think that this is my first post! My passions are Music and electronics so the Laser Harp intrigued me years ago when I came across the JMJ You-Tube Video of the Laser Harp performance. Thankfully my research into building my own LH brought me to this site, and Dan's Controller, that eventually ended up in my instrument.

It has actually been working now for about 3 weeks and I'm finally getting to documenting my build. Hopefully some of my ideas will end up in other projects! I spent about 6-8 hours building and fine-tuning the build, and I spent at least that much time playing with it (especially this past Halloween).

Here's a list of the Parts (mostly from fleabay)...

• 150mW Green Laser Diode DIY DPSS Module + Power TTL from trilights.
  
• 20Kpps High Speed Galvo Scanner from te-lightings.
  
• Protection Goggles 532nm Green Laser Safety Glasses.
  
• techHood IR Filter Lens/High 532nm laser transmittance, (to filter possible dangerous IR radiation from laser).
  
• omegabob2 Optical Bandpass Filter, 528AF32, (9mm x 9mm, 2mm thick) (Placed over the Sensor detectors to protect against ambient light)
  
  EDIT: see post 109 below for new information about not using filters over the sensors.
  
  
• Installed the components in 1/2 of a Hammond 1401P steel Enclosure with Aluminum custom cut/ bent front and rear panels. I cut a piece of frosted plexi and hinged it to the chassis to act as a cover.
  
• and of course the heart of the LH, Dan's controller kit available from illumination supply.

After carefully wiring everything, and meticulously mounting all of the components into the chassis, I added power. There was no smoke and the display came up LASER HARP V2.1...READY.

I had problems with triggering at first and stumbled onto the Blanking setting while pressing the footswitches. BLANKING has to be OFF for everything to work properly. You have to do this everytime you power-up the LH.

To turn BLANKING OFF:
Press Push button 2 - It will display BLANKING: ON
Press Push button 1 - It will display BLANKING: OFF
Press Push button 2 - It will display READY...​

(Wait a few seconds between button presses otherwise they will not be accepted.)

EDIT: Due to Dan's firmware upgrade you can reliably use the LH with Blanking ON (see post 109 below for the new information) .

After a bit of time aligning the mirror and the spacing between the beams using the trimmers on the controller board, (with safety goggles on!), I was ready to go. I connected the MIDI OUT to a Roland SH-32 Synth, fired up my FOG-Machine and spent the first few hours, before bedtime, disturbing my dog with the sound as I played the HARP.

I did buy white gloves, but found that playing the LH using my bare hands was fine with my sensor set-up and 150mW output power was not enough for me to feel any heat.

NOTES:
I also fitted a small 24 VDC 40mm Fan to the top of the Galvo driver as the heatsink was getting hot...the fan blows through the heatsink and exhausts the hot air out some vent holes in the chassis bottom. Now the heatsink is cool! It is powered from the Galvo Power Supply.

Since I decided to use a 1/4" Stereo Cable to connect between the Sensor and the LH. I added a 1/4" Stereo Phone JACK for the Sensor on the rear panel. I also mounted an IEC power inlet with integrated FUSE.

I assembled the RUN/ BANK footswitches in an aluminum die-cast box, (yes, you guessed it, it's a Hammond!). I mounted 2 momentary foot switches and a Stereo 1/4" Phone Jack to allow connection to the LH using another standard 1/4" Stereo Cable.

On the front panel I mounted the MIDI OUT jack, the Sensitivity Pot, the Footswitch jack, the BANK LED and I parallelled the Footswitch Jack with panel mounted Push-buttons in case I forget to bring the Footswitch!

I mounted the sensor components into a Hammond 1591H Plastic box and mounted it on an old SANUS surround rear speaker stand that has a nice hinge to allow adjustment. The stand also places the Sensor about 36" above the ground and helps with reliable triggering. After I expoxied the 532nm Bandpass Filters directly to the sensors, I drilled three holes in the Plastic Box to expose the sensors.

Since I mounted my Laser to Fire from Right to Left, the LH notes played Low to High from Right to Left which is the opposite of a piano....I didn't want to get used to this and I didn't want to re-configure the chassis to switch the position of the laser, so, I reprogrammed the micro using my laptop connected to the LH Controller board through an Arduino experiment board. I reprogrammed the notes so that, when I play the LH, the notes are Low to High from Left to Right. The three Programs were programmed as follows...

BANK 1 RED Cmajor = OCTAVE 2 = C - D - E - F - G - A - B - C - D - E
BANK 2 GREEN Cmajor = OCTAVE 3 = C - D - E - F - G - A - B - C - D - E
BANK 3 BLUE Cminor = OCTAVE 3 = C - D - Eb - F - G - Ab - Bb - C - D - Eb

Word to the wise, when you mount your laser, make sure that it fires from Left to Right!

Here is a photo document of my build...enjoy

seeya

Joe

 

[GoolGaul]

Re: Laser Harp kits - NOW PRE-ORDERING!

NICE WORK!

Now you got me all fired up to build my kit...

 

[Things]

Re: Laser Harp kits - NOW PRE-ORDERING!

Brilliant work! I love what you've done with it!

csshih and I are working on the 2nd run very soon. Taken a bit longer than expected, but had to get the financials sorted first, and also work around my busy schooling. Should be ready to go with maybe 25-30 kits within a few weeks.