laser like galaxian 3d but brighter

[tcleary]

I like the effect of a static spread of beams that can be achieved with the galaxian 3d using dmx. I'm curious if there is another laser that can do the same sort of thing but much brighter. Does that exist?

 

[Ash]

Wow. This is a strange post. It almost doesn't make any sense, but I'll try to help.

I assume you are talking about the "American DJ" Galaxian 3D laser here.
...
That laser is designed to be pointed at a dance floor (where people's eyes are) and the lasers are tuned (30mW532nm & 80mW660nm - diffracted/split) to the maximum brightness allowable by law (<5mW per beam). They do not sell or make a brighter one as it could potentially blind people when pointed at a dance floor.
If you were never going to point it at a crowd again, you could replace the 30mW green and 80mW red lasers inside with more powerful ones, but you would probably have to add active cooling and modify the box to house a larger heatsink for the more powerful laser. :yh:

 

[tcleary]

right, that's the laser I'm talking about. in dmx mode you can focus the green to a static line of beams. I like to have that overhead, but it isn't very bright. so i'm just curious if there is a projector that does something like that with either brighter or thicker beams. I also have an american dj galaxian sky and with that one in dmx mode you can focus it to a single beam and the beam is pretty thick and is much more visible than the multiple beams the galaxian 3d produces, but it is only one beam. if I could find something that could produce multiple thicker beams like the galaxian sky can do that would be ideal. I'm unsure if the galaxian sky is letting a more powerful laser pass through or just passing through a lot of 5 mw beams near each other to make up a thicker beam, the second guess is probably it though since adj does not require variance on any of their projectors, it's a cool effect though. I'm not adventurous enough to crack these open, would rather just buy something if it existed.

 

[Ash]

From looking at the description online of the galaxian sky, it uses a 10mW green laser.
It appears brighter because it isn't being split into many beams like the 3d. Also, it's effects are created with a stepper motor, rather than simply moving diffraction gratings. It would be relatively simple to replace the lasers inside with more powerful ones, but it's a bad idea.
I don't know of a commercial DJ projector that will do multiple beams of 10mW or more, unless you want to go into the +$1000 RGB projector realm. But then a variance is needed (assuming public venue).

If all you are looking for is that single effect (steady, solid bright beams), it can be made very easily and cheaply, but if those beams are going to end up where people can look directly into them; using it in a club would be extremely irresponsible. Not to mention you could get sued.
:yabbmad:

 

[tcleary]

yeah just nice bright beams is what I want. this is for my house. i have a vaulted ceiling upstairs and want to have beams going across up high, so no one would be looking into them, i just like the effect. how can I do it cheaply?

 

[Bionic-Badger]

Could you just mount some green lasers in heatsinks up there directly, and not bother with a projector?

 

[tcleary]

i suppose so, what do you recommend? i want it to be plug in, i'd likely just have a few plugged into a surge protector so I could clip them all off or on at once.

 

[Ash]

yeah just nice bright beams is what I want. this is for my house. i have a vaulted ceiling upstairs and want to have beams going across up high, so no one would be looking into them, i just like the effect. how can I do it cheaply?

Oh. Inside your house, pointed at the ceiling? We don't need to keep them under 5mW....
Easy to DIY:
1. ~50mW green laser module link
2. lab-style heatsink (for unlimited run time) link *
3. fan diffraction grating (to split the laser into several) link

all for less than $60

* alternately you could drill a 12mm hole in a CPU heasink and save $20

 

[tcleary]

thanks for the suggestion. now once I have those components how do I power the laser?

 

[tcleary]

also they give this option on the laser

Soldered with spring or wire. Please make a note when you checkout to indicate which one is needed.

I'm assuming I want wire right?

 

[Ash]

Yep, you want wire (this will bypass the switch).
Also, you can simply power it with any (switchable) AC adapter that will put out voltage between 3.0V-4.2V.

 

[tcleary]

I actually have a shinp sl-7 projector that I don't really like. it's too spastic, i'm sure by design so it doesn't blind anyone, but i don't really like any of the functions it has, so I decided to open it. I ordered one of those gratings to split the laser. so I opened it and unhooked the connectors to the parts that spin the mirrors and now have a single beam. it is a green 100mw 532nm and it puts out a nice bright beam. i actually didn't have it hooked up dmx but need to test that is still working after unconnecting the motors. right now it is in sound mode so I just clapped to get the beam on for a bit. so my idea now is to rearrange it so the laser points out the window where the mirrors were and use the grating there to split the beam horizontally then place that up high and i'll be able to turn it on or off via dmx for my beam effect. i'm wondering how powerful each split beam is. do you have any idea? i don't see anything about how much the grating lessens the power of the beam. i guess I'll just have to try it and see what happens, I also bought some safety glasses.

the sl-7 cost me $250 but if the effect comes out how I want then i'll be happy with it. the galaxian 3d cost 300 itself. plus it will be nice be able to control it with dmx like all the other lights I have hooked up in my house.

thanks again for the suggestions!