Recently I built a 10 meter tall laser illuminated obelisk for a AfrikaBurn, the South African regional Burning Man event. I got a lot of help and supplies from people on this and other forums, so I thought I should post my build experience.
Here's the final product:
I bought 10 A140 diodes from Cliff at Cajun Lasers. I mounted the diodes in Aixiz (thanks, Chuck) modules using a brass tube to press fit them in a small vice. I housed two small capacitors in the module to smooth current. I used a LM350 constant current drivers and a 1 ohm resistor to power the lasers. The heatsinks were scrounged from old PCs and hacksawed to size. Here's a photo of one of the drivers:
I used Sketchup to design the projectors in 3d and then exported the 2d designs using a DXF exporting plugin. I had these designs CNC'ed out of 5mm acrylic. I used a 15rpm 12v gearmotor to rotate the lumia wheel. A mate of mine designed and built pulse width modulator circuits to drive the motors. Here's what the finished projectors look like:
The outer obelisks were lit using diodes scrounged from old DVD burners. They were powered using an LM317 with a 4.7 ohm resistor. I connected two diodes in series per one driver since I was using 12V. I ran out of Aixiz modules so I drilled a 6mm hole into a heat sink and press fit the diode:
Finally I used acrylic line generators held by crocodile clips on thin aluminium strips to generate the line. Here are some videos of the effect:
Find Yourself - first laser lumia wheel test - YouTube
Find Yourself; The lumia show. - YouTube
Find Yourself Up Close - YouTube
There are a lot more photos and links if you're curious here: "Find Yourself" at AfrikaBurn 2012 | Facebook
Thanks to everyone who helped
Next year I hope to do some fun stuff with RGB lasers and vibrating water droplets.
Here's the final product:

I bought 10 A140 diodes from Cliff at Cajun Lasers. I mounted the diodes in Aixiz (thanks, Chuck) modules using a brass tube to press fit them in a small vice. I housed two small capacitors in the module to smooth current. I used a LM350 constant current drivers and a 1 ohm resistor to power the lasers. The heatsinks were scrounged from old PCs and hacksawed to size. Here's a photo of one of the drivers:

I used Sketchup to design the projectors in 3d and then exported the 2d designs using a DXF exporting plugin. I had these designs CNC'ed out of 5mm acrylic. I used a 15rpm 12v gearmotor to rotate the lumia wheel. A mate of mine designed and built pulse width modulator circuits to drive the motors. Here's what the finished projectors look like:

The outer obelisks were lit using diodes scrounged from old DVD burners. They were powered using an LM317 with a 4.7 ohm resistor. I connected two diodes in series per one driver since I was using 12V. I ran out of Aixiz modules so I drilled a 6mm hole into a heat sink and press fit the diode:

Finally I used acrylic line generators held by crocodile clips on thin aluminium strips to generate the line. Here are some videos of the effect:
Find Yourself - first laser lumia wheel test - YouTube
Find Yourself; The lumia show. - YouTube
Find Yourself Up Close - YouTube
There are a lot more photos and links if you're curious here: "Find Yourself" at AfrikaBurn 2012 | Facebook
Thanks to everyone who helped

Next year I hope to do some fun stuff with RGB lasers and vibrating water droplets.
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