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Laser Power For Lights-On Scanner

rlj

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May 4, 2016
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I'm on the market for a laser projector, that I plan on using with the Ether Dream DAC. The catch is that I want to use it primarily for indoor projections, with the lights on. I'm wanting to make some interactive projections onto objects, and it's really important that everything is visible in daylight (or rather, typical office lighting brightness), but I don't want to go overboard with laser strength (for expense, danger, etc). The laser will be on the other side of a barrier so that it isn't possible to look directly into the beam, and this will be primarily for my own use and I'll have laser safety goggles just in case. The laser will be between 10 and 20 feet from the surface it's projecting on.

My question is: what power laser should I be considering? How much does the scan speed influence the visible brightness? I'm assuming that if an unmoving laser is visible in daylight, that moving it at very fast speeds while scanning will decrease it's apparent brightness a lot. So I can't just determine that if a certain power laser pointer is visible in daylight (from online reviews), that a projector of the same power will be. In general, Have many of you used your scanners with the lights on? Do you have any hints to the threshold that the image becomes less visible?

Would a combined (RGB) wattage of ~400mw be bright enough? Or should I be looking at 1W+ projectors? Sorry that I don't have more knowledge on the subject, I've tried reading through various forums and projector sites, but few mention or demonstrate use with the lights on. I hope someone on this forum can give me some suggestions based on first hand experience, or at least point me in the right direction.

I'd also like to be able to use the projector for some laser shows in the dark, on a building or indoors...but this would just be a secondary benefit so it's a bit less important for the decision making process.
 





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Sep 12, 2007
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Scan speed determines your framerate, basically. It would not affect the brightness in theory. 400mW would be about the minimum for lights-off. Standard office lighting would need well over a watt. Probably 5-10W. Full daylight you can forget about.
 
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Sep 25, 2007
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Here are two pictures taken outside, the first at 6:20PM and the second at 6:31PM.
As you can see, 11 minutes makes a large difference in output brightness.

The projector used is a 2.8W Lightspace Pluto II
 

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