Laser spirograph, reflection angle

[ultimatum]

Hi, im about to build a 4-motor spirograph, and I always wondered something.

If I point the beam on a 45 degree angled mirror, and the beam gets reflected by 90 degrees, will the circle produced by the mirror not be distorted on the wall??

Regards Pascal

 

[ultimatum]

Hi, im about to build a 4-motor spirograph, and I always wondered something.

If I point the beam on a 45 degree angled mirror, and the beam gets reflected by 90 degrees, will the circle produced by the mirror not be distorted on the wall??

Regards Pascal

I mean, would the circle be ROUND or would it be OVALE?

 

[magonegro]

Think like this... Just imagine your eye is a beam, take in your hand a tennis ball or an orange (preferably a spheric one) put it in front of a mirror and change your eye position between any angles you want keeping static the orange... The point is... Does the orange looks ovaled at any point? You will see always a spheric orange as long as the mirror used is perfectly plain. This can be generalized to any amount of mirrors. In a multiple mirror spirograph there are a lot of other facts to keep in mind for the pattern to be formed, you know, mirror speeds, clockwise or counterclockwise...

 

[ultimatum]

Think like this... Just imagine your eye is a beam, take in your hand a tennis ball or an orange (preferably a spheric one) put it in front of a mirror and change your eye position between any angles you want keeping static the orange... The point is... Does the orange looks ovaled at any point? You will see always a spheric orange as long as the mirror used is perfectly plain. This can be generalized to any amount of mirrors. In a multiple mirror spirograph there are a lot of other facts to keep in mind for the pattern to be formed, you know, mirror speeds, clockwise or counterclockwise...

HEY thank you very much, your right I was just confused because i tested it with a old mirror from my 2-motor spirograph, and the circle was ovaled on the wall (perhaps because perhaps the mirror was not exactly in the middle of the motor, so the mirror slightly changed its angle while turning cause of gravity)

Regaards:thanks:

 

[chipdouglas]

i don't know if this helps. but dont worry so much about the angle. the main thing is is trying to get the beam to the center of each mirror.

 

[magonegro]

Also don't forget to try blacking some of the mirrors... Paint one or two of them with black thick bands... you will get cheap TTL

 

[chipdouglas]

why would you want uncontrolable ttl on a spirograph?

michael

 

[magonegro]

Not really TTL , just a graduable intermitence. Easy effect.