laserbee II casing made TRON style

[danefex]

Hi folks, have a look at this....

The last time I was at the container store I found some nice acrylic boxes that I thought might make a decent case for my LPM. I picked some different sizes up & found one that works perfect for casing the laserbee. After fitting everything in & drilling all the holes where I needed them, I tested the opening I made in front of the thermopile using a 635nm (rhd's soviet sister) red laser - check this out.....

----- 635 -----

....some other colors

----- 445 -----

----- 532 -----

It's a work in progress right now because I plan on straightening out the EL wire & I mistakenly drilled a larger hole in the back of the case than I needed to. It's made so I can switch out different colors of EL wire also, but I need to get my hands on some. For now it's purple, but I'll add more pics once I change it up a bit. Thanks for reading! :beer:

 

[JLSE]

Looks good

Back in the day I built mine into a heatsink. Found one that was big and looked just like the sensor
heatsink for the LPM. That was one of the first LB-I's.

 

[ped]

Looks cool.


Is that EL wire? , if it is they work at high voltage, high voltage near an uninsulated precision instrument isn't a good idea.

 

[T_Warne]

But.... But....it looks so cool!

 

[Lase]

I wondered where that other Sister went

Great looking housing. I'm assuming that it changes colour to whatever laser you're metering?

Lase

 

[danefex]

Looks good

Back in the day I built mine into a heatsink. Found one that was big and looked just like the sensor
heatsink for the LPM. That was one of the first LB-I's.

Thanks! That heatsink of yours looks awesome like that, very cool :beer:

Looks cool.


Is that EL wire? , if it is they work at high voltage, high voltage near an uninsulated precision instrument isn't a good idea.

Yes it's EL wire, it runs off of 2 AAs & the battery pack is on the opposite side of the casing. I agree with your concern but I didn't think 3V posed any threat to the equipment. Nothing quirky or unusual has happened when I was building and testing this but, should I be concerned?

I wondered where that other Sister went

Great looking housing. I'm assuming that it changes colour to whatever laser you're metering?

Lase

Yeah I got her. It was a quick 'mail order bride' process I made during my move so I never followed up on the sales thread mentioning I'd grabbed one of those red ladies You are correct also, testing different wavelengths completely changes the color. I'll get some more pictures up later on today testing a few different lasers :beer:

 

[Things]

Yes it's EL wire, it runs off of 2 AAs & the battery pack is on the opposite side of the casing. I agree with your concern but I didn't think 3V posed any threat to the equipment. Nothing quirky or unusual has happened when I was building and testing this but, should I be concerned?

The issue isn't the batteries themselves, but the inverter inside the unit that steps the battery 3V up to around 100V at high frequency to run the EL wire. There is a chance this high frequency noise could interfere with the LPM electronics.

 

[danefex]

I had no idea, thanks for the heads up & warnings. I will keep this in mind when I tinker around more with the case :beer:

 

[lasersbee]

Nice enclosure/effects...:gj:
Just keep an eye on your LaserBee readings with and
without the EL lighting enabled and see if there are any
changes in readings...

Unless the 100V output of the Inverter directly touches
the LaserBee PCB you should probably be OK...


Jerry

 

[Hiemal]

Yeah, EL wire actually doesn't run at that high of a frequency. It's around 400 or so hz (due to the capacitive effects of the wire) so you should be fine.

 

[danefex]

I've only run the EL wire along the top of the case as you can see in the pictures, I had no design in mind to put it any closer to the laserbee. Gathering from what you guys have said I will make sure to keep it away from the LPM circuit, again I had no idea the wire could be a threat.

I'm glad to know about the possible damage this setup can cause, thanks again everyone for your input :beer:

 

[danefex]

So I did some more testing today to see if the EL wire had any effect on LPM results when it was on and when it was off, and it would seem that it does not. All my readings came out the pretty much the same as they did when I metered a couple of lasers that I am certain of their output power without the casing & EL wire. I believe it's safe to say in my scenario that the EL wire does not have an adverse effect on the metering I've just done, but this also goes with considering that I've placed this installation in such a way that it shouldn't

I added a few more pics in the OP of some 445 readings also because it just looks cool and I wanted to make sure these results were the case with more than just testing a 635nm laser :beer:

 

[mikeox]

Very nice job!! Looks great!

 

[Flaminpyro]

Yep this is very cool, I would put a few red led's at the bottom pointing into the plexy glass so it looks like it dose when you are shinning a red laser at it, the blue EL wire and red color is killer together.

 

[Traveller]

I likes the tron

Wow, very cool!

I wouldn't mind having something like that - I love everything about my Kenometer... besides the damn-ugly box... :crackup:

Congratulations - very creative :gj:

p.s. - Is the cover off / in the works / or undesirable?