My Do It Yourself Laser power meter - picture heavy PART1

[Eudaimonium]

Hi folks, well you already noticed the "PART1" in the title. That is because it's not finished yet.
Just wanted to share my progress so far.

Well, to save you all the story, I'm just going to go though quick technical data -
Atmel MCU, external 8bit Ad converter, 510 mW max (2mW resolution), green 3x 7segment LED display.

Dual layer PCB made by photo procedure.

Blah blah.

Well, this is the prototypes and final etching of the PCB, photos taken occasionally.

No lasers were harmed during the production of the PCB. Seriously.


Components

Protoyping of PCB layout. Double sided PCB, kind of a trouble.

PCB etched, some components on it

Well, when will part2 and testing be done?
Well, in next 24 hours this will be operational.

How you may ask?
This is a project I'm doign for final schools work, so I have professors to help if needed. Hence the photoprocedure etching.

Anyhow, tomorrow I will write the code and flash the thing, power it up and see how it works.

The day after tomorrow, I will rest a bit, and in Thursday I will get home, and enclose the thing, provide power supply, and finally make a sensor , to finalise the project.

Tomorrow, preliminary testing and code writing progress will be added to THIS THREAD, and final product will be in a new thread. Everybody OK with that?

Oh and, thanks for your interest if you got this far, see you tomorrow with programmed mainboard.

 

[oikos]

whaat's ur major?

 

[Eudaimonium]

whaat's ur major?

Umm... sorry?

 

[x90z75ek]

Nice professional looking PCB! That's going to be a pretty good LPM! To bad it's going to be only 510mW max.

 

[Gryphon]

Umm... sorry?

Hes asking what your majoring in. You say this is for your final and that your
professor could assist you, sounds like your in college. Unless this is a high
school project.

 

[Eudaimonium]

Hes asking what your majoring in. You say this is for your final and that your
professor could assist you, sounds like your in college. Unless this is a high
school project.

Oh...

4th grade, high school, final work, you know at the end of final year, you have to do something practical.

Well, this is my project. Unlike the rest of my class (transistor amplifier [5 components], installation of windows [yes that also exists as final schools work] and God knows what else).

 

[ReNNo]

Good quality PCB, looks almost like professionally made PCB.

I'd like to see that thing in action.

btw...
It's good if you can do anything practical in school.
In some parts of world you can't do anything practical in high school. Like where I'm, in Bosnia.
I've never seen wire, resistor, motor or similar thing in my high school.
And yes, it's energetic high school.
Shame on them.

 

[Eudaimonium]

Good quality PCB, looks almost like professionally made PCB.

I'd like to see that thing in action.

btw...
It's good if you can do anything practical in school.
In some parts of world you can't do anything practical in high school. Like where I'm, in Bosnia.
I've never seen wire, resistor, motor or similar thing in my high school.
And yes, it's energetic high school.
Shame on them.

Actually, I don't think that "energetic high school" makes any sense.

Expression to be used is : Technician school, or something like that. Race you to google translation

 

[charliebruce]

In natural English it's quite hard to explain succinctly - we'd probably say that our schools take a hands-on or active approach to teaching, or that they let us investigate and do practical work for ourselves. The literal translation doesn't seem to make much sense ("energetic high school" makes it sound like the people are energetic, not the lessons, and a technician is someone who is employed to do technical work).

Where I am, I'm very lucky indeed - the equipment we have is pretty impressive, and most of the staff are enthusiastic and let the Design Tech enthusiasts get on with their own thing. I doubt that in many other schools I would have been able to achieve half of what I did for my GCSE-level work. Proper pics of my final piece will follow once the mark has been confirmed and moderated. I'm hoping to be more ambitious yet for A-Level - watch this space

@Renno, was it you that bought the AMC7135 boards? Did they arrive OK?

 

[ReNNo]

Actually, I don't think that "energetic high school" makes any sense.

Expression to be used is : Technician school, or something like that. Race you to google translation

Sorry, but my English is not that good as yours

It's tehnical school where we are learning about electricity.
I shouldn't translate it literally.

EDIT:

@charliebruce
Yeah, AMC7135 boards arrived, tested it and works great, thanks. It's really hard to find 1.4A AMC7135 PCBs in small quantities these days.

It's good when teachers are full of knowledge and enthusiastic. Then students can become curious about what they are learning.
But in my case, our teachers only tell us what to write about something and they almost never explain us how something works.
That is why 95% of students do nothing practically at home. Most of them don't know what is current, how electrical components work, they are just not interested in that. That is sadly to know that they learned nothing during 4 years of education. It's so great that internet exists so I can learn everything by myself.

 

[Eudaimonium]

In natural English it's quite hard to explain succinctly - we'd probably say that our schools take a hands-on or active approach to teaching, or that they let us investigate and do practical work for ourselves. The literal translation doesn't seem to make much sense ("energetic high school" makes it sound like the people are energetic, not the lessons, and a technician is someone who is employed to do technical work).

Where I am, I'm very lucky indeed - the equipment we have is pretty impressive, and most of the staff are enthusiastic and let the Design Tech enthusiasts get on with their own thing. I doubt that in many other schools I would have been able to achieve half of what I did for my GCSE-level work. Proper pics of my final piece will follow once the mark has been confirmed and moderated. I'm hoping to be more ambitious yet for A-Level - watch this space

@Renno, was it you that bought the AMC7135 boards? Did they arrive OK?

Well, ReNNo was amazed that there are actually some MCU programmer boards in my school.

I do not take it that advanced. I mean, making a PCB with photoprocedure is surely better than marking it with sharpie, and I'm fine with that, and glad I could do it. My first photoprocedure board in my life. Amazing stuff, very precise. I have decided to dedicate my spare cash into photoprocedure PCB etching equipement. UV lamps, some glass frames, stock of photoprocedure raw PCBs.

Anyhow, my school is quite modest by your standards, but one of best equipped in Croatia. Enough said.

 

[robjdixon]

In natural English it's quite hard to explain succinctly - we'd probably say that our schools take a hands-on or active approach to teaching, or that they let us investigate and do practical work for ourselves. The literal translation doesn't seem to make much sense ("energetic high school" makes it sound like the people are energetic, not the lessons, and a technician is someone who is employed to do technical work).

Where I am, I'm very lucky indeed - the equipment we have is pretty impressive, and most of the staff are enthusiastic and let the Design Tech enthusiasts get on with their own thing. I doubt that in many other schools I would have been able to achieve half of what I did for my GCSE-level work. Proper pics of my final piece will follow once the mark has been confirmed and moderated. I'm hoping to be more ambitious yet for A-Level - watch this space

@Renno, was it you that bought the AMC7135 boards? Did they arrive OK?

You at a private school Charlie?

Rob

 

[oikos]

Oh...

4th grade, high school, final work, you know at the end of final year, you have to do something practical.

Well, this is my project. Unlike the rest of my class (transistor amplifier [5 components], installation of windows [yes that also exists as final schools work] and God knows what else).

..... i was only learning about batteries and light bulbs in 4th grade :wtf:

 

[Eudaimonium]

..... i was only learning about batteries and light bulbs in 4th grade :wtf:

I ain't learning NOTHING in 4th grade. It's just that I like the hobby and that's why I make lasers and laser-related stuff like this project.

Hell, me and my friend x90z75ek are the only two guys in our class who can hold a soldering iron. Go figure.

 

[Gryphon]

..... i was only learning about batteries and light bulbs in 4th grade :wtf:

I believe what hes saying is hes in his fourth year of high school (senior)
I have some Italian friends that refer to high school years as 1-4 rather than
9-12, i think he maybe saying the same thing.

Awesome final project! :gj:

EDIT: Posts: 995 Rep:95 lol

 

[Eudaimonium]

I believe what hes saying is hes in his fourth year of high school (senior)
I have some Italian friends that refer to high school years as 1-4 rather than
9-12, i think he maybe saying the same thing.

Awesome final project! :gj:

EDIT: Posts: 995 Rep:95 lol

Yeah actually, 4th year of high school it is, but I though this goes without saying.

I mean, no 10 year old I know is capable of this...

EDIT Congratz on
5 posts till veterans section!