nice setup for mounting optics, motors, etc

[pseudolobster]

I think I have a new favorite way to set up optics... using a domed, circular dish...

It lets you put lasers at any angle across the dish, and mirrors at any angle and z-axis angle you want. I could make a spirograph by mounting one motor on top of the dish, and one across the dish at the appropriate angle.. since it's a circle it's always pointing towards the center, it's great. The dish itself also provides great heatsinking, which is going to be needed for near continuous duty.

I think I'm going to drill out a mousehole for the wires to go in, have everything tucked away underneath, and mount a chrome toggle switch on it. It also looks quite sexy when you have the back of the aixis module on.. everything's all chrome and shiny.

Here's the time tunnel I made yesterday, I placed it underneath an incense burner, turned the lights out and enjoyed the show...

 

[Switch]

Nice I see you have the rkstr(?) driver.What are you using as a mirror?

 

[pseudolobster]

the mirror seems to be a dichro actually.. it's just something I ripped out of one of these drive sleds I have laying around... it's ~90% reflective for red, though I just noticed it's transparent to 405... I think I'm gonna hafta try combining the two to see if I can get a nice pink color.

anyways, I just thought it was a neat idea to use something circular with a curved edge to mount things on... since it's a circle you can easily measure "horizontal" angles for things, and since it has a rounded edge, you can mount things at different "vertical" angles as well.