R/C semi-autonomous burning laser project (pics)

[kcducttaper]

I'm essentially working on a project that I will be able to remotely drive around via a wireless camera and R/C system both hooked up to my laptop. I'll drive it around with the keyboard and when I see something on the screen that I want to zap (such as a balloon), I'll click on it and the software (that I'll write fairly soon) will turn the laser to that location in the real world and zap it for a second or so.

Props to DTR for hooking me up with the laser components. Anyways, enough blabbler. Here are some pics.


Galvanized steel for the mounting plate.

12x Blu-Ray burner diode with driver mounted on a servo. I didn't throw a heat sink on there because it will only be on for 1 second at a time with significant time between "shootings" to allow it to cool down again.

Sketchy turret aiming system

Brief mock-up

Frontal view with the camera peeking out

All rigged up

Yep, something like that

I've got code written to display the camera on the computer screen. All that's left is to write code to control the truck and calibrate it all. Sounds easy, right? lol

 

[bdgreenb]

pretty sweet, but you REALLY need to heat sink that module. Even a few second burn will degrade the diode without the heat being transferred away from it.

 

[kcducttaper]

Seriously? When I tested it out by hand, it would take a couple seconds for the copper to even get warmer than room temp (I.E. not hot enough for a heatsink to actually do any heat dissipating). Once I felt the copper get any sort of warm, I shut it down right away and let it cool so it wouldn't do any damage. I figured a 1 second shot followed by 10 seconds of cool down time for about 3-4 cycles would be no problem.

 

[crazyspaz]

It will be fine without a heatsink.

 

[ru124t]

And thus the Cyclops was born!

 

[kcducttaper]

And thus the Cyclops was born!

I always wanted an eye patch.

That's an interesting thought... If one eye goes blind, does it still move in correlation to the other eye, or will they move differently?

 

[Flaminpyro]

They would move the same unless you cross your eyes :crackup:

Yes I would defiantly heat sink that module and if you do then you could mount the heat sink on a gimble mount of some kind and control where the laser is pointing

If one eye goes blind, does it still move in correlation to the other eye, or will they move differently?

 

[ryansoh3]

Very cool build, thanks for sharing. +1

What current is the diode driven at? Depending on the current, you may or may not need additional heatsinking. If it's >300mA, it's recommended to have one!

 

[bloompyle]

Very cool! I like these neat ideas.

A few weeks back, I carpooled with a buddy to knock out a couple of med appointments since we were scheduled at the same time, and I still didn't have a car. Well, I finished an hour before him, and had nothing on me but my phone and a pen. No paper.

Anywhere on base, the only thing you'll EVER find on TV, is the news. So I was watching it, not paying very much attention, but I believe there was a story about something happening overseas. I also just read a hexcopter thread on here.

Anyway. I began to think about attaching a laser to a hexcopter. I then needed a "why?" So I thought of a way for you to mount a laser to the copter, then use a series of gyros, and a feedback system, to keep the laser aligned. Or turn the aircraft. Basically, to use this hexcopter as a laser dazzler.

The purpose was for task force downrange to be able to use this mini copter as a way to lase/dazzle a target for an aerial strike. So if they were pinned down, they didn't need to risk their life to stand up and lase a target. Simply deploy the drone, and control it, using the onboard IR feedback camera. Then you could lase the target from a safe location.

Once I left my appointment, I left the idea behind. It was cool, but there was no way I could fund it, plus I'm sure there's something better already out there.

It was a fun thought though

That's why I love these innovative ideas. Sure, a handheld is cool, but what are you going to do with it? Attaching it to an RC platform then allows you to extend your reach even further with said laser.

I like it +1

 

[kcducttaper]

Yes I would defiantly heat sink that module and if you do then you could mount the heat sink on a gimble mount of some kind and control where the laser is pointing

There seem to be a good number of people advising to stick a heat sink on it, so I'll probably take everyone's advise and throw one on there.

That's what the servo turret thing does. I can use a 6 channel transmitter to control the truck's forward movement, steering, laser turret up, laser turret down, and laser switch. The 6th channel would be to shift the transmission, but I won't be going super fast with it, so I just left the transmission servo unplugged.

 

[vortish]

Very cool! I like these neat ideas.

A few weeks back, I carpooled with a buddy to knock out a couple of med appointments since we were scheduled at the same time, and I still didn't have a car. Well, I finished an hour before him, and had nothing on me but my phone and a pen. No paper.

Anywhere on base, the only thing you'll EVER find on TV, is the news. So I was watching it, not paying very much attention, but I believe there was a story about something happening overseas. I also just read a hexcopter thread on here.

Anyway. I began to think about attaching a laser to a hexcopter. I then needed a "why?" So I thought of a way for you to mount a laser to the copter, then use a series of gyros, and a feedback system, to keep the laser aligned. Or turn the aircraft. Basically, to use this hexcopter as a laser dazzler.

The purpose was for task force downrange to be able to use this mini copter as a way to lase/dazzle a target for an aerial strike. So if they were pinned down, they didn't need to risk their life to stand up and lase a target. Simply deploy the drone, and control it, using the onboard IR feedback camera. Then you could lase the target from a safe location.

Once I left my appointment, I left the idea behind. It was cool, but there was no way I could fund it, plus I'm sure there's something better already out there.

It was a fun thought though

That's why I love these innovative ideas. Sure, a handheld is cool, but what are you going to do with it? Attaching it to an RC platform then allows you to extend your reach even further with said laser.

I like it +1

there is a company i forget were that did some thing similar to what you described... The took a standard drone some thing it he way of ten lbs and stuck a standard military designator on the thing and launched it from a bigger drone such like a global hawk or reaper or some thing like that well it turns out they did not have the proper signal set up for the second drone because it was piggy backing the same signal as the mother ship sh&t got all fowled up and they threw away 10 k in smaller drone parts