SCORE! (I have to brag somewhere...)

[AJ_Dual]

I was at Goodwill with the wife unit and kids the other week. (for those not in the U.S., it's a second-hand thrift store chain that takes donated clothing and household goods, and uses the proceeds to fund job training for poor, disabled, and mentally challenged people.)

They had a rack of seasonal Halloween items up, mostly fake pumpkins, signs, those foam Jack-O-Lanters for people too lazy to carve an actual pumpkin etc.

Among the things, I see a Laser Stars projector, missing it's DC power supply. I grab it, flip it over, and see the price. $4.99. LOL!

ThinkGeek :: Laser Stars Projector

I grab it right away. Mrs. Dual is rolling her eyes, the kids want to know what it is/does. She was a bit more impressed when I showed her some online listings of what the sell for.

I know that from our perspective as laser geeks, it's rather overpriced for what it does, and aside from the $169 price, they sell for as little as $70 if you shop hard. But still, not bad.

I got a replacement universal multi voltage DC power supply online for $5, and it works great.

 

[Paul0759]

WOOOOOOOOOO Nice find bro!

 

[Pontiacg5]

I pulled a green module from one of those a few years back, it "pot modded" nicely. Still going strong after all this time!

There's some good lumia wheels in there too with some geared motors if you want to try to make a lumia projector.

 

[Plyman44]

F'n SWEET!

 

[lazeerer]

What No running Shots.

Pictures or it dint happen.

J/k

Nice score.

 

[ShortyInCanada]

I agree !
No pictures or video means that you are making it up.
And an internal shot of the unit would prove beyond a doubt that you are a man of integrity and character ! (An' I would get to see if I might consider one for those slow motors...)
:na:

 

[lazeerer]

Checking Youtube out this thing is pretty cool.:wave:

 

[bolson]

These things are awesome. My next door neighbor got one a little bit ago and i can see when its on through their entry hall window, its mesmerizing. How would you re-create that blue LED "nebula" effect ?

 

[AJ_Dual]

I agree !
No pictures or video means that you are making it up.
And an internal shot of the unit would prove beyond a doubt that you are a man of integrity and character ! (An' I would get to see if I might consider one for those slow motors...)
:na:

LOL... I'll take a pic of the projector itself. It looks easy enough to disassemble, except for the base that clamps both sides of the star body together. I'm not sure yet how that comes off without breaking it.

Unfortunately, the wall photos of the projector in action just won't come out well. I have nothing that will do a good long exposure properly, or that won't wash out on the blue/violet nebula LED clouds, and hide the green laser stars.

My HTC Evo 4G actually got the most results, but the blue still bloomed badly. You can see a few of the stars at least, although there's hundreds.. maybe thousands more from the diffraction wheel in front of the green laser. It also looks weird, because I put it close to the wall to try and make it brighter for the camera, and the knockdown/splatter plaster texture of my walls is showing up in the image too.

These things are awesome. My next door neighbor got one a little bit ago and i can see when its on through their entry hall window, its mesmerizing. How would you re-create that blue LED "nebula" effect ?

The blue LED Nebula is just made with what looks to be a rumply acrylic lens behind the half spherical or "half ball" convex lens that's the actual final projector's objective for the blue part. Since I haven't disassembled it just yet, I'll have to see if it's a single high-flux blue LED or a small farm of the usual 5mm types. Although, I think a small farm of red, violet, and blue LED's in a semi-random pattern would look really wicked.

Something like this: http://store.gopherstagelighting.com/products/Effects-Glass-%2d-Image-Glass.html

Projected, softly out of focus through this: http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/454545435/crystal_half_ball_paperweight.html

Ought to do the trick.

 

[Pontiacg5]

The lenses to diffuse the LED are glass, they make very nice lumia effects. There are two, one static rectangle, about 1"x3" and one rotating wheel about 3" diameter. The rotating wheel is glued to a geared shaft. The LED's are standard 5mm blue LEDs, if I remember right (and it's been a while) there are 7 in a circular reflector about the size of a quarter.

I can't remember exactly how ti disassemble it, but it's pretty easy.

That's the green module, as it came from the thing.

Here's the wheel I'm talking about, minus the glued on shaft. The thing on the left is one of the two (I think there were two) diffraction gratings, this one was glued to the module itself. If you split this thing open you get 3-4 normal diffraction gratings, they are stacked to get a random effect I guess.

 

[ShortyInCanada]

Cool.
So now you have proven yourself to be a man of integrity and to show impeccable character. Bravo !
An' I got to see the insides too...Woohoo.
:wave:

 

[hakzaw1]

good score!! I find thrift shops to be a double edged sword- I have a hard time just driving past one. I always say I wont buy anything that I dont really need unless its an exceptional deal, but i dont always do that. The ffunny part is that I volunteer at one for the SPCA a few days a week and should know better. We still have to pay for what we want butwe do get first option. a curse and a blessing- I have gotten a dozen blacklights many lava lites-etc ,, some plasma toys- even a 2mW red laser made for Daisy BB guns!
all for pennies on the dollar- best finds are for ~1$ Polaroid One-Step cameras- fairly good keystone shaped thin FS mirrors and a sweet little 3vdc motor inside every one. They have a hard time selling a camera for which film is no longer easy to find.
I have gotten over 20 of them.

hak