Galaxian / Twinkle lasers

[Kosh]

I have been wanting a "twinkle laser" for a while but could not justify the cost for just one effect. After thinking about it, I wondered why i could not just make a ilda file to replicate a twinkle laser..

So far I have just made a ilda with alot of little random dots. I then rotate it slowly .
Has a good effect.

I can upload mine if anyone wants.. its just random. not in a geometric pattern.

curious if anyone else has made a twinkle laser type ilda files and if they care to share them.

[Kosh]

nothing special

[Hayd]

Not something that you can really do with an ilda file, twinkling lasers use a rotating diffraction grating. Scanners can't move quick enough to replicate that.
I have a twinkling laser, cost £60 for 60mw green, 120 mw red; great little effect then use my main head for animations etc.

Well worth £60 imo

[santanas]

Here is a site on EBAY that has the real price of $39.95 ea for the good Star laser unit. I just got 2 of these and they work great for the money.

• Laser: 100mw@650nm+50mw@532nm(Red+Green).

• Play Mode: Sound Active, AUTO,Speed adjustment,Strobe flash control.

• Interface: 5V 1.5A AC adapter (USA plug,other country need a plug converter)
• http://cgi.ebay.com/Laser-Dj-lightin...item2c5603e37f
• If this help anyone.
• Enjoy/ John

[buffo]

Wow - what a deal!

I've always wanted one of those "bliss-light" type effects. But the cheapest one's I've seen on E-bay were always around $120 or so. For $40 bucks, this is a deal!

Just ordered one.

Adam

[santanas]

Hi Again. You will be shocked at the size of the pattern they through out. I have 2 mounted on my light bar for the stage, it lights up every where and bright. Quiet motor in them also. Even strobes to music. These are normaly more expensive than $39.99 Enjoy, John

[buffo]

Cool! Thanks for posting the link. Glad to hear you've had good luck with yours. I might get another one if the price holds out at this level, but I had to get at least one!

Adam

[KGB]

Can someone post a pic of the guts of this. I was thinking about getting this http://www.photonlexicon.com/forums/...ad.php?t=11190 but I don't think he is actually interested in selling them, so I figure I can just rip one of these apart.

-Brooks

EDIT: Do you think those gratings in the cheap unit can handle 4W?

[buffo]

I talked with Dan Goldsmith at X-laser about some rotating grating modules he had a while back, trying to convince him to offer them for sale here on PL. Maybe I can get him to bring one or two to SELEM so we can play with them. From the description, they sound very similar to what Andy97 was talking about, thought the prices for the unit's Dan had were a bit higher.

I don't know if the gratings in the units on E-bay can handle that kind of power. My guess is, probably not. I'm assuming it's nothing more than a thin sheet of plastic holographic film, rather than a true engraved glass grating. As such, it's probably not much different that those paper "laser glasses" that they sell at planetarium laser shows for $1.00 a pair. (These are the things you can buy in bulk on E-bay for 20 cents each.) Sure, they'll handle a few hundred mw... Maybe even 500 mw. But 5 watts? Doubt it.

Then again, the unit on e-bay only costs 40 bucks. Why not pick one up and play with it? Worst case, if you smoke one of the gratings, all you need to do is replace it with more of that film and you're good to go. (And if you did want to modify it to work with a multi-watt laser, you could at least re-use the motors and mounts, and just spend a little extra to get glass HOE's to put in there.)

Adam

[X-Laser]

Just FYI those little units are in almost all cases (at least every one I have ever tested) IIIB so you have perhaps some legal hoops to worry about. Also, they have the tendency to have really bad IR leakage and I had one flame out on me... literally.

They are super poorly made so just use caution.

[buffo]

Thanks for the tips, Dan! This will be for private use only, so I'm not looking to get a variance for it. However, the leaking IR is a concern. Fortunately, I have a large IR filter that I can use to check it with. Though in all honesty, I'll probably end up replacing some of the lasers inside it anyway. My idea is to make it into a multi-purpose lumia and starburst projector, and make it full RGB. (We'll see how long that takes!)

Any chance of you bringing some of those rotating grating modules you showed me at your shop to SELEM this year? Even if it's just the bare rotation mechanism, I think you might find some people are interested in them...

Adam

[X-Laser]

I'll see what I can do. =)

[Kosh]

santans thanks for the link ! I could not find one for anywhere close to that price

[Bradfo69]

Twinkle lasers... I own two Chauvet Scorpion Storm RG's and they are great units that can be had for as little as $180 on eBay but recently one of the mobile DJ's who is in my place frequently brought one of those little tiny units mentioned earlier in the thread. Cost: $10 plus shipping. His was very nicely made. It prompted me to look into grabbing one as well and low and behold there are tons of them available with an average combined price (with shipping about $35.) I received mine a couple days ago and the first thing that I noticed was that the "feel" of the unit and build quality seemed much cheaper than the first one I was shown. It exemplies what I picture in my mind when I read about "cheap chinese laser". Nonetheless I tried it first at home in the living room and then at work in an empty 7000 sf ballroom with 14' ceilings. AMAZING coverage of the room. Thousands upon thousands of points of dancing red and green. Sound active, auto, strobe etc. I can easily see why people would buy these at $10 all day long, since it outputs about the same as the Chauvets if not bigger and brighter.

HOWEVER.... as a result of having been on this board for a bit, I've learned that's just a little scarey. I can honestly say that there is no way I'd consider using it for an event. It's still supposed to be a 150mw unit inside a case that's not much bigger than a couple packs of cigarettes and I can fully believe that there is IR leakage as previously discussed or a whole host of other issues that could crop up. (I don't have any testing equipment) BUT for tearing down to understand how they work, or basement experimentation, or aiming on the ceiling of a tent at your backyard private party or something, $10 isn't a bad price to pay for a rather cool little unit.

[hakzaw1]

Just spend a while looking at completed sales of these on eekbay and a few are getting them as low as 26$ total. Knowing that I would not pay moar than 30$ for one ATM and they may in time get even cheaper.

May put on on each end of the projector I am building just for the added sound active efxs. cave man ez

looking at completed ebay sales I find that a few are going as low as 24$ shipped free from china-cant get the lasers and drivers for that. auction sniper time!!!

[Kosh]

I purchased 2 of the cheap one's of Ebay. It was around $75 for the pair in a black casing.

Just about as good as the galaxian..

[hakzaw1]

Using Auction-Sniper I just won a China Bliss 150mW RG twinkle laser for 27$ and free shipping. They wanted 34.98 for a buy-it-now.