My new homebuilt 1.5W projector

[Kiwi Tinker]

Heya All

just thought i'd put up a few shots of my home built projector
it's a total of 1.5W, of red(1W), green(0.25W) and blue(0.25W).

it took 3 days to assemble, i got it to the first gig it was due to
be used at and it would'nt go...lol

I took it home and switched it on and it worked prefectly, i've
discovered it ca'nt share it power with anything or it 'beams'.


In the first pic here you can see i've replaced the diodes with an
empty can of bourbon and cola......lol




this is it with all it's 'guts' in



and here it's ready to go...




cheers

Tinker

[White-Light]

Nice case.

What are the wavelengths you've used?

[Kiwi Tinker]

heya white light

Thanks for the comment about the case, it's my design i made all in my garage
except the brake press work which was done by a local firm.


The wavelenghts are i think, i might be wrong about the blue i have to check, there all CNI diodes.

250mW/532nm (green)
250mW/473nm? (blue)
1000mW/650nm (red)

the green and the blue are analogue and the reds TTL, i'm hopeing to
upgrade the red to 1.5W with a.m in the future.

cheers

Tinker

[Xytrell]

Have you looked into the 642 for an upgrade? Or is that too orange for you?

[Kiwi Tinker]

Heya Xytrell

yeah, i did consider a brighter red but i really like dark colors, i know that sounds weird but there's something mysterious about them. Where the brights appear too gay (i mean happy and cheery not homosexual) for me. Even with all the colours it puts out my favour color is the deep purple it makes.

I was just thinking, i think the gay teletubbie was purple..... lmao

Cheers

Tinker

p.s i'll put some videos up soon.

[allthatwhichis]

Very nice projector you have built there.

I must defend the 642nm red; you will be impressed once you see it. I too am a fan of the extreme wavelengths, and much prefered 660nm red but once I got my 1W Kvant and saw the 642nm red I was sold. You can't really see a difference and the beam is almost just like the 660. I have compared the two side by side and it is hard to see the color difference in the beam or scanned.

[Kiwi Tinker]

thanks mite,

It's only the second one i've assembled, the process has been a step learning curve.

The process started after i got fired from my job as a trolley boy at the local
mall(bayfair in Papamoa), About 2 and half years ago. A friend of mine lent me a laser the you put 4 AAA batterys into, for a party i was holding, so I brought a smoke machine and some purple lights(the energy saver type). Next party i had borrowed anything and everything i could find, i had like 6 little laser scattered around the room, every 30 minutes i'd run around it and replace all the batterys. Even so it looked cool.

Then i e-mailed a company in China and they replyed back with a price list,
so i started to import lasers, i probably sold 10, i still have about 8 left.

I didn't know anything about lasers but these made so much noise i started
dissembling them and assembling them so the handles did fall off and they did'nt
make the same noise a hand cranked pencil sharpener makes when in operation.
Once i made the changes i would use the laser for at least 20 hours then check for faults and repair if required.

Of the lasers i sold i never had one come back or a complant. I had problems with one customer where the he open up the power unit voiding the warrenty and in his own words "cranked it up" , it lasted about 2 hours before burning out. But nothing due to assembly, the components looked top notch nothing like the recycled crap i've seen in other lasers, it was just assembled by people that did'nt understand what they where doing

I told the Chinese of the improvments i made and why. Every time i got another shipment i noticed that my changes where now how they assembled then. I never expect a pile of cash or some free stuff for the information i passed on to them about my observations, but they refues to acknowledge my efforts, and this pissed me off. A small thanks goes along way with me. ("Good manners don't cost nothing" a bit of pink floyd there). Then they started to sell to others in my country, so my compertion was benifiting from my knowledge that the manufatures refused to acknowledge.

The 2nd to last shipment i got had loose fittings inside the case in 5 of the 6 lasers and i had to open them and shake them out before useing the laser. I kid you not. Once in front of a customer i was doing a show for.

In the last shipment of 3 lasers, 2 of them had defective boards and wouldn't blank.

I explained to the factory that they needed new i.c board and would fit myself, they where aware of the problem but refused to send anything till i brought more product......final straw.

So i guess i got ripped off, but if that was the price of the laser education i have now
and i would gladly pay it again. It's funny, cause if their products where put together
properly, i would'nt know anything other then how to turn them off and on......

cheers

Tinker

[Picasso]

Nice looking projector. Lets get some top down shots.....and who sleeps on the pool table? The kids?

[Xytrell]

From what I've heard, the difference in color is only discernible when it comes to graphics. Beams look identical.

[Kiwi Tinker]

Heya Picsso

Thanks. It's been a week since but it together. I already want to take it to bits and change a few things, the wiring on the top looks decidedly dodgy. I've run it for max of three hours continuously and it get's warm a little to warm for me.
The feels around 35 degrees C on the out side of the case. It needs better fans. I'm fairly sure two fans will be enough. I'm also fairly confident that there's still enough air in the casing to move the heat from the hot bits.

There's a cable hanging out the back because i had a plug failure. I've never heard of a 'power cable in' plug failing in my life.
I was tuning the alinement of the beams, i turned the laser off so i could adjust it and when i tryed to turn it on nothing happened. For a terrible moment i thought i had blown every single component up. My imagination is a terrible thing some times.

I thought it must be the power on switch, after is came from a device that consumes fraction of the power the projector uses. I by-passed it and still nothing went.
I changed leads then power points, still nothing.

In a last atemp to determine the problem i did a resistance test between the front and the back of the plug the power in cable plugs into and there was infinite resistance on one of the phases. So as a short term solution i used the power cable i cut off the blue diodes power supply unit.

I need to shorten some of the cables,but this will involve opening cases and voiding warranty. lol

Manufatures always seem to use the longest plug available which causes me no end of stress.

My unit is about 35% of the size of other units i've seen. Things are real tight in there. even putting the lid on requires care to not damage anything.

I still think i'll fit the 1.5 watt red in there when i get it.

As for the sleeping blanket, for some reason i did'nt want to dent the pool table so i put the blanket on it and newspaper on the top. There by creating enough hiding places to lose most the components in during the build.

Regrettably there are no kids, i've failed to find anyone dumb enough to breed with me. Any available women out there who are looking for love, PM me and we'll discuss if laser beams really have no nutritional value.

cheers

tinker

[Kiwi Tinker]

Heya all

I've had my first problem, my dongle is playing up, you need to push the ILDA cable sideways to get the laser to work. If you don't the Y-galvo makes unhappy noises. So i either send it back to Laserworld and pay 210 euros to get the dongle there and back. Or i rip the warrenty void sticker off and put it in the pile with the other 'warrenty void if removed' stickers ive got and commit some radical surgery.

Here's two shots of top views and a video i did before it started playing up, the camera i used didn't pick up the red so you ca'nt see the red, purple, yellow and white...no justice....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY09OBL_vTY

[Soulstorm]

Crap, I thought our projector was tight (especially now with the beastacular 25mm dichros!), but yours is at a whole new level. Makes setting and positioning easy though... just working on em is a bitch!

Nice stuff though mate.. keep it kiwi L

[allthatwhichis]

That actually gives my Kvant a run for its money as one of the smallest RGB projectors. And it is rated for higher power.

So fire that beast up for a photo session.

.................................................. ................Beam
.................................................. ..................^

[White-Light]

Nice show. One you programmed or one supplied?

Can't you just contact Laserworld with a video of the problem and ask them to send you the part? They have supplied parts to people on here before.

[Kiwi Tinker]

Heya White light.

I used the live show editor function on laserworld 2009 showeditor.

I'm totally bummed that the reds didn't come out on the video.

Yeah, i'll e-mail them and see what they say. This is the part where there's a problem living on the other side of the planet. I naturally except zero back from Europe. If i buy anything over net from Europe i just expect that i'll have to fix it if it does'nt work. I don't know what i'm going to do if my sub-atomic particle accelarator stops working.

I have in the past contacted laserworld about a problem i had with their software and was truely impressed with the speed of responce i think it was less then 36 hours and their solution sovled my problem. So yeah, i'll e-mail before going in.

Heya Allthatwhichis

Could you please describe what you want to see pictures of?

Cheers

Tinker

[allthatwhichis]

The beams inside; pictures of the inside of the projector while it is turned on.

[Kiwi Tinker]

Heya All

I've had a good think about what to do about the dongle. The fact of the matter is i have absolutly zero faith in Laserworld do to anything other then claim the product was mis-used by me and that they are refusing to repair. Which means i'd have to pay 170 euros to get it sent back plus the 40 euros to get it there, And still be in the same position i am now. At least if i push the plug sideways i can use it till i can afford to buy the HE-laserscan software, which is what i would of brought from the start if i'd known better.

No-one uses laserworlds software, there's no forum, and no user group. Plus there's no free updated shows. You have to pay any new shows. Buying their software is like removing the wheels from your car and replacing them with rubberised squares.

The HE-laserscan web site is in german but there's heaps of free shows and i'm sure over time more people that speak english will join.

If the dongle totally fails i'll cut the plug off it and soldier straight to the board rambo styles.

Cheers

Tinker

[Kiwi Tinker]

Heya All

I had another look at it and i just ca'nt see anything wrong with it, but it's getting worse. The way it's constructed i doubt very much i could remove the old plug and re fit a plug or cables to a remote plug without damaging the board. So back to the plan to send it back to Europe. Drats and double drats....

[Steve Milani]

Hi Tinker

Don't get angry too much....

Me too am a Showeditor2009 user and I well know what its limits and defects are...
Most important thing is: to learn to live toghether it

Be happy!
Here is a little gift for you

Greetings from antpodes...
Steve

[Kiwi Tinker]

Heya Steve

Thanks for the show, i'll be sure to check it out when my dongle comes back.
Maybe then i'll be able to return you one.

Cheers

Tinker

[gashead]

thanks mite,
i got fired from my job as a trolley boy at the local
mall(bayfair in Papamoa)

Chur Churr!!!

A career change for the better mate!


N.

[Kiwi Tinker]

Hey Gashead

I don't know, some times when it's really really quite i can still hear the call of the trolley....lol

It's funny, i spent 3 and bit days putting my laser together in a mad rush, now i've done as much as i can. It all seems an anti-climax. Being unemployed can get abit boring. Especially in the winter time.

Cheers

Tinker

[gashead]

Hey Gashead

I don't know, some times when it's really really quite i can still hear the call of the trolley....lol

It's funny, i spent 3 and bit days putting my laser together in a mad rush, now i've done as much as i can. It all seems an anti-climax. Being unemployed can get abit boring. Especially in the winter time.

Go down to income support, and tell them you want to start a laser show company, and to give you lots of cash to do so, oh and that you'll need a van some helpers (pref Blond female Uni Student's) and lots of drugs and alcohol. (hmm they call those luxuries don't they ? )

I know the feeling mate, I been in your situation before - it can be mighty depressing..

Suppose you could always move further up north, winter is milder up there.. one of my fave parts of NZ.

N.

[White-Light]

Heya Steve

Thanks for the show, i'll be sure to check it out when my dongle comes back.
Maybe then i'll be able to return you one.

Cheers

Tinker

Ooo er. You've just started a Showeditor exchange site. Next thing we'll be having a specialist section.

Is HE Laserscan any cheaper than the FB3 BTW?

I thought it was about 150 Euros for the pro version + that you then need to buy a DAC. That surely puts it in the pango price bracket?

[Kiwi Tinker]

Heya White-light

yeah it's nice to know i'm not alone, i really like the laserworld software, well it's really just a licensed and non-compatable verson of HE-laserscan. I've been talking to a guy called Erich on the HE-laserscan site. He said aluded to the fact that it is possible for the laserworld software to be compatable with the HE-laserscan software. But laserworld would have to give it the go ahead, which he feels is highly unlikely. It would be awesome if it did, if would open up a hugh amount of free stuff available on the net for HE-laserscan. And maybe give the company some good press, unlikely....

here's some beam pics Allthatwhichis wanted. Sorry i ca'nt do any beam still, but the dongle is over and i'm just getting kaos unless i push the 25 pin plug sideways.







Cheers

Tinker