Show off your Laser projector !

[Stoney3K]

That is pretty impressive for something that compact. Just plunk it in a bag along with a 9V battery and go to the local party venue

Your diodes are quite powerful (100-200mW for the red and Bluray), so where are you losing those LOTS of power? Since the green unit by itself is 50mW, you could probably up the output quite a notch. Or is it just a heat dissipation issue?

A unit with diodes like that could easily go 300mW to 0,5W. The power composition seems to be quite similar to mine, which is actually targeted at 0,5-0,6W.

[c4r0]

The issue are crappy dichros from optical drives I can get only 20mW of 405nm (after acrylic colimatiing lens and dichros) and that limits green to 3mW and red to 8mW if I set the powers for proper white ballance. I'm going to buy better dichros and build 650/532/488 0.5W RGB, this little guy was actually just for warm-up

[Stoney3K]

The issue are crappy dichros from optical drives I can get only 20mW of 405nm (after acrylic colimatiing lens and dichros) and that limits green to 3mW and red to 8mW if I set the powers for proper white ballance. I'm going to buy better dichros and build 650/532/488 0.5W RGB, this little guy was actually just for warm-up

Well, if you re-use your old laser diodes and get some good dichro's and collimating optics, you could hit 0,4W or maybe even 0,5W (but then you're pushing the 405 to its max).

I'd stay away from the 488's these days, they're damn expensive for the amount of light they put out. Or it's just the 405's that are so cheap, either way, the 405's still give quite a good color combo. You can always add a 488 with a spare dichro if you want a deeper gamut on the blue end, but RGV is quite good for 9 out of 10 shows.

[ElektroFreak]

Perhaps he's referring to an argon for the 488..

[c4r0]

Perhaps he's referring to an argon for the 488..

Yep, but Stoney3K is referring to an argon too i think The thing is that I already have a 80mW argon (link). I don't want to stay with 405nm because it's really poorly visible (or maybe there's something wrong with my eyes? ). 473 would be perfect ofcourse but it's too expensive for me. I have an argon laying under my desk so why not to make use of it? I will always be able to change it for a nice 405nm module when needed.

[Stoney3K]

Perhaps he's referring to an argon for the 488..

That would actually be a pretty cool job, combining a diode rig with an argon tube for the blue. Would make kind of a bulky unit though.

I'd get a few of those 405 modules anyway if I were you, you can't really go wrong for $30. Even if you use the 488nm for your primary blue tone, a 405 in the 100-200mW range could really extend your colour output to a more deep blue if you need it. Besides, you finally get to use that seventh ILDA channel

[colouredmirrorball]

But if you use an Argon, do you need an AOM then?
I was thinking of using an Argon as blue too but someone said I need an AOM because I couldn't blank the Argon otherwise.

[Stoney3K]

But if you use an Argon, do you need an AOM then?
I was thinking of using an Argon as blue too but someone said I need an AOM because I couldn't blank the Argon otherwise.

Yep, you will.

Either that, or you need to conjure up some ingenious way of modifying the power supply to blank the beam (or wave your finger in the beam in the right timing...), but I wouldn't really recommend that

Can you see the reason we're using diode lasers these days?

[c4r0]

I know that I need something for beam modulation. I don't have AOM but a Pockels cell is on it's way already The biggest problems with using an argon in a projector is that it increases the projector's weight a few times and whole thing becomes very noisy (cooling for argon and it's PSU). I will also need to add 1kW to power consumption ofcourse

BTW isn't it 'a bit' off topic ... ?

[Diachi]

I'm planning on building a projector using an argon and a red module too. It may be bigger and noisier, but that colour is just unbeatable!

[addictive]

Im drooling over these RGB projectors, I want one!

[mliptack]

Wow... I'm stupid and didn't connect the dots...

Post deleted...

[affe]

Here's my projector.. all electronics still not in the box but in theory they should make it. Also the top cover is still to be done.

Inside: Rumzing 532nm 500mW, MaXYZ 650nm 450mW, Laserwave 473nm 400mW, G120D scanners, LSDI Turbotrack II. Case is made by Holmberg Cases. There's an AR coated output window from Edmund, pretty nice as it's almost invisible to the eye.

One of the Laserwave 473nm's is at Rob for repair.

[Mr.Coffee]

That is a serious breadboard you have there. and what kind of case is that? it's beautiful! (I want one!)

[affe]

That is a serious breadboard you have there. and what kind of case is that? it's beautiful! (I want one!)

The breadboard is 18mm aluminum -> no flex.
Case is a regular 19" rack case with three doors, 10U deep and 6U high. The overall height of the projector is around 5U (230mm), top cover is a bit higher than that.
Front and rear panels were machined by Schaeffer, I can highly recommend their service. http://www.schaeffer-ag.de.

[Mr.Coffee]

I haven't seen a rack mount case like that before, do you know the brand?

[affe]

It was made by Holmberg Cases in Sweden. It's their three door model ERT-40612-00 (12U) customized for me to 10U depth. I'd think you can get something like this done for custom dimensions in U.S. if you want.

http://www.hbc.se/res/0905/standardprislistor090501.pdf

[mliptack]

Affe, that looks great! But you've gotta show us some beam shots...

How much does your projector weigh?

[edison]

Probably a lot more then mine

beamshots:
http://www.photonlexicon.com/forums/...=edison&page=2

projector pics:

http://www.photonlexicon.com/forums/...ghlight=edison

mine,s doing 12.5kg

But very clean build. Nice to see that also hobbyist starting to build better projectors. does it have sacnfailure and all the other nessesary safety features?

[affe]

Well, it IS pretty heavy. Haven't weighed it but definitely more than 12.5kg.

No safety other than the mandatory keylock and remote killswitch, scan fail circuit will be added once I figure out what is a good one.

Beamshots will certainly follow once I get everything assembled together again.

[affe]

Projector box is pretty much ready now. Some warning stickers, safety shutter and emission indicator shall be added later. Also the laser modules aren't bolted down yet.

It was quite a challenge to fit all the electronics in the lower half of the box. Turbotrack 2 isn't the smallest amp nowadays and laser drivers & power supplies (especially the lab style PSU for 532nm) took their space as well..

projector_ready_front.JPGprojector_ready_rear.JPG

[edison]

Hey guys

After a long time of designing, changing the design i,m almost at the end of building my second projector. Actually it looks a lot as my first one but with a lot improvements. Its a double layered design so both sides of the baseplate is being used.
The case is made out of 4 struth profiles with 2 extra that carry the 10mm thick baseplate. It has an FB3 inside and the scanfail from Gento. It will have an safetycontrolbox connected with an emergency switch and reset. The reset is nessesary when the mainpower is lost and suddenly comes back. In the bottem there are 3 12v 92mm fans that will run quitly at 5v.The powersupplies are TRACO,s and as you can see i have plenty of room for it. The size of the traco,s are 100mm by 51 mm and one of these baby,s can deliver 20amps at 5v. Here,s the PDF


http://www.tracopower.com/fileadmin/...ets/top100.pdf

Features:

Complete aluminium case made out of 4 struth profiles with 10mm thick baseplate for good stability.
Dustfree top section for keeping the optics and mirror,s clean.

Lasers: 500mw/532nm viasho green
: quad module 650nm red or kvant 642nm/600mw
: 457 nm 250mw viasho blue

Scanners: Scanpro 40kpps


Safety features:

Scanfail and remote emergency control with emergency button, reset and keyswitch.

Extra,s: Pangolin FB3.

These projectors are being sold in the near future true MCcarrots website:
http://store.laserextreme.nl.

Of course with text at the backplate :-)

[FourDee]

In my very first projector, I built in the FB3. It wasn't very handy.

USB is limited in cable length ...

Nice case though

[mccarrot]

Yes, thats what I'm told him also, unless you want to control the projector with DMX.

[flecom]

Hey guys

After a long time of designing, changing the design i,m almost at the end of building my second projector. Actually it looks a lot as my first one but with a lot improvements. Its a double layered design so both sides of the baseplate is being used.
The case is made out of 4 struth profiles with 2 extra that carry the 10mm thick baseplate. It has an FB3 inside and the scanfail from Gento. It will have an safetycontrolbox connected with an emergency switch and reset. The reset is nessesary when the mainpower is lost and suddenly comes back. In the bottem there are 3 12v 92mm fans that will run quitly at 5v.The powersupplies are TRACO,s and as you can see i have plenty of room for it. The size of the traco,s are 100mm by 51 mm and one of these baby,s can deliver 20amps at 5v. Here,s the PDF


http://www.tracopower.com/fileadmin/...ets/top100.pdf

Features:

Complete aluminium case made out of 4 struth profiles with 10mm thick baseplate for good stability.
Dustfree top section for keeping the optics and mirror,s clean.

Lasers: 500mw/532nm viasho green
: quad module 650nm red or kvant 642nm/600mw
: 457 nm 250mw viasho blue

Scanners: Scanpro 40kpps


Safety features:

Scanfail and remote emergency control with emergency button, reset and keyswitch.

Extra,s: Pangolin FB3.

These projectors are being sold in the near future true MCcarrots website:
http://store.laserextreme.nl.

Of course with text at the backplate :-)

need beam shots of that 457!