OK so here goes , my report on the MiniLem, hopefully people that attended can fill in the missing parts, since a lot was done.
I set my alarm @ 8AM, i send a textmessage to BorgqueenX to see if he's got his train, he was just about to board, so i really had to get up, shower and make myself breakfast since i had to pick him up about 9.20AM @ central trainstation.
I was there in time, and 5 minutes later BorgqueenX came down the stairs with flightcase and big bag with stuff.
We went home and not long after people started coming in. First Johan and his wife, followed by MasterPJ. Then after some time also MichelRietveld came in, later followed by McCarrot and SrS. We started with coffee and talked about various laser related subjects.
In my workshop we made a start with BorgqueenX's projector, he bought a very cheap CASA chinese laserprojector (RGV) and had already broken the mirror of the galvos (basically just fell off one day if i understand BorgqueenX correctly), and it was all built in a very small case, with no room to fit the new PT Itrust galvo's and boards in.
Simultaneously MichelRietveld started to rebuilt his woodenbox projector, as he wanted to fit in a new red and maybe a blue (depending on a deal to be made with Edison ;-)
MasterPJ was showing us his cool anime/manga animations he made with 3D Studio MAx, the LC MAX convertor and the LC Flash convertor. In the short period he was using it , he already ran into some pecularities, which he already had reported to Bill.
The product can only be better, when bright young people like PJ start playing with those tools. They ease he showed at hand while creating stuff was stunning. Mark my words, this young man is going to show the world soon his creations, this will be a new show creator, i am certain !
Upstairs in my livingroom Edison had started temperature adjusting the blue modules (1W) i bought of him. He takes time to adjust them just the way i like it, 23 degrees celsius and a very nice thin beam. He glued the prismpairs and let it get to temp and then adjusts it to get full output 1000mW (or a little more).
Not long after McCarrot and SrS came in, we went upstairs for a bite to eat, i made tostis (Croq Monsieur) for everyone, and Michel made some breadrolls as well for the group (thanks Michel!). We had coffee and tea, and not long after went down.
We took the aluminium plate which was a nice gift of Edison to Borgqueen, who is a bit on a budget, so we all tried to help him out (more will follow)!
McCarrot, SrS and i started positioning all the parts, while Borgqueen listened and learned how to read Calipers (vernier ?), drilling, tapping, wiring, all about isolating modules and stuff like that.
SrS removed all wires we didn't need, old DMX boards and scanner drivers and old galvos while i drawed with McCarrot the new layout. We placed Green, and the new PT Itrust Galvo set. Then we placed the red and just when we were about to place the blue, MichelRietveld struck a deal with Johan (Edison).
He would buy his quad red module and a blue one. Michel then made a very nice deal with Borgqueen, where he would buy the diodeblock that Michel bought of McCarrot at the Ilpendam LEM with a nice 445 Blue.
Now we were able to toss out the 405 blue that was in his cheap chinese RGV laser !
All said and done, but Borgqueen only had an AC transformer that spat out 12V and 7V AC , going to 2 driverboards (7V Ac in) for red and blue and a seperate one (12V Ac in) for green. Where would we get a nice 5V DC from ?
Srs and McCarrot came up with an idea, why not reuse the old driver for the Violet and use it for the new 1W module. Surely the 405 was only 150-200mW and that 445 could take that easily. They scratched of the glue (damn EVERYTHING was covered in glue, like they had a discount account with Araldite or something ;-) and adjusted the blue.
YEAH ! Nice. Tossed out the 405, in came the 445.
Michel had replaced the old red in his projector (being a single 200-250mW open can for a nice quad open can red module, doing almost 900mW ! One diode had to be replaced and johan quickly soldered a new one in. While he already had sold it, he fixed it.
Talking about service ;-)
In the meantime, PJ and I looked at digitizing some stuff i had lying around, played with TraceIT, ILDSoS, Showtime and Quickshow, 3Ds etc.
Then we continued on Borg's projector. We had almost finished up the layout. Just needed to drill and tap all holes, but since Edison and Michel had to leave early we first had to go out and eat. Luckily there are a pizzeria, snackbar, chinese takeaway, and 2 Doner Kebab shops @ 300m walking distance. We voted for Doner and we visited a new shop, which was actually very, very tasty ! We all had the food we liked and enjoyed eating out. Then we returned, Michel and Edison left.
PJ finished up some projects and was picked up by his family who entered the house and really showed interest in what we all did. His mum and dad are such friendly people and genuinely interested in what we do, how we do it. His father even watch us drill and tap the holes and knew his stuff about tools well ! We loaded up all his gear and they all drove off. I even got a bottle of very nice wine from his mum! Looking forward attending a next LEM at their lovely house !
Then McCarrot and Srs helped me drill all other holes and then also went home.
Now the projector had to be finished off quickly since 10PM was approaching quickly and Borgqueens brother came to pick him up at 10.... We worked like crazy, fitted all the modules in place on the nice 10mm baseplate and we able to fit it all until......
His brother arrived. He waited inside the car while we fixed up the last things.
I want to show Borgqueen that although the dichros weren't in place that the modules were producing light. Turned it on, blue red, no green.
Well it takes a few seconds to produce light... it did this afternoon... damn no light.
Maybe a short (remember these are the chinese modules that need to be isolated from ground !). I quickly discovered the tiny thin wires from the drive to the green where damaged and touching. We had to put on a new connector and i wanted to take out the old. Damn ! This was stuck. While his brother was waiting in the car and didn't want to come inside i wanted to show i could light the green one, so at least he knew he went home and only had to put on the 220V on the galvo power, and place 1 wire between the galvo and the PT Itrust board (the 15V input for the board!) and place in the galvos (we had shown him how to do that).
I quickly stripped the wires, connected them and low and behold: GREEN LIGHT!
We then put all the stuff in his brothers car and off they went....
The LEM was over.... when coming inside the house i found a lot of dishes, and the tables throughout my workshop and in my livingroom.
I took them all apart, put the dishes in the dishwasher and sat down with a lovely cup of tea and looked back on the day !
What a nice day it was, will organise more of these meets in the future.
While others maybe are interested in lasing more, there is also room for a construction meeting (LCM ?) i think. I like building and tinkering, and helping others (with stuff i learned from the community as well, especially from the people in Brittain (yeah you know who you are ;-) and the people present at the meeting today !).
Next time i might be finding some time to start building on my own projectors.
Although i also really enjoyed talking to Johan, Michel, McCarrot and Srs, Helping Borgqueen and watching and discussing with PJ about 3DS, optimizing, new cool and radical ideas that revolutionize the world of how we look at laser animation !
Hopefully the others will also chip in, how they enjoyed this day ?
Pictures can be found in my gallery album:
http://www.photonlexicon.com/gallery...em+30+januari/
I didn't fail !
I just found out 10,000 ways that didn't work.