I think we lazed a projector to death

[Randomseed]

So this past weekend at one of our events we had our main laser on stage almost directly facing where our projection mapper had his stage projector facing. About an hour into the show a black line about 10% the height of his total mapping appeared. Later on in the night it ended up growing to about 30%. We tried reboots, alternate content and nothing would get the area back. The only two possibilities really are A) bad electronics - the projector itself was about two weeks old so maybe just faulty or B) we laser it hard and it blew something out.

Ill post pics later but does anyone know if this is really possible?

[mihai1880]

if it was a DLP projector, and if the laser beams were going into the projectors aperture, it was definately damaged by the laser. Can you post some pictures? What power was the laser?

[Galvonaut]

Not healthy. I'd agree with mihai from my research on the subject. Projectors and cameras seem to be even more sensitive to lasers than the human eye (at least the brain corrects for damage, while a projector or camera does not).

[Randomseed]

It was a 3.6 total running at reduced power (~75%). It didn't get hit by any hot beams but it was DIRECTLY in the scan field almost in line with the laser.

You can see what happened in this image, the black bar near the bottom of the overhang is the suspected damage.
*the laser behind the Dj is low power, the main laser is out of frame here.

[Randomseed]

He's sending it back on warranty so I'm trying to see if he'll bring it over and we can test it out....go for complete fatality.

Another image

[Randomseed]

Here's a test screen shot from the proj. After he talked to the manufacture they are claiming its a known issue with oxidation on some of parts so it may not have been our fault but I'm assuming in the end it really was.

[mihai1880]

That looks like laser damage. Because the laser was set on low power, explains why you don't have more lines.

[slicklasers]

That laser shooting the DJ and crowd is WAY over 4.95mW. It is illegal and unsafe to point any lasers over 4.95mW into peoples face.

Another example of someone with no clue about safety just blasting into the crowd.

[silentgloves]

I thought the same thing. Although, I'm pretty clueless myself, so I figured I'd stay out of it.

Here's the extent of my safety knowledge: 1. Don't scan people. 2. Be mindful of and avoid "splatter" areas if projector is open and operating.

Apparently, this is uncommon knowledge.

[mihai1880]

Audience Scanning is not a bad thing if you do it right. There are a lot of places in the world were it is allowed (or at least not forbidden). I've seen crowd scanning done with 10 to 20W lasers and nobody got hurt.