Scannermax 506s

[Stiffler]

I'm looking forward to this.

Stiffler,

It looks like you figured how to mount these in 4 hours or, did you mean how to mount the mount?

Did anyone specify the mirror size when they ordered these from Pangolin? I need a 5mm aperture.

Mounting them will be straight forward, I just need a chunk of aluminum with some holes drilled in it. I should be able to do it with a drill press. Regarding the mirror sizes, I specified 3mm mirrors, thinking that I had the smaller mirrors on my DTs; I was wrong. So, it looks like I'll be clipping a bit of my red & blue.

[Pangolin]

One note about mirrors. If your DT mirrors are 6mm wide, then that's equivalent to what we deliver in our Compact 506. The active portion of the X mirror is 6mm (and it gets wider toward the rear -- what we call our "Darth Vader" style X mirror). The Y mirror *appears* smaller than other people's mirrors, but that's only because other people don't know how to make mirrors

As discussed elsewhere, by "setting back" the X scanner by 15 degrees, we gain a 7.5 degree angle of incidence advantage projecting upward toward the Y mirror, which allows us to decrease the width of the Y mirror (allowing faster / wider scanning) while also maintaining what the beam will *think* is a 6mm wide mirror.

Stiffler and Norty, your scanners are delivered so that a full size input will give a 50 degree projection. Looking at the picture of the DT mirrors, I am absolutely sure that this is more than DT will give you (without running out of Y mirror). Absolom, I think your scanners are set for 40 degrees, but there is also room left over in the Size pot to increase it if you want.


Bill

[Stiffler]

50 degrees? NICE!!!

[JasonB]

Did anyone specify the mirror size when they ordered these from Pangolin? I need a 5mm aperture.

Hi Planters,
I did specify mirror size through a text description when I ordered the 506's, and I thought there were options i.e. 5 mm, 1 inch; but looking at the datasheet now I see 'up to one inch'. Looking at my order I see now I dropped that information because I had to re-submit everything due to an error on my part.

http://www.scannermax.com/pdf/Compact506.pdf

Now I can't recall where I saw mirror choices on the ScannerMAX website. I also have discovered that it is a pleasure doing business with Pangolin, so I'll contact them to sort this out and share what I learn.

I'm looking at a several week lead time (Which is fine for me) and when I finally get my amps modified I will also post side by side comparisons of projecting with my PT-20k scan set and the 506's using LSX software. This will take me some time to complete, though, because the weather is finally breaking here and my time to spend with lasers with be somewhat 'attenuated' LOL ....

-Jason

[Stiffler]

Well, I did some preliminary testing over the weekend (scanners sitting on a stack of business cards as I don't have an adapter plate yet; I couldn't wait!!). The first thing I noticed is that these things scan WIDE (once I put the projector back together, I'm not sure my window will be big enough!). They were also able to scan most of the test patterns at full angle, at 30k, without much rounding of corners (except for that grid test pattern, I had to shrink it down for that). They are also QUIET! My DT40 Pros all SCREAM when running complicated abstracts, these things don't seem to mind one bit:-) Sorry, no pics yet, that will have to wait until I really have them mounted. Hopefully before weeks end.

[Pangolin]

Hi Stiffler,

Regarding width, I set them to somewhere around (certainly no less than) 50 degrees. The main things holding DTs from going that wide are a) the mirror design (I am sorry to say that it seems only Pangolin and Cambridge can design mirrors properly...); and b) the linearity of the position sensor.

Check out the temperature too. My guess is that they will remain cool, even while sitting on the stack of business cards. During testing we're always doing that -- either sitting them on business cards or a stack of circuit boards.

By the way, over the weekend I checked out a competitor's (conventionally-made) galvos. They got so hot they almost melted the plastic back cap... I'm so used to scanners running cool that I forgot that you really have to watch the temperature of conventional galvos...

Bill

[Stiffler]

Bill,

They remained cool to the touch, even after running complicated abstracts through them. It appears that Quick Show will now be the limiting factor in my projector performance.

[Stiffler]

Regarding temperature, is there a safe window to run these things at? For instance, if I want to use a TEC to cool my diodes, would it be better to cool the whole optical deck (and the scanners), or just the modules (which will raise the temp of the optimal deck, and scanners)?

Eric

[absolom7691]

Seconding what Stiffler said, these things are amazingly quiet, even running the ILDA test. My projector platter is finished (for the most part). I'm still having trouble with the NF alignment but that has nothing to do with the scanners. Like Stiffler, I couldn't wait so I just aligned the FF and started running some graphics. When I get a little more time and get the alignment dialed in, I will get some pics and some video. Stay tuned!

[Stiffler]

I picked up the matching projector tonight & did a quick side-by-side comparison. Right off the bat, the difference in scan angle is HUGE. I don't have an appropriate camera, but I did manage a couple stills to show the difference in scan angle between the 506s & DT40s. Regarding performance differences, they were pretty close. Neither would display graphics perfectly at 30k; The 506s tended to round off corners, while the DT40s over shot the same corners. When running graphics & text, the flaws were less obvious with the 506s, and the DT40s made a lot more noise. Given the price, scan angle & support Pangolin has provided, I will probably never use the DTs again.


The projector setup, both using the same FB3







For reference, I calculated that at it's widest, the DT40's were capable of 33 degrees.

-Eric