Noobie advice

[junglejuz]

Great clip. The Pangolin software looks amazing, coupled with a fast scanning laser. I'm beginning to get a glimpse how deep this rabbit hole can go. Don't really want to commit to anything too advanced before I get a chance to play with the tech and see if it's something I would like to get into deeper. Similarly I don't want to waste good money on cheap crap. There has to be a happy medium somewhere.

[Bradfo69]

There has to be a happy medium somewhere.

Yes... there is. Take whatever money you thought you might spend on lasers and use it to go to every LEM, (laser enthusiast meeting), every planetarium that offers laser shows, join ILDA and go to the annual conferences, get tickets to any music tour in your area where you know the artist is using lasers - whether you like the genre or not, and.... get your fill of lasers on someone elses dime. You will thoroughly enjoy yourself. There will be enough left over for women, drugs and maybe a boat if you're frugal.

[junglejuz]

Yes... there is. Take whatever money you thought you might spend on lasers and use it to go to every LEM, (laser enthusiast meeting), every planetarium that offers laser shows, join ILDA and go to the annual conferences, get tickets to any music tour in your area where you know the artist is using lasers - whether you like the genre or not, and.... get your fill of lasers on someone elses dime. You will thoroughly enjoy yourself. There will be enough left over for women, drugs and maybe a boat if you're frugal.

Ha! Great answer!

[Bradfo69]

Ha! Great answer!

With age comes wisdom. And astronomical credit card balances.
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As a result of this silly laser business, I also have a full set of scuba gear, various remote control flying drones and helicopters, have thought about a musical tesla coil an who knows what other money sink will arise. I'm tellin' ya.... Go enjoy watching everyone elses. LOL

[dkumpula]

Or purchase slightly-used equipment from someone who really should be dispensing with some of his unused stash??

[junglejuz]

Or purchased slightly-used equipment from someone who really should be dispensing with some of his unused stash??

Also a good answer.

[Bradfo69]

Also a good answer.

Aimed squarely at yours truly.

[White-Light]

Good to know. What should I look out for instead?

- - - Updated - - -

If anyone can point me to a beginner's guide to this stuff I'd really appreciate it.

Galvos of at least 30K rating for graphics or 20K for beams (30k preferable to give headroom / flexibility). Stepper motors are both jerky, slow and potentially more dangerous as they're more likely to fail than a galvo.

So far as a full spectrum of colours is concerned, you need a laser with "Analogue" modulation. TTL modulation will only give 6 colours and no blends.

Safety is a no brainer really, unless you know what you're doing when it comes to performing complex safety calculations and can afford to spend money on a laser power meter and safety lens (both very expensive), keep the beams overhead and out of reach. Obviously projectors need to mounted such that no-one can walk into the beam pattern below head height so a high mounting point or an excluded no access zone if mounted lower might be required. Strictly speaking, laser projections should be 3 metres overhead at their minimum scanned point, for (commercial) shows not involving audience scanning. Obviously in the home unless you have very high ceilings, that's probably unachievable. The answer is keep the minimum projection height as high as possible above the audience and always have the laser manned with an e-stop in place. Watch out for people getting onto others shoulders for "a better look" or attempting to jump into the beams.

You probably won't have much issue projecting graphics on a wall from a safety pov, other than don't project against soft furnishing eg curtains, sofa's or anything flammable (not usually an issue with modulated moving beams but best avoided as good practice / reasonable precaution). Avoid static beams especially unmodulated (probably unlikely you can deliberately project unmodulated from a cheap projector) and pencil beams, as these have the highest energy density. With the kind of powers you'll probably be buying, overall reflected brightness off the wall (spectral reflection) shouldn't be a safety issue. Actual reflected beams can be avoided by avoiding projecting onto mirrored or metal / polished surfaces. Also beware items such as lamp shades and glass windows / panels and obviously mirrors. Normal painted walls should be fine. Papered walls should be fine as well although as always, avoid the static and unmodulated beams, fire hazard aside, coin sized charred holes in the paper don't look good and don't sit well with any partners / family!

For a party, sometimes moving a few wall hung / ceiling hung items is all that's required along with a little forethought to get safe overhead beams. The other way around potentially reflective items such as a glass lampshade is the use of beam attenuation mapping, assuming your chosen software has the facility.

[junglejuz]

Great info. Thanks White-Light.

I can't tell whether the ones in the links I posted use analogue or TTL modulation. Also, I can see that one of them uses a stepping motor, but the other doesn't say. How can you tell?

[Bradfo69]

One dead giveaway is that there is no DB25 ILDA connector on the back of the projector with the steppers. I'd say if there is a DB25, you can be pretty certain it has galvos. Steppers also can't really reproduce graphics of any quality so looking at the sample photos will often help with that. Plus in the specs it may make some reference to a number followed by Kpps and may list an angle such as @ 4 degrees. That will mean there are galvos.
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As far as analog versus TTL you sometimes have to rely on them to tell you but, as a general rule, the price will tell you a whole lot of unspoken information. If it's a really inexpensive price, you can expect that it's TTL and perhaps steppers. Now... that's not "always" true. X-Laser (USA) is an example of a company that may have a higher priced projector that still is TTL but, that's somewhat intentional by design as, for the DJ market they're looking for maximum brightness and TTL can serve that purpose at the loss of more colors. But, it may have other features that make it a more expensive unit, such as being legal for use in the US.