Results 1 to 4 of 4

Thread: UO Smart Beam pico laser projector teardown

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2018
    Posts
    51

    Default UO Smart Beam pico laser projector teardown

    Finally had time to disassemble this thing.



    It's a Himax LCoS chip pico projector but using laser light source. One benefit of laser is it is in focus at any distance. Actually I tested and the focus ring is locked in place with epoxy to achieve focus from about 2 feet to 30 feet or maybe more, didn't have more room to check.

    The laser speckle is surprisngly less than with the PicoP laser scanning projectors but still there.

    I was interested what kind of diodes were used inside and if any deskeckler was used so I dissassembled it.

    The illumination compartment is very similar to what we have in laser show projectors, but the beams are expanded more and go through a "flyeye" lens for the profile to become more uniform, like with LEDs I guess?



    Here's at another angle:



    No idea what these two are. The thin one is a film, not a plate.



    There were also two mysterious wires going to a black plastic box attached to the flyeye lens. I'm not really sure what that this but since my tweezer can easily move the flyeye lens the box is holding I'm inclined to say it acts as a vibrating speckle reducer, although I don't know what component that is really.




    I haven't been able to run the projector with the cover exposed due to short ribbon cables all over the place to check if the beam goes to the LCoS and then to the projection lenses collimated or not but I'm probably the only one here who cares.

    I expected the diodes to be some custom or AR goggles surface mount diodes but they appear to be what we use in low power single mode laser show projectors, just put in an aluminum plate and the tips soldered to a ribbon cable.



    Maybe some people here can even identify them. No mention of the power of the diodes or what diodes are used, just that the output is 100 ANSI lumens.

    Other than the clear focus this design sadly doesn't appear to have a future competing with scanned laser projectors and LEDs as those are just much brighter and still same footprint.
    Last edited by joec; 08-18-2018 at 12:08.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2015
    Location
    Cambridgeshire, England
    Posts
    478

    Default

    The black box has a 'spider' which is a suspension system for a voicecoil, so you have an actuator as you supposed.
    The 90 degree turning block looks like a PBS cube, is the LCoS chip mounted on the back wall behind it?

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2018
    Posts
    51

    Default

    The black box has a 'spider' which is a suspension system for a voicecoil, so you have an actuator as you supposed.
    Cool. Any ideas what to search for to get one in digikey, etc?
    It has only about a mm on each axis to move otherwise it will collide with other parts in the system.

    The 90 degree turning block looks like a PBS cube, is the LCoS chip mounted on the back wall behind it?
    Yes, that's where the LCoS chip is. I don't know much about LCoS but with DLP two ordinary prisms are cemented together to redirect a beam from an illumination source to the DLP micromirrors and then either to an absorber or a projection lens via total internal reflection of the prism. With LCoS there may be also some polarization going on. For example there are two plates I highlighted with arrows in one of the photos I'm not sure what are for. I haven't seen them in DLP systems. Perhaps they polarize the laser beams and the LCoS chip needs polarized light, I don't really know.

    Also I think I was wrong, those diodes may very well be multimode. The projection is dim for a 100inch screen compared to other pico sized projectors I've tested but maybe a bit too bright for 50mW laser diodes. The red diode is smaller and without a cap so likely a 500mW Mitsubishi diode. Are there even any 9mm singlemode diodes out there? If not then the laser diodes in this projector are definitely multimode.
    Last edited by joec; 08-19-2018 at 23:39.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2019
    Posts
    1

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by joec View Post
    Finally had time to disassemble this thing.



    It's a Himax LCoS chip pico projector but using laser light source. One benefit of laser is it is in focus at any distance. Actually I tested and the focus ring is locked in place with epoxy to achieve focus from about 2 feet to 30 feet or maybe more, didn't have more room to check.

    The laser speckle is surprisngly less than with the PicoP laser scanning projectors but still there.

    I was interested what kind of diodes were used inside and if any deskeckler was used so I dissassembled it.

    The illumination compartment is very similar to what we have in laser show projectors, but the beams are expanded more and go through a "flyeye" lens for the profile to become more uniform, like with LEDs I guess?



    Here's at another angle:



    No idea what these two are. The thin one is a film, not a plate.



    There were also two mysterious wires going to a black plastic box attached to the flyeye lens. I'm not really sure what that this but since my tweezer can easily move the flyeye lens the box is holding I'm inclined to say it acts as a vibrating speckle reducer, although I don't know what component that is really.




    I haven't been able to run the projector with the cover exposed due to short ribbon cables all over the place to check if the beam goes to the LCoS and then to the projection lenses collimated or not but I'm probably the only one here who cares.

    I expected the diodes to be some custom or AR goggles surface mount diodes but they appear to be what we use in low power single mode laser show projectors, just put in an aluminum plate and the tips soldered to a ribbon cable.



    Maybe some people here can even identify them. No mention of the power of the diodes or what diodes are used, just that the output is 100 ANSI lumens.

    Other than the clear focus this design sadly doesn't appear to have a future competing with scanned laser projectors and LEDs as those are just much brighter and still same footprint.
    That's very interesting but could you please re-upload pictures?

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •