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Thread: Help Aligning Annoying Dichro Mounts and Cleaning

  1. #1
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    Default Help Aligning Annoying Dichro Mounts and Cleaning

    Hello,

    So I have had two Lightspace Unicorn 5500's for around half a year and one of them arrived out of alignment. For a while I have been able to turn a blind eye to it, but now that I have more time, I finally opened it up to investigate. It turns out the misalignment is actually between the two green diodes mounted inside the laser module. Upon opening it up, I found that the beams are combined using two dichros and a third optic that the beam from one diode passes through prior to being combined with the second (perhaps to stop reflections?)

    Anyways, the dichros are mounted with epoxy to two mounts that seem to have two small adjustment hex bolts stacked on top of each other. They are then secured to the block using two larger hex bolts. In the past, I have only adjusted the more "user friendly" mounts which have either two or 4 screws that directly adjust the position of the mount, but after playing with these for a while, I couldn't find an easy way to make fine adjustments. I tried approaching it by loosening the screws, then moving the optic with my fingers from the top, but the movement I could get was super erratic and even if I could get it to the right position, by the time I tightened the screws down again, it would just come out of alignment. It did seem like the two screws allowed for slightly different movement of the mount once loosened, but I couldn't pinpoint exactly how as I could never get it consistent. It does seem like the bottom adjustment allows for slightly more vertical movement and the top one for more horizontal movement, but the correlation is lose at best.

    After spending an hour with it, I decided to shut the case and see if I could find a better way to approach this. I did some looking online, but I couldn't find what this particular mount is called, and thus how to align it. I was wondering if anyone has had any experience working with this mount, and if there is a certain workflow for bringing them into alignment. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also, is there any "standard" procedure for cleaning these optics upon reassembling the projector? I am always nervous about dust getting or oil them when I work on them.

    Thanks!

    CF
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Dichro 2.jpg  

    Dichro 1.jpg  


  2. #2
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    Yes, those are evil. It looks like they were designed to have alignment tools. There's a hole in the mirror mount that would allow a rod to be used to torque the mirror vertically and hold it in place as you tighten the screws. There's a hole that looks like it was made plunging a small end mill in a circular pattern on the mount. See if a Allen wrench fits. That would allow control of the horizontal.
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    I find the easiest way to adjust those types of mounts is with a small ended drift and a small hammer. Put it on the edge of the way you want to go, and give it little taps.
    Sometimes you don't even need to loosen the bolts, but its easier to tap in very small increments than to pull on a bar that suddenly lets go and jumps big amounts back and forth, but never ending up where you actually want it.
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    Thanks for all the advice.

    I knew there must be something I was missing as they seemed impossible to work with the way I was trying to align them. I'll open up the PJ again tonight and have another try at it. I'll report back here.

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    There is some similarity to the mounts in the X-Laser Mirage projector and I was feeling exactly the same way a couple weeks ago. I was going to take it to X-Laser to align but, the rod and flex thing makes sense so maybe I'll give it a go.
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  6. #6
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    I really wish someone would make a high end 500mw certified projector, with adjustable dichros from the outside. Drives me crazy that I need to build it to have it perfect and can't buy something legal in lower power single mode that is fully adjustable to perfection.
    leading in trailing technology

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    Quote Originally Posted by polishedball View Post
    I really wish someone would make a high end 500mw certified projector, with adjustable dichros from the outside. Drives me crazy that I need to build it to have it perfect and can't buy something legal in lower power single mode that is fully adjustable to perfection.
    I know, right? I guess many manufactures just assume that most people won't care about misalignment enough to make the hardware easily accessible. I'm certainly not one of those people though.

    And to give an update, I just got the unit fully aligned today. Thanks for all the advice. Using the adjustment point on top of the unit did the trick beautify along with loosing the screws holding the mount to the base and adjusting the position. Had it good to go in 5 minutes or so. And now I know how to deal with it when it comes off again. Just hope I don't need to align the red bank anytime soon

    Really do wish manufactures paid more attention to the serviceability of their units though. A manual would have been nice. The lightspace units are generally fantastic baring this issue. Even discovered that they utilize a proper Meanwell PSU which is nice! The way this unit is set up it is actually super easy to align the three outputs from the module as they are combined with so called "3D" mounts. It's just the individual diodes that are a pain. Also wish they were protected from ESD. Replacing them would be a pain as the modules are epoxied in.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Glrock View Post
    I know, right? I guess many manufactures just assume that most people won't care about misalignment enough to make the hardware easily accessible. I'm certainly not one of those people though.

    And to give an update, I just got the unit fully aligned today. Thanks for all the advice. Using the adjustment point on top of the unit did the trick beautify along with loosing the screws holding the mount to the base and adjusting the position. Had it good to go in 5 minutes or so. And now I know how to deal with it when it comes off again. Just hope I don't need to align the red bank anytime soon

    Really do wish manufactures paid more attention to the serviceability of their units though. A manual would have been nice. The lightspace units are generally fantastic baring this issue. Even discovered that they utilize a proper Meanwell PSU which is nice! The way this unit is set up it is actually super easy to align the three outputs from the module as they are combined with so called "3D" mounts. It's just the individual diodes that are a pain. Also wish they were protected from ESD. Replacing them would be a pain as the modules are epoxied in.
    Glad to hear you got it dialed in.
    leading in trailing technology

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by polishedball View Post
    Glad to hear you got it dialed in.
    Here's a before and after at 80 feet.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Alignment Before.jpg  

    Alignment After.jpg  

    Lightspace Beam 2.JPG  

    Lightspace Beam.JPG  


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    That's quite the improvement, Connor! Good job!

    Adam

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