RGB Projector

[daruq]

Hi Everyone!

I have been reading the forum for quite a long time now but I think it's about time I start posting. So this is my first one

My project:
I'm in the spending money process now. The plan is to build a RGB projector using only diodes. It will be controlled via ILDA.
I have a 405nm blueish diode and would like to mix it with red and green diodes. As much as I know you can get about 100mW from it without killing it in the short time. In that case how much mW should I have in green and red modules? I know that red will have to go thru 2 dichros and green thru 1 so that will take some of the power.

Thanks and best regards,
Dariusz

[buffo]

Welcome to PhotonLexicon, daruq! Always nice to see new members. You're among friends here.

Just staring a build, eh? Well, be sure to take lots of pictures of the process. (We love pictures!)

As for the color balance, you might want to check out Tocket's Chroma software. It will plot your lasers on the CIE color chart and show you where the full-power color will fall. Then you can tinker with the power levels until you get something close to a perfect white.

However, as a rough esimate, for 100 mw of 405 nm blue you're only going to need around 25 mw of green (at 532 nm).

As for red, it depends on the wavelength you use. If you go with 660 nm red (say, a diode from a DVD burner), then you'll need 100 mw. But if you use 650 nm red, you can get away with just 60 mw.

Have you decided on a set of scanners yet?

Adam

[soforene]

.. you're only going to need around 25 mw of green (at 532 nm). ...

But if he invests in some Pango gear then the software will compensate for the intensity levels and he can have any old hotchpotch of modules.

[ElektroFreak]

The software auto-compensates? Nice. I know that many other software options besides pangolin will allow you to tweak levels for the best balance, but to do it automatically is pretty awesome..

[soforene]

Woah there Tiger !!
I never said anything about automatic.

The LD2000 has a Laser Palette setup that can adjust automatically (to obtain the best mix of colours) or you can do it manually (for the onanists amongst you).
Not too sure about other software as I'm a spoilt brat and went straight for Pango gear.

[buffo]

The software auto-compensates?

Yep. The Pangolin LD-2000 system automatically calculates the optimal settings for 3 different pallets: (color balanced, high intensity, and full power) However, you do have to "train" it by going through the color setup wizard.

Color training is a simple process where you first tell the software which colors you have available, and then for each color you adjust the brightness of 4 lines to be equal by moving a slider on the screen. Once you've done this for each of the colors you have (usually just Red, Green, Blue,) you have to do it once more for a final set of white lines.

From that point the software does all of the calculations and generates the 3 pallets for you. It does a pretty good job of auto-compensating for non-linearity in the power response curves of your lasers too. (Note that you can still adjust the color balance by hand afterward, if you want to.)

However, all this assumes that you have analog modulation capabilities on all of your lasers to begin with. If you only have TTL color control, then there isn't much for the color wizard to do, and you're stuck with only 7 colors.

So yeah, daruq... If you can help it, make sure that your laser drivers will support analog modulation.

Adam

[daruq]

The analog modulation is a "must have" anyway
Scanners:
I know that Cambridge would be the best choice but I haven't won the lottery yet. So this is what I'm thinking about http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Brain (software+interface):
Would love to get Pangolin FB3... but as above
What I have found is something that looks like a Mamba Black replica but from far east http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Has anyone got any experience with this scanners / interface??

Just been thinking...
If the software can adjust the power of the RGB then I could put the most power for each that I can afford. Right? Then when I need white light my little 405nm would be working at 100% and the R & G at for example 50%.
But for non white/blue beams or animations I would use 100% of my R & G. Is that something worth trying?

Thanks,
Dariusz

[SideFX]

The analog modulation is a "must have" anyway
Scanners:
I know that Cambridge would be the best choice but I haven't won the lottery yet. So this is what I'm thinking about http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

/**/

Has anyone got any experience with this scanners / interface??

Hi Dariusz,

I've bought these scanners a while ago.. I like'm very much, they are a bit noisy out of the box so you should tune them a bit. Lot's of info about that here on this forum.
Darry from laserpic is also a friendly thrustworthy guy.
It seems now you get a ilda breakout card as a free bonus!