Workbench Creations

I had started to build one of these, from scratch. Years ago.

using a HENE laser and galvanometer and purchased some ancient control software that ran on a commodore computer........unfortunately, the time for me to finish was limited that the project was shelved.

I put in my blog "After I got all these parts, I put them in a box and they sat for a while until my inspiration came back." in reality that while was a little over a year. I am just glad I finally got around to finishing it and my wife didn't throw any of the parts out while they were sitting(although she did complain about them once or twice). Now that it is done she thinks it's cool.

Actually I was amused about that, that it must be a common thing.

I built the laser from a not so complete kit. By biggest issues I had, was I tried to make work the interface with the commodore outlet signals were sporatic. Which let me to believe it may have been the software issues. My reason for building it is to get myself familiar with the project but my I felt my skills set was not suffcient,

I tend to set goals, I think I can make.........maybe....eventually.......

Yes, I agree with your wife, that is a cool project. I tip my hat to you sir.

Impressive!

I agree, a coolness factor of about 7.9.

Champion effort!

Just for fun is good.

A friend in the early 1980's mounted surface reflective mirrors on speaker cone centers, (left and right stereo), which were set on the X and Y axis to reflect and direct the laser beam. We played tones from an audio osc. and also from a synthesizer as well as from some tapes we made up. We got some beautiful, although basic, mandala type patterns and other surprising shapes.

Nowhere near what you're doing now. We had fun and he went on to establish a holographic production company. Much success to you with fun and knowledge!

That sounds about like what I got out of the hard drive voice coil setup, I thought about using speaker voice coils also but I had the dead hard drives on hand. It was cool, but I wanted more than random patterns. I also thought about building my own galvanometers I found a link from someone who did http://elm-chan.org/works/vlp/report_e.html but buying a set with controllers was under $100 for 20kpps and the results would be better than I could make.

I used subscribed to a electronics magazine....I think thats what it was called. 'Electronics', that had a simular project in their article that resembled that.

Congratulations on your accomplishment. Persistence pays off.

For those of you that would like to build your own full color laser projector , I wrote an E-book available here " http://www.sniffinfo.com "

I looked at your website (bit of a shameless plug however), I have considered making a lumia wheel, after I saw someone on a laser forum had links to an obelisk project that did look really neat

Going back to the laser projector what software do you use? I did end up buying dr lava's lasercam software to play with for video but otherwise I am using free software. I want to interface some other lighting devices/software with the laser show and I don't see anything that will do that. I think I am going to end up interfacing lfi player with vixen lighting software which doesn't look too hard to do.

While I don't know what is in your book, I will say that I found plenty of info online on how to do this and can't imagine paying for info that is freely available. For me it was simply finding the time to do it that was my limitation.

Also by design for legal reasons my projector is quite low in power (but made to be easy to upgrade) I see you say on your site you do laser shows for charities and fundraisers. How do you deal with the legalities of this, as I believe laser shows need certain approvals (variance) as well as the equipment needing to be FDA approved which a home built one while it could be made in compliance with the rules, is still not approved.

I use Pangolin LD2000 laser controller and software but a basic version at $2495 US a pop, is probably out of your budget. I have also used Norm's laser show controller which is similar to Pangolin's FB3, designed to suit DJ's. And prior to that I used a modified Amiga 500 PC and freebie software from Pangolin as my lasershow controller.

Since I live in Canada I don't have the FDA/CDRH and their draconian rules to control my activities. I never do any audience scanning, since who wants to risk getting sued and I still have to file a report to get outdoor laser show approvals from Health Canada and Transport Canada (even for terminated laser projections).

If you want to learn more about lumia effects I have a free downloadable tutorial on how to make your own lumia wheel at my website http://www.sniffinfo.com

Yes $2500 is way out of my budget, and I think you need to use Pangolin's DAC as well. I had considered spaghetti for $100 but it still doesn't do everything I want. I did find a early and somewhat buggy copy of wet noodles for live shows from the same maker of spaghetti which I did get to work. I had contacted the programmer of LFI player to figure out how to control it via serial commands, so I can use that set of commands to interface with other software.

I saw the instructions on your site, but I had already looked into the lumia wheel so have a very good idea of how to do that. I like the idea of using it with optics to make a line laser like done for the obelisk.

I don't know that I will ever do any public shows, my project was more for my own amusement. Due to the rules and regs even with something under 5mW I would still be afraid of using it in public.