This is a home laser show I built with a 35mW green lab laser. The laser bounces off a mirror attached to a speaker, then goes through a diffraction grating so the patterns will cover my entire ceiling. It's pretty sweet.
You'll need a green lab style laser module, a pair of old headphones, a box, a switch, an AC/DC adapter, and some hand tools.
Here's a link to more detailed instructions with a full parts list.
You can see some videos of it in action here and here.
You'll need a green lab style laser module, a pair of old headphones, a box, a switch, an AC/DC adapter, and some hand tools.
Here's a link to more detailed instructions with a full parts list.
You can see some videos of it in action here and here.
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Signing UpStep 1: Power Supply and Control
The first thing we want to do is provide power to the laser itself, and provide any easy method to turn it on and off. The power is coming from the AC/DC adapter, but it ends in one of those plugs we're all so familiar with. What we need to do is wire a receptacle (which connects to our power adapter plug), to a switch (which allows us to turn power on and off), which then goes to the laser driver board itself.
Don't connect anything to the laser yet! Why? We need to mount the switch and the receptacle in the box, and you'll quickly find that you need to pass the wires through the little hole in order to mount the switch. The laser, needless to say, will have a bit of trouble fitting. Put everything into place, and apply glue to the inside to ensure everything stays put. You don't need to do this, but it doesn't really hurt.
Now we can solder those leads to the laser, and fix the laser driver board to a part of the box. If you look at the board there should be a big piece of metal attached to a component, that's the heatsink for the power transistor. Make sure it has lots of free space around it, it can get hot and needs to cool off.
Make sure the laser is pointing away from you at something non-reflective and cheap (a piece of wood is great), plug the AC/DC adapter in, and turn the switch on. You should see a whitish dot appear. Alright, now we have a working laser that we can easily turn on and off!
Don't connect anything to the laser yet! Why? We need to mount the switch and the receptacle in the box, and you'll quickly find that you need to pass the wires through the little hole in order to mount the switch. The laser, needless to say, will have a bit of trouble fitting. Put everything into place, and apply glue to the inside to ensure everything stays put. You don't need to do this, but it doesn't really hurt.
Now we can solder those leads to the laser, and fix the laser driver board to a part of the box. If you look at the board there should be a big piece of metal attached to a component, that's the heatsink for the power transistor. Make sure it has lots of free space around it, it can get hot and needs to cool off.
Make sure the laser is pointing away from you at something non-reflective and cheap (a piece of wood is great), plug the AC/DC adapter in, and turn the switch on. You should see a whitish dot appear. Alright, now we have a working laser that we can easily turn on and off!
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http://www.fda.gov/Radiation-EmittingProducts/RadiationEmittingProductsandProcedures/HomeBusinessandEntertainment/LaserProductsandInstruments/ucm116373.htm
"Does FDA have a mandatory limit on the power emitted by laser pointers?
Yes. Laser products promoted for pointing and demonstration purposes are limited to hazard Class IIIa by FDA regulation.
21 CFR 1040.11(b) and 1040.11(c), limit surveying, leveling, and alignment, and demonstration laser products to Class IIIa. This means that pointers are limited to 5 milliwatts output power in the visible wavelength range from 400 to 710 nanometers. There are also limits for any invisible wavelengths and for short pulses. Pointers may not exceed the accessible emission limits of CDRH Class IIIa or IEC1 Class 3R."
But anyways, for this application you'd probably want to use a big lens, and spreqad out the signal. That way, you could get the brightness of a 10mw point on a much larger surface.
that would be so cool
I like the idea :)