Laser Ball

Watch out LED Cube there's a new sheriff in town and his name is Laser Ball...

Truth be told it's actually a Rechargeable Remote Control and Programmable Laser Ball... whoa!

So what's a Laser Ball?
Well it's sort of like the Death Star... OK, maybe that's a bit over-dramatic... a Laser Ball is like a programmable disco ball... or a cat-toy for humans (that sounds about right)... or a personal laser light show... the most fun you've had throwing a tennis ball in years(yeah!)... a 21st-century ship in a bottle... the most sophisticated poi or juggling ball ever seen... maybe a first-generation lightsaber training droid?... or maybe it's all of them! Check out the video to see how it works and how to make one then tell me what you think.

 

I thought this project was a good idea for an Instructable for a number of reasons:

1. It's fun to build!
2. The building blocks are easily accessible (...open-source much?) and there's a 5-min version that is lot's of fun too
3. The project builds upon the open-source and DIY community
4. Laser balls can be assembled in an afternoon
5. There are a lot of potential variations (batteries, laser color, laser count, etc...)
6. If you think lasers are cool (or any blinky light for that matter) than a Laser Ball will blow your socks off!

Step 1: Project Overview

Introduction
Before getting starting on building a Laser Ball, let me begin with a brief explanation on the format of this Instructable. The first step here will list out scope of the project. The next step shares a little background on Lasers and their unique qualities (sort of an editorial piece). Then the main Instructable begins... Steps 3-8 describe each component in the Laser Ball with some useful information and complimentary links. Step 9 describes the assembly process which was shown in the video. Step 10 is a sort of "mini-instructable" on how to build a "5-min Laser Ball". Some useful details for taking laser pictures are in Step 11, and the process I went through to build this Instructable is described in Step 12. If you just want the details on how to build the laser ball jump to the Assembly step.

To start here's a breakdown of the specifications, steps, timeline, parts, cost, suppliers, tools, and wiring diagram for a full Rechargeable Remote Control and Programmable Laser Ball.

Laser Ball Specifications:

• Total optical power: ~70mW
• Current draw (max): ~300mA
• Operating voltage: 3.3V
• Battery life: ~2.5hrs (but its rechargeable!)

Steps and Timeline:

• 1.00 hr - Preparing and gathering materials/tools
• 0.25 hr - Thinking through the design
• 0.50 hr - Preparing the Teensy
• 0.75 hr - Cutting and installing diffraction gratings
• 0.50 hr - Drilling the tennis ball
• 0.50 hr - Installing lasers
• 1.00 hr - Soldering lasers, Teensy, and JST connector
• 0.50 hr - Squeezing components into tennis ball

Total time:

• 5.00 hrs

Materials:

• $42 - Red lasers (14) (Buy from Aixiz)
  • (Buy from DealExtreme) Note: These DealExtreme lasers are slightly different than the Aixiz lasers. The DX lasers are smaller and cheaper but the cap is glued in place which makes adding the diffration grating much more difficult.
• $9 - Battery (Buy Li-Ion batteries from Sparkfun)
• $16 - Teensy microcontroller (Buy from PRJC)
• $5 - IR remote (Buy from Adafruit)
• $2 - IR receiver (Buy from Adafruit)
• $2 - Diffraction Grating (Buy from Edmund Scientific) (Buy from Ebay)
• $1 - JST connector (Buy from Sparkfun)
• $1 - Tennis Ball (your closet...)

Total cost:

• $78

Tools:

• Soldering iron
• Dremel
• Wire strippers/cutters
• Hobby knife
• Masking tape
• Marker
• Scissors
• Tweezers/Forceps
• Helping-hands/alligator clips

Schematic:

Update: As part of this overview I've also included two additional images showing the wiring diagram and schematic.

Comments

[prenominum]

Hi leonelabs love your instructable. I was just wondering how to ease the soldering of the grounding of the lasers I have been twidling with it for some time now and if you have some pictures on the soldering in some better quality or something I would really appreaciate it. / thanks you´re awesome

[Perspective Image]

This is one of the best instructables that I've seen. Really well done explanations about all aspects regarding what I personally hope for in a comprehensive instructable: scope, background, construction, and extended project ideas. Excellent!

[LeoneLabs]

Thanks! I appreciate the complement, it took quite a bit of work, I'm glad you liked it!

[fireball9919]

the way you have this set up is completely mobile. but i would like to know if its possible to skip the remote step, and add some sort of blue tooth or just some sort of a wireless component in order to be able to control the speed of the laser changes and patterns from a laptop.. if this is possible how would i go about doing so??

[LeoneLabs]

It's possible and certainly a nice idea. Off hand I couldn't tell you the best way to do it but I'm sure an Arduino bluetooth module exists out there. That would probably be a good place to start.

[beeyach]

I am definitely making this project, already ordered the lasers. I have some questions though, the teensy 2.0 needs 5V to run, how does it work with only 3.7V from the battery? It doesn't look to have a regulator onboard.

I was planning to try this with an Arduino Pro Mini because I've seen cheap knockoffs of these on ebay for $6.20 delivered from HK, but I'm not sure they'd work from such a low voltage, they say they need 5V on the specsheet. Oh well, I guess I'll find out when I try!!

If I ran the nano board from 5V and hooked up these 3.2V laser modules to the outputs, I'd think it would break them.

Any ideas on this?

[luisazmouz]

What an awesome idea! Great work!

[zegan92]

This is an amazing concept. What woul happen if I added more lasers?!?! Should I use a bigger battery? I was thinking about 15-20

[andrea biffi]

great instructable, I couldn't imagine it more complete...

[alexanderall]

This looks awesome.

[mondeluz]

lasers can also bee bought from ebay http://www.ebay.com/itm/650nm-5mW-laser-module-3VDC-adj-lens-650-nm-8-X-13-mm-/380473849332?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item58960235f4

[Lasers!!!!!!!]

Can you use 1mw lasers and still have it be effective?

[LeoneLabs]

Yes, 1mW lasers would be fine, albeit a bit dimmer. Just be sure to look at the voltage and current ratings as those are the basic specs that need to be considered. For this project they are 3.3V / 20mA lasers.

[Lasers!!!!!!!]

Thanks really helpful

[jeromelebel]

according to : http://www.atmel.com/Images/doc7766.pdf on 29.1
You are not supposed to get more than 200mA in total from the ATmega16/32

(and only 40mA per pin).

So it might be a good idea to flash with a very high frequency but not all in the same time, when you want to light all of them.

It will get the illusion that all are lighted up, without getting the 300mA.

[mundodasmaquinas]

You're a genius. It was spectacular ... I will do that to put together one of my rock band ! Thanks for the Inspiration. Your tutorial is very good. Congratulations!

[ggardner7]

wow that was awesome hats off to you dude

[Paleolithic]

Quick concern I've come across whilst working on this project. I bought the diffraction grating from Edmund Scientific, the set of 2 sheets. I hole punched the pieces out, and put them where necessary. It doesn't seem to be having any effect on the laser though, as in the laser just points in its normal direction as usual. Any explanation or reasoning as to how this could have happened?

[LeoneLabs]

which side of the lens did you put the diffraction grating on?

[Madmartigan95]

That was.....
Wow
that had to be the best explanation about lasers I've ever heard (which is saying a lot).

Very, Very awesome Ible.

[wired365]

I just found this project and have been working on it for a week now off and on. I am having an issue with getting the lasers to turn on. I have soldered everything to what I think is correct and I charged the battery. When I have the Teensy attached to the computer I get no errors when uploading the code but there is no blink or anything from the ball itself.

I double checked that the Teensy reset and that my Arduino software is set to Teensy 2.0. I have no idea as to why the lasers will not light at all. Please help.

[LeoneLabs]

That is strange as another user is reporting similar symptoms. Have you tried running the "Blink" example for the Teensy. If you can get that bit of code to work than that's a good sign everything is being uploaded correctly. When I first started working with the Teensy I had some initial trouble telling if the code was being uploaded correctly... using the "Teensy loader" and RST button can create some confusion.

[wired365]

Sorry about such a late response I have been busy starting another term. I did upload just the blink sample from the arduino site and the code uploads and runs perfectly. This also means that my wiring is correct, at least for the lasers, because the light is blinking. Thank you for the response by the way it was helpful.
I am not sure what to do when uploading the laser ball code, because the ball is till unresponsive after uploading. Do you happen to have an updated sample of the code or the most recent working version that you could send me or post a link to?

[LeoneLabs]

This is the latest Laser Ball code I've developed.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43787305/LeoneLabs_Laser_Ball_source_v1_3.zip

It corrects some minor errors in the other version and makes it a bit easier to make custom patterns.

Good luck and let me know how it turns out.

[cford5]

This is a really cool instructable, I can't wait to get everything together for my first instructable project.

I'm planning on(though still looking into) switching the IR remote with a RF. This way the line of sight with the remote issue is removed. I can't think of any reason why this wouldn't work. Can anyone see any potential issues?

[Nick_Tiringer]

Hi!

I have a couple questions in terms of the assembly.

1) The IR receiver is soldered into pin 5, GND and +5V? Also, does it matter which red wire goes to pin 5?
2) I've soldered all of my grounds from the lasers into one connected hub, is this the correct way?
3) Power Source: I've soldered my black and red wires to the back of my JRT connector and then soldered the other ends to +5V and GND, but no lasers lit up, what am I missing?

If you could let me know soon I'd really appreciate it!

Thanks!

[Haliburt]

Great instructable, really cool project.
But uh... I don't understand what I'm actually soldering everything to. Care to clarify?
Thanks in advance.

[LeoneLabs]

Check out the two new images I added to the Overview Step. They should reveal how it's all wired together.  

Thanks for the support and f you have any more questions don't hesitate to ask!

[Haliburt]

Alright, great. Got it. Much obliged, dude.

[therrol]

here is a better picture of my wiring. perhaps I did something wrong?

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/209/wiringlabeled.jpg/

the ground is linked up to all the grounds of the lasers, as well as the battery and the IR receiver.

[LeoneLabs]

Thanks for supplying a picture. You have one pin labeled "Laser+" which I'm not sure what that is. Also have you tried directly plugging in the lasers to the battery to make sure both the lasers and the battery were working?

[therrol]

hey sorry for the delay. I thought I had responded. that is the positive lead going to the lasers and the other one is the negative lead. The lasers work when plugged directly into the battery.

[LeoneLabs]

Are you having a problems compiling and uploading the code to the Teensy? If so have you tried running the basic "Blink" example. If you can get that to work, than that should blink the onboard LED which is also tied to pin 11 (or is it 13?).

[charlesbayley]

Does the position of the laser in the ball along with firing order make any difference in the visual effect?

[LeoneLabs]

I'm not sure I fully understand the question, but let me try and answer anyway. The lasers are programmable, meaning the order in which they are "fired" can be changed with a few lines of code in software. This means you can make your own animations and sequences to create a wide variety of visual effects!

[charlesbayley]

My question was based on the code you supplied since my first goal is to get it together and operating. Changing the code is down the road aways. But based on your answer I won't worry about the placement of the lasers. I am only waiting for the remote and ir sensor. Thanks

[buscador]

Hello,
I have seen the photo of your laser ball, and you comment to me that it works well, him pediria that if you could order me the electrical scheme of connections, and you indicate me where to obtain the code and with that he programmes to programme the plate teensy. You great agradeceria.
A greeting.

[expertnoobz]

Im having troubles uploading the code to the teensy. i get a notification when i try to upload that says "'IRrecv' does not name a type" and then the code IRrecv irrecv(RECV_PIN); is highlighted. i know next to nothing about codes for the teensy, and would greatly appreciate your help, as a really want to make this amazing project!
thanks!

[LeoneLabs]

You may also be missing the IR remote library the code uses to read the IR signals. I see I didn't put a reference in the Instructable (but its commented in the code) but here it is... Ken Shirriffs IR remote library . It needs to be unpacked in the Arduino Libraries folder. Follow the tutorial to get it up and running. 

I'll add this to the soon-to-be update... 

PS - thanks for helping wunder-bar

[expertnoobz]

Thanks, i got it to upload now! but i just soldered all the wires on, and i have checked many times to make sure they are correct, but when i plug it into the battery, the lasers don't light up! please help, i'd hate all the money i put into this to go to waste!