Laser Image Projector

This is basic instructions on how to build a portable image projector that uses a green laser instead of normal light. The laser permits images to be cast great distances, and doesn't require focusing - it's always in focus.

This particular design is simple in order, more for the sake of keeping my short attention span on track for long enough to actually get this finished!

Let me know if I've missed some detail and I'll correct it.

For more photos see flickr page

Warning: Even a low power laser can cause permanent eye damage. Always wear safety glasses and never point at people, animals, or police helicopters!

Step 1 Materials and Tools

This method describes absolute basics using lesser quality optics and low power green laser.

This guide shows the set-up for slides made from overhead transparencies.

I will use the Dinkle rails and polymorph pellets.

Materials Required:

• Green laser module 10mW+
• 1 solid length of wood (~90cm)
• polymorph pellets (or a willingness to create lens holders from wood, plastic, etc)
• concave and convex lens. You can get these from old disposable cameras which camera shops will throw out by the dozens.
• Hardware for attaching rail to wood (bolts or screws, depending on method).

Optional Materials:

• Dinkle rails, with 72mm rail modules (x4), and the mounting feet (x8), available from http://www.altronics.com.au/ (note, you may find a better way of mounting the parts, but this one works for me).
• perspex or pcb 72mm with for Dinkle mounts.

Tools required:

• Drill
• Jigsaw or handsaw
• Hole making bits for drill (if using wood to create lens holders)

NOTE:

I will use the Dinkle rails for this instruction simply because they make alignment so much easier. They also allow a great degree of modularity - being able to swap different lasers, lens, etc in and out quickly.

Comments

[super knex builder]

how can i make it colored?

[mheaton1]

Lol. Picture 3 looks like a bomb

[Jack A Lopez]

It sure does.  ;-) Bomb-like insides, plus a conservative looking briefcase on the outside... I think this just adds to its awesomeness!  Very stylish.  I sort of imagine the theme from Mission Impossible being played while this thing is in use.

[ALogan97]

Would one of those small, red pet toy-type lasers work?

[squiggy2]

any laser would work, but obviously the lower power the laser, the dimmer it would be and the shorter range it would have. echo_anomie here uses a 100mW laser, but states under materials that 10mW+ is needed. 5mW is considered the limit for "safe" lasers, so you can expect a pet laser would be even less than that.
In short, yes a pet laser would work, but it would have a range of probably a few cm in a dark room

[Foxfur]

Has anyone tried projecting using Viewmaster discs? It might be cool. I wish I had my old 'Land of the Lost' discs... I miss that show.

[sergutaya]

cool !!!
www.tehnoboard.ru

[baruc]

hi, i like so much your project, but you know what kind of eye protection do I even need? i have some lens and a 30mW green laser. Thx

[biolethal]

http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=m570&_nkw=532nm+goggles

[baruc]

thx, i'll try to find these here in mexico. Thx

[tinkerman92]

i dont know if someone mentiond this already or not but if u put a dish of living organisms in that they wouldnt b living for long. cool tho

[wareneutron]

now you watch in film viewing

[bodhi.evans]

The pictures in step seven look suspiciously like a bomb...

[qmc]

Don't worry ... as long as you're not a Muslim, you should be alright :/

[ZeroXL91]

Lol, that's what I was thinking! <.< >.> cool project though eh?

[mgysgthath]

SO essentially you're just piping the beam through the slide, after diffusing it with the lens? I've got a 450mW 532nm laser and I'm thinking of trying this one out. I've already got some convex lenses. I've got ready access to plenty of LCD screens and I'm wondering what you're thinking? Pipe a video signal through the LCD and instead of a regular backlight, use the laser? I think with 450mW even with the light absorption, it might work decent.

[industrialphreak]

you know what would be cool...
get a green one, a blue, and a red one all together and have full color laser projection.

[JermsG]

That's exactly what I was thinking too! Already wondering where I can scrounge parts from....

[redstarsrbija]

I reaaaalllly wonder if this would work

[mgysgthath]

Well my RPL-425 is for sale, if anyone wants a 433mW professional green laser.

[jj.inc]

I wonder if you stick an LCD in front of this, moving green pictures!

[macphreak]

The laser seems to have very little contact with the heatsink. Not sure it would be very effective. Other than that its a cool little project.

[electfire]

yeah the pic 7 seriously looks like it vould go tickey boom... reminds me of the steampunk portable audio amplifer, I made- (it is in a nice wooden case you can carry)- - I need to post an ible on it sometime...

[matstermind]

a MUCH cheaper place to get the laser diode would be from dealextreme.com

10mW $7.86

50 mW $16.45

[conrad2468]

 looks like a bomb!! not gonna lie

[dolbowent]

I am about to buy a projector soon need info

---

I tried all sort of G120's and did no like the response time. I mean they are great and work fine but bulky and sort of slow. I looked around at a bunch of stuff coming out of China and they worked well but only for a short period of time then they sort of poop out and die lol...costly!

The reason I started to look at these things is a friend of mine just got me into lasers. I have been an electrical engineer for years and a DJ on the side.

One of my aspirations was to build my own projector. Now I do not have the mula for a new 1/4 or even 1/2 watt diode but I was able to get a Reliant 250M.
It was out of an old Mobolaser unit and I finally got it to run after a few days of pulling my hair out and backwards engineering it to trouble shoot it.

Lol it turned out to be an opto blown.

I will have to beam mix using a 250 mw red but I was able to get my greens and blues now at around 250mw.

I also picked up an old pangolin system. Right now it is in pieces but give me time I will have it worked out soon.

One of my questions is before I start buying stuff for my new / old projector is:

Has anyone used the Skyscan?

I heard it has even a faster smaller mini type of scanner block in it.

I found it here: www.minilaserscaner.com

Please let me know if you have used one of these projectors. I may go that way instead.

[Chimeras]

www.aaxatech.com/products/l1_laser_pico_projector.htm

It looks like aaxa is starting to retail out similar projectors with RGB lasers. Looks like the same general idea, however. 

I might buy one after I botch the one i'm trying to make. haha. 

[saabman]

Hi, I working on a project of the same idea. I am using a small picture keychain bought for 20 . Its a ttf one. I did remove the led backplane... It seem to work well for now. I missing the final stage lens.... I will send Picture and instruction soon.. Any question welcome.

[saabman]

Here is some picture of my first test Take a look Waiting for your comments Fred

[trashpiece]

finally someone is following up. Very nice.! what are you using to spread the beam? since I am using a 3W laser, I can't begin mounting until I get eye protection. But what kind of eye protection do I even need?

[rivetgeek]

if you are using a 3W laser...you really shouldn't be messing around with it until you understand wavelength cancellation and safety procedures. That laser is powerful enough to blind you instantly.

[trashpiece]

Too late...I almost burned down my garage! Still have my eyes, though. I decided upon setting up a video box to work on this thing. For the laser projector I used an old monochrome lcd overhead projector panel with a vga controller. I spread the beam with a large polished ball bearing and re-focused the light using a large lens from an old crt projector. I was just tweaking it when I became homeless, and lost my job. 5 months later, I have put my life back together, and i plan to begin working on it again in january.

[milsorgen]

 lolwut

[Bort]

where do I got this "focusing lense"

[fernxtwo]

you can get them from and old slide projector. easy obtainable for 5-10 $

[Ex Marine]

nice instructable but i need some help
so i followed kipkays tutorial on lasers and get a lser out of a DVD drive
but instead of the laser being focused into one beam it acts as a spread beam (like a torch) is this because it doesn't have a lens?

so also is this bad or does it just mean there is no need for the convex lens

[jetse]

hi,
you're right about the laser having no lens and not needing one.

but you can consider getting a convex lens and placing this one closer to the laser than the focal length (so if the focal length is 5cm keep the the lens no further then 5 cm, otherwise you're image gets up side down)
'
cause when you put an convex lens in front of it you can control the beam spread. how closer to focal point how smaller the beam spread is.

greetings jetse

[dlinke]

just an idea... and a very lo tec one... if you could set up a disc transparency with say 25 frames of a clip on the outer border of it. make it spin with a little handle or even an electrical motor taken from a toy and make the frames pass through the "amplification chamber" of the projector you could project an animation without the lcd. i just imagined a very cheap way to avoid breaking a cellphone...

[mateoplummer]

Has anyone tried it with a TFT screen? I'm confused to how it would work, I thought TFT screens aren't translucent, or are they translucent enough for a powerful laser to pass through? what would the image quality be like? thanks

[xeniczone]

It would possibly be possible to do with a TFT screen but have some problems. The TFT screen is indeed transparent. But the screen absorbs at least 50% of the light so to do it with this would be too dim. An idea would be to use either DLP or maybe Plasma. Plasma wouldn't absorb as much of the light but the image quality wouldn't be as good and they don't make plasmas that small. But there is nothing stopping you from trying. A Laser projector would be noval as you wouldn't have to focus it and could project the image extremely long distances. But you will have to face some difficulties like There would need 3 LCD screens and 3 Lasers that would all have to be focused into one image. Using a R G B set up.