X Y speaker laser-show

Here I will show how to make a audio lasershow. First I have two videos for you.

I have accomplished with laser show program for mac(is also possible with a frequency generator program)and music cool effects.

The vibrations from the 2 base speakers (with 1 mirror an each speaker) makes the laserbeam move with the music and the frequencies (audio).

Step 1: What you need

Hotgluepistole
laser
2x base speaker
2x mirrores (1,5cm X 1,5cm)
an borde (wood)
straw
2x plastic pices(1mm thick)
wooden stix (p.ex. "mikado stix")
styropohr

Comments

[Shadetree Engineer]

Nice idea for getting a pair of mirrors to move. I was lucky to find an old laser video disc player, and built a light show module using the aiming mirrors, which are directly connected to the speaker outputs of a small amplifier. The coils on each mirror were close to four ohms each, and took less than five watts to drive. Next time I fire up my module, I'll be bouncing it off of two mirrors to get a larger pattern as it plays about one foot diameter at a five foot range. I never did figure out how to get that video disc laser tube to turn on though...bummer.

[Shadetree Engineer]

I figure out the wiring on the video disk power module after finding a pinout for a similar model. Turned out to be really easy, it just needed one jumper wire across two pins.

[natepost]

stupid question...but What exactly is a laser video disc player... i have never heard of one of these... don't know why i might just call it something else i guess...and what do they look like it sounds interesting.

[Shadetree Engineer]

The reason todays cd's are called 'compact disc', because optical disk's used to be huge! Wiki
And the laser used in one of these old machines was just as impressive. The one I have salvaged is a CO2 tube with a high-voltage power supply. I just never was able to figure out how to get the supply to turn on...

[2N3055]

NO. The laser tubes in Laserdisc Players were Helium-Neon made by either Toshiba or NEC) The 12" analog video players were made my Magnavox, and most likely Pioneer. If you send me an image of the power supply, I can probably tell you how to reverse engineer it (fancy words for enabling it) Its very simple.

[Shadetree Engineer]

Toshiba He-Ne, and a year after this post I re-wired the module to turn on with a single low voltage control switch. Thanks!

[2N3055]

Perfect! Great to hear! :)))

[Gridnack572]

make sure this CO2 tube is intact and still holding co2 i could be wrong but i believe their the same (CO2 - vacuum tube) if its not holding what its supposed to vacuum or co2 it wont work at all

[Shadetree Engineer]

I don't think it's a vacuum tube if it's been filled with CO2, wouldn't a vacuum require the removal of any CO2 present? The tube I have is intact as far as I can tell. No cracks or obvious signs of deterioration. But I don't think I'm ever going to use it, so it's just a shop trophy.

[2N3055]

It's NOT a CO2 laser, those lasers were made for more power.. These he-ne's produce about 2~5 milli-watts,,,,and the helium neon tube is hard sealed and would hold the inert gases for decades+++.. They were systems from the late 70's and thru the 80's and most are still lasing today (if you can find them) and that's about 30 years ago :)

[Shadetree Engineer]

Sure. I don't know why I was thinking back then that it's a CO2 in the disk player. My mistake! Must've been spending too much time looking into how to build a CO2 system or something...

By the way, my HE-Ne laser is still working just fine.

[2N3055]

awesome! (co2 tubes look somewhat like he-ne's :)

[alexhalford]

CO2 laser tubes do contain CO2 but at less than atmospheric pressure, so they can be (if slightly inaccurately) as containing a vacuum.

[Shadetree Engineer]

Okay, my mistake. I had thought that all gases have to be removed to have a vacuum, and didn't think of variable amounts of a vacuum.

[alexhalford]

A 'soft' vacuum is slightly lower than atmospheric pressure (14 psi). An area of extremely low pressure is know as a 'hard' vacuum. You are correct, but a 'true' or 'perfect' vacuum is impossible to generate on earth... AlexHalford

[hg341]

well you must live down low but where i live the atmospheris pressure is near 8-10 psi ^{i think}

[Shadetree Engineer]

Aww darn! Another one of those absolutely perfect things that is never present when you finally get it right!

[Derin]

please correct grammar other than that nice ible

[2N3055]

No.. It should be "Please correct your grammar, other than that, nice ible." ;-)

[jansell]

Can somebody provide an english translation of this article?
many thanks
the internet.

[jmanc2]

Wow, this project reminds me of the laser show I built and put on for my high school dance, 22 years ago lol. I made my mirror/actuators almost the exact same way (glue, toothpicks, scavenged front surface mirrors and speakers) then fed either sound from a signal generator or actual music to the speakers for different effects. I built the whole thing in a rack mount carcass for portability. The laser was a portable HeNe from Edmonds Scientific that measured about 2x3x8 inches and had less power than the cheapest pen lasers today. This brings back memories!

[team_nes_1986]

Watching the second video is like watching the beginning of the music video for "Vital Signs" by Rush. Pretty cool, man.

[Poppa Chubby]

Very cool idea. How do you aim the laser so it hits both mirrors? Was it trial and error, or did you have a method? I wonder if you could get a larger pattern by gluing long sticks to the diaphragm and positioning the mirrors farther out? Kind of like cantilevering them... I might have to try this at home.

[nf119]

I made the exact same thing! I guess you beat me to it.

For all you Windows lovers here is the standalone program I used: lissajous.exe

[HeWantsRevenge]

fun fun +1

[GorillazMiko]

very cool instructable, great pictures too.

[homunkoloss]

Cool Effects ! I tried this with 1 Speaker. But how is the sound quality ?