DIY Green/Red Laser Projector!

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Wow, check out this green/red laser projector which can do animations.
This is one of my experimental Dance/Trance songs from 2000. I build laser systems for fun so I have put together pictures and clips from assembly to a full working system to go with the song. I know the song gets really annoying after awhile sorry. Iv’e been getting a lot of email asking how the projector works and what parts are in it.
Here’s how the projector works:
The green laser bounces off a mirror then through a green beam splitter, the beam is then separated (The reason for this is later I added a second beam turret projector which did not work well so I removed it and also the beam splitter The Green beam then bounces off a red dichroic filter and into the Scanners. The red laser passes through the red dichroic filter this allows you to mix the two colors into one beam or into dual images if the alignment is off.
(Most all of the video uses the red laser because the green was too bright for the video camera)
Here is some information on my laser system and where you can find the parts.Laser controller and software I use is from
http://www.laserillusions.com/
This is a great package and costs a fraction of any other laser software about $400.00″
Related Posts:

How to Make a Green Laser Projector

How to Make Hard Disk Green Laser Projector

How to Make Music-Syncing Green Laser Projector
DIY - How to Make Music-Syncing Green Laser Projector!


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Remember my Green Laser Projectr DIY? Well, here’s a similar DIY project except it uses a speaker to send vibrating pulses to the end-results beams instead of a motor.
So how does one go about making one of these things? Well, I made every effort to make construction as simple as possible for two reasons. One, electrical engineering is far from my speciality and I didn’t want to kill myself/ruin a laser I could only afford one of. Two, I always hated seeing incredibly awesome projects on the internet that I never had any hope of building due to funds and bizarre parts. That’s not to say you don’t need some basic soldering and construction skills, as well as a healthy respect for the power of laser light, but it’s definitely doable if you put your mind to it.
DIY - How to Build a Hard Disk Green Laser Projector!


Here’s a really cool DIY showing you how to build a hard disk laser scanner made from bunch of old hard disks.
My latest tinkery hardware and embedded systems project is a homebrew laser scanner. You know, the kind you see at planetariums- sweep a laser beam around on the wall really fast, and draw vector graphics. Commercial laser scanners have been around for decades now, but buying a complete system is still really pricy, even on eBay. Besides, where’s the fun in that?
There are plenty of examples of homebrew laser scanners on the internet. Many people have wired up a pair of loudspeakers, hard disk actuators, or other readily available mechanisms to an amplifier and used them for simple laser graphics. This will make some pretty wiggly patterns on the wall, but it isn’t a real vector graphics display. The best example I know of for a totally built-from-scratch laser projector (not using commercial galvo actuators) actually uses custom hand-wound galvanometers. Very nice.
Green Laser Projector!

Remember I made a simple homemade DIY green projector? Well you can buy one at Brando gadgets for about $80.
Related:
Zedomax DIY - How to Make a Simple Green Laser Projector!



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Since I have been playing with green lasers for about a year, I never saw any good use for them except to point them to the sky or buildings.
Since the green laser has a lot of power, especially the one DragonLasers sent me recently, I decided it was time to make a simple green laser projector without me spending days to build one.
This simpler green laser projector was made so I could use it for my next party and I always wanted to make this. Although this laser projector only does one animation, 2 whirpools, I planned to improve upon after making this very basic version.
For complete DIY HOWTO, click here
When the motor is stopped, it also displays a bunch of green laser stars like this:

Zedomax DIY - How to Make a Simple Green Laser Projector! - HOWTO

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Step 1
First, you will need a green laser. I recommend anything 125mW and above.
For this DIY, Frank from DragonLasers.com sponsored me a Spartan 250mW green laser. (Thanks Frank!)
You also need a diffractive glass that will distribute the green laser beams. I was lucky that the Spartan comes with it. You could probably use those cheap diffractive glasses from 3D glasses too.

Second, you will need a plastic epoxy. (In the video, I say you need two but you just really need the plastic epoxy as it works really good for everything.)

Third, you need bunch of pipes. I went to home depot and got bunch of cheap galvanized pipes for about $10 total.

Step 2
You need to drill a hole in the center of the diffractive glass, then epoxy it to the motor. Now, I accidently broke the glass and had to epoxy everything. Just make sure to use a real thin drill and go slow so you don’t make the same mistakes that I did.
Then, also epoxy the bottom end of the motor to the 90 degree pipe arm. (Make sure to solder on 2 wires to the motor!)
(Sorry, I forgot to take pictures while doing that…)

Step 3
Build your green laser projector using the pipes and pipe parts sorta like below.
Put all the wires through the pipes so it comes out the other end. (Sorry again, I forgot to take pictures of this step…) Then assemble everything. You can fit the green laser through the T-pipe piece. (For the T-pipe piece, I used a bigger size then used electrical tape around the pipes to stabilize it.)

Step 4
Now you have two wires coming out the other side of pipe. Simply connect that to a 1.5V battery OR you can use a DC adaptor.
Step 5
Once you get the motor running, simply align your green laser and there you go, a simple green laser projector.

You should get nice set of two whirpools of green laser beams.
Now, you could probably add another axis and another motor to get even better animated effects.
I plan to add a microcontroller like CUBLOC or Basic Stamp in the future so stay tuned and subscribe to Zedomax.com.
This DIY was made to experiment with the green laser, so don’t shoot me if it’s not super high tech. It’s supposed to be simple enough so any regular joe can make one. But I promise next time it will be more high tech…
DIY HACK - How to make your own Automated “James Bond style” Party Room!
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One of our long-time readers and a winner of a free Green Laser, Brian Gaut from Schwippy, has made a new website explaining how to make the Emergency Party Button and transform your livingroom into an automated “Jame Bond style” party room.
As seen in the video, this is a great way to transform your livingroom into a party dance club.
Once Brian presses on the emergency party button, the curtain closes automatically, light dim out, then all the party lights, music, laser, steam, and strobe lights start coming out.
Really neat, great job Brian for finally documenting your party invention!
Basically, it is exactly what it sounds like; a button that instantly launches a party. When pressed, the blinds to my apartment close, the kitchen, hallway, dining room, and living room lights dim, the stereo starts blasting Haddaway - What Is Love, black lights turn on, laser lights start moving to the music, a strobe light goes on, and the fog machine starts up.
With another press of the button, the party is gone as easily as it started.
It may not be the most hi-tech thing in the world, but people sure as hell love it when they come over.

(The Emergency Party Button)

(Strobe Light)

(Fog Machine)
The parts are pretty discrete so if you live with your parents, you might even use this method to “hide” your weekend parties while your parents are gone.
Laser Christmas tree
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Yey, Laser Christmas tree! It’d be great if you had a Christmas Rave in your house.
Laser Pumpkin

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Need some motivation for this Halloween? Check out the Laser Pumpkin show!






