Shop OBEX P1 Docs P2 Docs Learn Events
Walgreens Laser + 7.5 degree stepper movie — Parallax Forums

Walgreens Laser + 7.5 degree stepper movie

metron9metron9 Posts: 1,100
edited 2007-05-02 08:18 in General Discussion
I went out and bought a laser at walgreens for $2.50 I used some pwm and a hex inverter and two fets and a $2.50 cent stepper motor.

The connection to the unipolar stepper is pos to both centers, then on the two coils I move the voltage from 0 on 1 up to 5V on 1 while the inverter does the opposite on the other coil.

At 10" from center I get about 1 inch travel. so thats 3.14195 times 10 = 31.41 and divide by 360 =.0872 inch per degree so 1/.0872 thats 12 degrees of micro movement.


Realize this is a 24V stepper, I am only pushing 5V through it but even at that its rock steady at the slow motion I was moving it at.

You can see the two red led's go from bright to off opposite each other. Then I show the 12 degree movement of the laser beam.

Picture is a shot of the laser and its circuit board when hacked out of the pen. I used the batteries for my AXMAN laser it's a bit more solid construction but the beam and optics are the same cheapo guts.

See movie at www.metron9.com

I expect to see my new studio8 dreamweaver package come ups in the morning. Soon I will have some projects with lots of movies and pictures code and all the good stuff on my very first homepage. I only put the movie and nothing else on the site now its Flash.

I plan to put mirrors on the steppers and see what kind of speed I can get. Instead of a beam blocker I will try just controlling the power to the laser on and off for now.

Just a note I better add here, I threw a new 9V on the test board and it stopped after a few times back and forth. Why? Because I forgot the kickback diodes. I put in 2 LEDS just to see how much current in kick back I was getting from the coils thay were bright I can tell you.

I wonder if that energy could be used to feed back to the positive side by storing it in a cap?

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Think Inside the box first and if that doesn't work..
Think outside the BOX!

Post Edited (metron9) : 11/16/2006 7:57:47 AM GMT
DSC05423.JPG
640 x 480 - 60K
«1

Comments

  • andy_conandy_con Posts: 53
    edited 2006-11-16 08:13
    metron, could my bs2 controller, control the lasers e.g. on and off????

    and how would i go about doing that???

    my laser - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=001&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&viewitem=&item=110052985654&rd=1&rd=1

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    www.laser-man.co.uk

    Post Edited (andy_con) : 11/16/2006 12:33:32 PM GMT
  • metron9metron9 Posts: 1,100
    edited 2006-11-16 15:06
    *DANGER*DANGER*DANGER*DANGER*

    Did you buy that laser? I hope you also bought goggles because one reflection off a shiny surface with that laser and you will need a new eye.
    Also if you have friends you want to show your new toy too, better make sure they have goggles these things are very dangerous to play with.

    I do not wish to comment on dangerous equipment interfacing, I see it has a TTL interface but you are on your own with this thing, sorry.

    I like to play with small toys, ones that can't kill me or hurt me if I mess up.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Think Inside the box first and if that doesn't work..
    Think outside the BOX!
  • andy_conandy_con Posts: 53
    edited 2006-11-16 18:50
    LOL its fine, have you seen my web site??? i know what im doing with lasers!!

    come on how can i interface it???

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    www.laser-man.co.uk
  • andy_conandy_con Posts: 53
    edited 2006-11-16 21:42
    ok well say i want to interface a red laser, running at 3v how would i go about that.

    can i get the controller to output 3v ??? or do i need some Circuits ?????

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    www.laser-man.co.uk
  • metron9metron9 Posts: 1,100
    edited 2006-11-16 21:45
    If you dont have a datasheet I don't have a clue.

    I just took a look at your site, very nice work. What do you use to publish with?

    I was suposto get studio 8 today but the company I bought it from (po box I mean) sent me just flash professional instead of the studio 8 package
    Now I had to send it back, with an RMA number then thay have to ship the right one , I won't see it till next week.

    Good to here you know what you are doing with lasers you had me worried.

    Wow 50mw in dvd burners, How about CD burners what do they have in them?

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Think Inside the box first and if that doesn't work..
    Think outside the BOX!
  • andy_conandy_con Posts: 53
    edited 2006-11-16 21:49
    a data sheet for what????

    i use front page for my website and yes i know to much about laser and dont worry im very safe with them LOL.

    CD burners dont have 650 (red) lasers in then. It has to be a DVD burner if you want red. A CD burner has infered laser in them, you can still use it, it will be around 30-40mw, but be careful.

    the dvd diode is the one i want to put in my scanner.

    there so much potential for my scanner i just dont have enough knowledge, i still cant do any coding [noparse]:([/noparse]

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    www.laser-man.co.uk
  • andy_conandy_con Posts: 53
    edited 2006-11-17 08:19
    go on ebay and do a search for faulty dvd.

    then just buy the cheapest dvd burner you can. It can be a drive from a computer like mine, or a tv unit, anything really.

    then you can just take the diode out and start burning

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    My site - www.laser-man.co.uk
  • FranklinFranklin Posts: 4,747
    edited 2006-11-17 21:08
    You can switch 3VDC with a transistor or MOSFET. for the AC you could get a solid state relay that would switch the power for you.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    - Stephen
  • YendorYendor Posts: 288
    edited 2006-11-17 22:02
    Andy,

    You have to realize that the art and science of coding and electronics can't be done overnight. Baby steps.

    Not sure on your electronics background or if you have 0 coding knowledge, but since you like lasers...start with a bread board and a 5V source or 9V battery biasing a few LED's using Ohm's Law to calculate resistor values for some different currents, based on the LED specs (max current, voltage, etc). Are you okay with those concepts?

    After you've done that you can then apply that with the sink/source current of the pins of the microcontroller and attach your led to that.

    Then, off to coding to turn on/off your led. Learning what a bit, byte, word, string, integer, float is... Then you get your led to blink fast for 10 seconds, blink 8 times, blink every second, etc. Then theres PWM concepts to make your LED pulse, dim/get brighter, or even take a bi-color led and make it tri-color.

    Again, not sure on your background and I apologize if it's too simple, but this gives a basic start, as well as some direction. It's amazing how exciting a simple led can be! You seem to be able to breadboard, so you apparently have some electronics in your pocket...

    These concepts can be directly applied to the laser project and galvo/stepper motor you're working on.

    Keep posting those questions!

    Rodney
  • metron9metron9 Posts: 1,100
    edited 2006-11-19 04:49
    I did a bit of experimentation today as Yendor asked how fast they would move.

    I have some new steppers coming next week with 18 degree steps so I should see maybe 10 degrees of movement.
    If anyone knows of steppers with a bigger step let me know, the galvos Andy is using I think are 36 degrees or something in that range.

    I was able to get 60HZ in about a 4 degree swing. I used PWM and ramped the voltage back and forth from 1% to 99%, 255 steps per 4ms up and 4ms down. The picture of the scope readout shows 72hZ but that was a little fast and started reducing the swing. I did not see an increase in the swing when I went down to 30hz. The noise you hear is just one of the wires bouncing on the cardboard. The scope picture has a thick line because it shows the ripple of the PWM. I used an atmel chip at 9.6 MHZ and fastPWM with no prescale so the PWM is running at 37Khz

    See movie here: www.metron9.com

    Argg, I hate this Coffeecup Html Editor It has no idea how to keep track of links in a project, man I cant wait for Dreamweaver to get here
    So the background doesn't show up, the real player link won't work it's a joke. They refuse to give my money back.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Think Inside the box first and if that doesn't work..
    Think outside the BOX!

    Post Edited (metron9) : 11/19/2006 5:06:35 AM GMT
  • andy_conandy_con Posts: 53
    edited 2006-11-19 15:53
    what i intend on doing if we can get the 2 lasers connected to con stamp, is run them through a beam splitter, so i can join the beams.

    that way i can have red on, green on or both on, to make yellow. which would be awsome

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    My site - www.laser-man.co.uk
  • andy_conandy_con Posts: 53
    edited 2006-11-20 18:00
    a few pics from my scanner

    http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j185/andy_con/lasers/scanner/DSCN3101.jpg

    http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j185/andy_con/lasers/scanner/DSCN3093.jpg

    http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j185/andy_con/lasers/scanner/DSCN3074.jpg

    http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j185/andy_con/lasers/scanner/DSCN3097.jpg

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    My site - www.laser-man.co.uk
  • YendorYendor Posts: 288
    edited 2006-11-20 19:41
    Andy,

    Is this your PIC scanner that you're working on w/Metron, or is this something else?

    Very cool!


    Metron9,
    Why wouldn't you want to use a stepper with a smaller step size?· Say 3.5 degree's?


    Rodney

    Post Edited (Yendor) : 11/20/2006 7:53:38 PM GMT
  • andy_conandy_con Posts: 53
    edited 2006-11-20 19:53
    yes thats my xy scanner

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    My site - www.laser-man.co.uk
  • YendorYendor Posts: 288
    edited 2006-11-20 19:58
    Andy - So you got it working - congrats!

    Metron - saw your video, and I realize that you're in the experimenting mode, but would you think it would be better to mount your laser, and use a mirror on the stepper instead?
  • andy_conandy_con Posts: 53
    edited 2006-11-20 21:03
    well its always been working, just not how i want it.

    metron is still working i things (i think) LOL

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    My site - www.laser-man.co.uk
  • metron9metron9 Posts: 1,100
    edited 2006-11-20 21:11
    Yes it would, I just don't have any small mirrors (my wife wont let me break any mirrors we have) so I will be stopping at a hobby craft store to find some.

    I know I should order some laser mirrors but I have not gotten around to it yet.

    I also have some gauge movements that use a coil and from 0 to 24 ma gives it a 60 degree swing. If the mirror was light enough those may work. I am going to give them a try tonight.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Think Inside the box first and if that doesn't work..
    Think outside the BOX!
  • andy_conandy_con Posts: 53
    edited 2006-11-20 21:21
    cool, did you get the info on my galvos matron??? the 36 degree thing???

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    My site - www.laser-man.co.uk
  • andy_conandy_con Posts: 53
    edited 2006-11-20 21:30
    a few pics of inside my box of tricks -
    http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j185/andy_con/lasers/scanner/DSCN3079.jpg

    http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j185/andy_con/lasers/scanner/DSCN3078.jpg

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    My site - www.laser-man.co.uk
  • metron9metron9 Posts: 1,100
    edited 2006-11-20 21:51
    Yes, Andy I did.

    What do you think of this idea. Picture attached. A 3 sided mirror spinning at 30 rpm would allow 90 frames per second with a 90 degree sweep by timing the laser beam on and off you could make a simple liquid sky. If you could go fast enough you could use a second rotating triangle mirror to control a second direction.

    I found some plastic mirror material I may give this a try and see what happens.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Think Inside the box first and if that doesn't work..
    Think outside the BOX!
    laser.png
    1121 x 1352 - 72K
  • andy_conandy_con Posts: 53
    edited 2006-11-20 21:58
    ummm n ot sure to be honest. ive already had one of them and sold it -
    http://www.laser-man.co.uk/2006/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2&Itemid=6

    x and y is the best.

    cant the coding be done from the orignal work we did, plotting all the points???????????

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    My site - www.laser-man.co.uk

    Post Edited (andy_con) : 11/20/2006 10:14:58 PM GMT
  • YendorYendor Posts: 288
    edited 2006-11-20 22:32
    Andy, Please send me or post the info on the galvo's as well...

    I can't find the ones you have on ebay, and commericial ones are way to expensive for a hobby.

    Rodney
  • andy_conandy_con Posts: 53
    edited 2006-11-20 22:34
    here are mate - the info i got with them

    http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j185/andy_con/DSCN3066.jpg

    http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j185/andy_con/DSCN3065.jpg

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    My site - www.laser-man.co.uk
  • metron9metron9 Posts: 1,100
    edited 2006-11-20 22:45
    Well now, I put the crappy plastic mirror piece on the stepper and of course the dot size is all wacko, but I get 14 degrees of movement a 3 inch band at 24 inches. Pictures attached

    I better find some laser mirrors. I think then with the 18 degree steppers I found we can expect to get 18 degrees or about 3 feet across at 20 foot room size.

    I was in error above post, its 600 rpm to get 30 frames per second.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Think Inside the box first and if that doesn't work..
    Think outside the BOX!
    DSC05556.JPG
    640 x 480 - 58K
    DSC05557.JPG
    640 x 480 - 60K
  • andy_conandy_con Posts: 53
    edited 2006-11-20 22:48
    so what does that mean for mine??? or are you still just doing tests????

    thats one big dot LOL

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    My site - www.laser-man.co.uk
  • andy_conandy_con Posts: 53
    edited 2006-11-21 12:14
    this is what i want to do.

    Providing i can use the controller to turn the red and green laser on and off.

    The orange line is for when both laser are on together it makes a yellow/orange colour

    http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j185/andy_con/beamsplitter.jpg

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    My site - www.laser-man.co.uk
  • metron9metron9 Posts: 1,100
    edited 2006-11-21 14:34
    Andy, I thought you said you did not want to pull the stamp out of your laser project as it was hard to get too.

    I also suggested a mosfet to switch the lasers. I asked what you had on hand.

    Basically you just use high and low commands to turn on and off two pins on the stamp. Those two pins are connected to the base of the mosfet or transistor, what pins get used on the mosfet or transistor is dependent on the component you have.

    Please tell me what you have for a transistor or mosfet and we can draw a schematic on how to hook it up and how to program the code.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Think Inside the box first and if that doesn't work..
    Think outside the BOX!
  • andy_conandy_con Posts: 53
    edited 2006-11-21 17:36
    Well i dont really wana take it out, but if its 100% must do then i will. as you can see from my pics its a pain in the ***.



    I dont know what a mosfet is??? can i buy one from here - www.rapidelectronics.com ???

    i dont have any transistors or mosfet, but find the right one on that website and ill buy some. find what ever i need on that web site and i can buy it tomorrow.
    metron9 said...
    Andy, I thought you said you did not want to pull the stamp out of your laser project as it was hard to get too.

    I also suggested a mosfet to switch the lasers. I asked what you had on hand.

    Basically you just use high and low commands to turn on and off two pins on the stamp. Those two pins are connected to the base of the mosfet or transistor, what pins get used on the mosfet or transistor is dependent on the component you have.

    Please tell me what you have for a transistor or mosfet and we can draw a schematic on how to hook it up and how to program the code.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    My site - www.laser-man.co.uk
  • andy_conandy_con Posts: 53
    edited 2006-11-21 19:50
    my new module

    http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=001&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&viewitem=&item=110052985654&rd=1&rd=1


    and with the help of a lens it can light a match about 8 metres away!!!


    http://s80.photobucket.com/albums/j185/andy_con/lasers/100mw/?action=view
  • andy_conandy_con Posts: 53
    edited 2006-11-25 01:10
    the most amazing laser show in the world!!!

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=tWxJ4hU1xm8


    metron do you think we will be able to do this???

    LOL

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    My site - www.laser-man.co.uk
Sign In or Register to comment.