Servo writer
@ October 18, 2008
Write LMR with a laser
Time to build:
10 hours
- Actuators / output devices: 2 servos
- Control method: picaxe 18x - axe31 servo driver
- Power source: bench supply
- Target environment: dark
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| lmr_writer.bas | 5.32 KB |
Been playing with my new servos and servo controller, now I just need to find my sisters dog........
go here if the video doesn't work http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2204066164988497414
some night photos:
@ Wed, 2008-12-17 20:33
Awesome
@ Sun, 2008-10-19 03:28
How about build a projector
How about build a projector like this:
http://www.scienceprog.com/avr-laser-video-projector/
@ Sun, 2008-10-19 09:51
good find!
Excellent find, this projector.
X and Y are controlled by the mirrors on a wheel. Setting the correct tilt for each mirror proved impossible to do in both dimensions (pitch AND yaw), so the programmer corrected any deviation in the X axis in the software, using a lookup table.
A few more thoughts: His mirror wheel has 16 mirror, carving up his horizontal angular field of view to 360/16=22.5 degrees. This means his projection width is about 38% of the projector-screen distance (sin(22.5). His projection heigth depends on the mirror tilt. The number of actual pixels projected horizontally are equal to the number of vertical pixels. Hence a 16x16 display.
Awesome animation by the way!
@ Sun, 2008-10-19 11:15
You MUST try this...
Can you control it from your PC sound card?
http://www.chrismeighan.com/projects/scopeshapes
This would be brilliant....
@ Sat, 2008-10-18 20:40
http://letsmakerobots.com/nod
@ Sat, 2008-10-18 21:52
Hey - I made the Picaxe turn
Hey - I made the Picaxe turn the laser on / off :D
Still.. your original version actually looks somewhat cooler :)
Here is my untouched version of your project:
More photos of my setup here :)
@ Sat, 2008-10-18 23:23
Brilliant
@ Sun, 2008-10-19 06:35
No, I'd hate that task,
@ Sat, 2008-10-18 16:17
optimizing path
Trying to think of an optimal path for the laser beam, I came up with this.
And then I realised that it is almost exactly what Ant's photo shows. Except for the nice round curve in "R". Which would be hard to program. Note that I tried to minimize the number of halt-and-turn moments. The bottom horizontal sweep could be drawn out as "thin" as possible by driving that servo to its top speed. But I kinda like it fat.
@ Sat, 2008-10-18 09:08
Marvellous
Excellent.
I had thought the servos wouldn't have enough resolution to do this over a distance. Howfar are you from the wall there?
For the mark 2, how about you replace the servos with solenoids? They should be fast enough that the image would appear to stay on the wall and you wouldn't need an open-shutter camera to see it!
Could you move the "beam" faster if, rather than moving the whole laser, you pointed it at a couple of mirrors and just had the mirrors wiggled by servos?
I just thought of another use for it: a cat exerciser. Our cat would love this. Stupid animal would chase the red dot around the wall all day. You could make your millions with this.