Can I modify this scanner?

[leukoplast]

Hi everybody. I am a normal lasercommunity member..but for some reason the site and the forums have been down all morning. So I come here in hopes that somebody can help me.

I recently came across this Ameba 3D scanner thing ( http://www.2shopper.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MLIAL03 ) And it normally comes with a 5mw green laser that can do all kinda of geometric shapes and cool effects stuff.

And its only $150. So I figure I could buy it and mount my 75mw greenie in it to have myself my own personal laser show system. But I don't really know if that can be done with this.

I am hoping somebody here is familiar with it, or something similar to it, and can tell me that it is possible, and hopefully easy, to disassemble it and modify it to my liking. Or I could just take the thing apart and make my own assembly from the motors/scanners inside.

Thanks, Any help is appreciated :D

 

[comozo]

With money, time and knowledge it can be modified.

 

[jkaiser3000]

Several factors have to be considered.

What type of laser will you be using?. If a simple pointer, then you will need a "major" modification as you need to provide plenty of cooling to the laser, or it will overheat and probably get damaged.

Also, what type of scanner is it? open loop or closed loop?. If open loop, you probably won't have problems, just replace the laser that came with it with your modified pointer. If closed loop, you will again need to modify your pointer, as it will require blanking of some sort to produce the figures. On the other hand, by the price I'd say it's open loop, so you're probably ok with it.

Another factor is the space available inside the case for the new laser. You may end up changing the case altogether if it's too small.

All in all, the most important factor to consider is the cooling, without it, it's not worth the hassle. Unless, of course, you have a cooled laser already.

Edit: I just re-read the ad and noticed it uses simple DC motors, so you will be ok with a non-blanking laser

 

[instinct]

I would probably see if they have that laser scanner with a red beam, if so it would be much cheaper, there are a lot of other cheaper ones like that with red lasers.