Laser Light Show kits..

I stumbled across this one ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230027876715

It seems interesting, While I am to lasers, I am not nearly as knowledgable when it comes to them the majority of people of this forum. Just trying to get a second opinion. Do you think it looks worth it's value? The feedback on this person looks ok.. One person gave him negative because they thought it came with the laser (lol, obviously their own fault) and someone else said that the instructions had nothing to do with putting it together (which kind of scares me).

Any thoughts would be appreciated.


Also, I should mention, I am mostly interested in this, because I want to learn more about laser light show systems, so it would mostly be for the learning experience.

This kit only comes with 3 galvos, and a CD. The software on the CD is supposed to play control signals onto your audio port, and I don't know if it was just my comp or what, but that software does not work correctly (it does not split the sound up into 2 channels well if at all).

The galvos are just cheap eBay ones, but they work for a beginner project. They have two wires to each, so you can just patch an X and Y galvo to a stereo cable if you want to control it from a stereo input. I guess there are also other ways to control it though. Keep in mind though that you aren't going to be getting even more than a fraction of the speeds of true, hundred dollar galvos. Input of even 50hz seems a bit fast for them, and they can't really keep up.

That said though, they make an interesting prject to start with. Good luck!

I have a firewall at work so I can't see them... Is it the $75/99 kit? I "think" those are open loop galvos. I think you can get the same galvos for $12 or $20 without the software. Check out this thread. Post 14 is when I got the set of galvos. They can make some interesting shows with music, but if you REALLY want to do a laser show you need to get a set up like this, and then add a DAC, digital/analoge converter that'll hook up to your PC... then some software, popelscan is the only one I have found that is free, THEN you can make a REAL laser show with animations, text... all kinds of stuf... I think. My DAC hasn't arrived, so I have some expensive paper weights until... 5 to 10 buisness days from Nov 3.. O, that's almost here...

I have been hanging around a forum, Photonlexicon.com. It is a fairly focused forum for laser shows and the lasers in them. They have much info on this type of hobby.

Hi,

This is what I have been using to generate test signals for my homebuilt Galvo. It works well, lets you control the output of both channels, and is easy to use and free.

http://www.nch.com.au/tonegen/index.html

Have a good one.
Shawndoe