Mechanical Laser Show (2017) [video] | Hacker News Reader

Mechanical Laser Show (2017) [video]

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126 pointshammerbrostime22 comments

This is so damn cool my question is, why is this type of shit so damn rare?

Like why don’t we see more instances of cool, low cost, big value hackery? Is it just too creatively difficult to summon these types of ideas idk

Thank you so much for the kind words. I am the creator and love these kinds of projects. Check out another project I created along the same lines: TheArtBot.com

If you are asking why not many people do these types of projects- you sounds like an excellent candidate to do one yourself! I have list of project ideas on my phone that I will add to at random times. Next time you think of a cool idea write it down and make it a reality!

Recently came across this DIY laser projector vid - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xszp5UQLB2g. It's all mirrors and motors in there with some manual controls.

Wow, that is clever.

I love when the parts have been around for a decade or so and then suddenly....

I tell my daughters, "Nothing new under the sun," all the time.

I could be wrong from time to time.

You should say something else. There is lots left to discover and invent.

Great explanation of the math, made it very easy to follow. And the joke at the end was a nice touch, I was totally waiting to hear about his SAAS startup...

That is beautiful work.

It may even be possible to set it up so that the movement has a more constant velocity along the path.

Maybe a mechanical governor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3lEnbrp9pI

Well if you want the laser to produce better images then one needs to use the dark art of cam design. As it turns out, simply determining cam geometry necessary to go through all those points is not enough, one must also take into account the velocity, acceleration, and even jerk profiles(the derivative of acceleration). If one does not take these into account the follower being driven can't spring back fast enough and the follower does not follow the intended profile. Most automobile cams must be produced to very high tolerances in order to achieve low vibration. The fact that CNC machine tools move in discretized distances can cause problems in some cases.

Yes- just like you are saying, the intention with the Mechancial Laser Show was not to maintain a constant laser speed, but accelerate and decelerate the laser gently. You can see the mechanism by which that is done by pausing the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dtBUiaAqRE

Since the time taken to travel to each next point is constant, closer points together mean slower speed and spread out points mean high speed. You can see that the laser will slow down for taking the corners and speed up for the straights. There was no math behind this- I just eyeballed it but you could write software/math to help you determine the perfect spacing/acceleration.

Hi. This is Evan, the creator of Mechanical Laser Show. I am planning to present it at the upcoming Maker Faire in SF for a day so feel free to come by and check it out.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask here.

See also a recent submission: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16273170

I wonder what's the story behind it, is it real or fake, and is there an original (non-gif) video.

There is indeed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgIZrSlPuko

It was a show called LaserMan -- part of ElecTRONica, a nighttime event at Disney California Adventure promoting the release of TRON: LEGACY.

Creator's site: http://www.theodari.com

Aren't all laser light shows technically "mechanical"? As far as I know solid state optical beam steering is not a thing yet.

If you google "non-mechanical laser beam steering" you can find some interesting work being researched (I don't think anything is commercially available, though).

> An alternative to an acoustic-optic modulator is the electroptic deflector. There are a few types but the readily available type uses a quadrupole electric field on a lithium niobate crystal. This generates a linear refractive index gradient in one plane that can be adjusted on a ultra fast time scale. This gives the ability to change the deflection angle of a suitably polarised beam propagating down the quadrupole axis. With fast pulse generators the deflection speed can be good enough to achieve deflection by several diffraction angles in perhaps 10 ps.

This sounds like something Geordi LaForge would say.

>This sounds like something Geordi LaForge would say.

Precisely why optics is the coolest shit ever

You can do it nonmechanically by bending the spacetime geodesic of the light path with an electromagnetically controlled nano black hole. Pretty sure they're not yet available on Aliexpress, but probably soon.

Non-electronically controlled.

At the other end of the complexity scale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2bf8L7G6WE

Nice trick to sync the movement of the balls with the lasers.

Mind blown. Any idea where I can see something like this in person?

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