Chirag Nagpal writes: I have created a laser pointer cotrolled through a PC mouse using an arduino and two servo motors. For getting the position of the mouse on the screen I’m running a small python script on the PC that uses the xlib library to get the current position of the mouse . This […]
Tag Archives: laser
High quality entropy source
Wardy decided to build a high quality random number generator. After searching the web he stumbled upon this project which uses a laser hitting sand in an hour-glass to generate the randomness. He upgraded the project a bit by adding a servo to reset the hour glass. He is currently recording a large number of […]
Power a microcontroller with frickin laser beams
A cheap laser pointer shining into an LED can create small voltages, the photovoltaic effect. Wardy uses it to power an ultra low power ATTiny5 microcontroller: I may have raised an eyebrow slightly to see 2.50V appear on the screen. Hmmmmmm. I had been expecting something like 0.25V or something in that region, based on […]
Zap mosquitoes in flight with a laser
Ridding Africa of Malaria spreading mosquitoes in the coolest way possible – with lasers. The software controlling the laser is smart, it can identify and kill only the bloodsucking females. Wish we had one of these in the office. Via the IRC channel.
Laser cut acrylic case for Bus Pirate v4
Here’s another cool laser cut acrylic case for the Bus Pirate. It’s made out of 4 layers of 2mm transparent acrylic. The inner two layers simultaneously act as standoffs and as an edge to the enclosure. The SVG source files are available if anyone wants to laser cut his design. I designed a laser cut […]
Bus Pirate v3 laser cut acrylic case
Hudson designed a laser cut acrylic case for his Bus Pirate v3.5 SOIC DIY edition. He provided the source files for anyone wanting to build their own. Cut from 2.5 – 3.0mm acrylic and screw together with M3x15 screws. If you use thicker 5-6mm acrylic only one middle layer is necessary, but the entire enclosure […]
Print nanometer precision 3D objects at high speed
Researchers at the Vienna University of Technology developed a process to speed up high precision 3D printing. A focused laser beam cures resin and develops a hard object just a few hundred nanometers wide. This method is well known, but what sets this printer apart is the new control mechanisms for the mirrors that focus […]
DIY laser show from DIY parts
Here’s a DIY laser show project entirely from spare parts. The laser and motors are from an old DVD player, the collimator is from an old laser printer, and it’s all controlled by a Basic Stamp 2. DIY Engineering says: I’ve designed the circuitry myself (not the LD driver), I studied the motor and mirror […]
Laser Position Sensor
Joe Grand of Grand Idea Studio has released the code and complete design files for his open source Laser Position Sensor (LPS) project. The project is based on the Freescale MC9S08JM8CLC and several Linear Technology LT1491ACS op amps. (Despite the references to Parallax in the LPS project documentation, this device is an open source project […]