Re: VECTOR: Laser Hack?

This talk about laser/vector got me looking and I found this:

http://spt06.chez.tiscali.fr/00/lasers.htm

The "Build a $20 laser scanner" is right around my price point ;-)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Zonn" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2005 2:28 PM
Subject: Re: VECTOR: Laser Hack?


> On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 18:57:59 -0600, Mark Shostak <[email protected]> 
> wrote:
>
>>uP controlled? They all look like sine based images.
>>The micro may only be controlling the speed and possibly the Z-axis.
>>
>>On the other hand, I have a clock that produces beautiful numbers IMHO,
>>using a uP controlling a sine wave on a vector display, so you never 
>>know...
>>
>>-Mark
>>
>>On Tue, Mar 15, 2005 at 05:01:17PM -0700, Kurt Mahan wrote:
>>> As I was paging through the daily pile of spam the postman delivers
>>> (in preparation for dumping in the recycle bin) I glanced through
>>> the X-Treme Geek catalog.
>>>
>>> There's an item called "Laser Launch" which projects patterns onto a
>>> surface via a laser and a processor controlled mirror.  Item: 250 0438
>>> ($29.95US -- wonder if it's available cheaper elsewhere..)
>>>
>>>     http://www.x-tremegeek.com/templates/searchdetail.asp?T1=250+0438
>>>
>>> Has anybody hacked one of these?  I'm assuming the slew rate is a little
>>> slow to run games on.  Maybe a vectrex hack?
>
> I've seen this thing before. At one time I looked really hard into laser
> projection, looking for ways of reprogramming the ZVG to be used for a 
> laser.
>
> CRTs (including the Vectrex) are at *least* an order of magnitude faster 
> than
> even the fastest mirrors used to project laser patterns (at least they 
> were a
> couple of years ago).
>
> The laser projectors were so slow I could easily reprogram the ZVG to work 
> at
> laser speeds, in fact they are much easier to control and much of the
> electronics and firmware needed to create nice vectors on a CRT are lost 
> on
> laser projectors.
>
> Anyone who saw LaserMAME could tell you that laser projected games are not
> "smooth", very flickery, and that was a very expensive projector.
>
> But I'm ready when a reasonably fast projector comes available, I'll throw 
> some
> ZVG firmware at it for some cheap laser vector games.
>
> And yes, that vector clock is very cool!  It uses *curved* vectors, 
> cooooooool!
>
> -Zonn
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ** Unsubscribe, subscribe, or view the archives at 
> http://www.vectorlist.org
> ** Please direct other questions, comments, or problems to 
> [email protected]