Mad scientists wanted to build laser-based vector HUD

[Jasper]

Hmm.  I'd love to see something like this in car windshields.

[Template]

Hint: a speaker is a very sensitive solenoid.  They don't particularly like DC through them, but that's easy enough to account for.  You'll need a DAC and a uC and that's pretty much it.  Maybe I should get in on this...

Also--the geometry approximates linear for incident angles close to the normal.

[Rococo Modem Basilisk]

Hint: a speaker is a very sensitive solenoid.  They don't particularly like DC through them, but that's easy enough to account for.  You'll need a DAC and a uC and that's pretty much it.  Maybe I should get in on this...

Also--the geometry approximates linear for incident angles close to the normal.

Oh, okay. I dig. I wasn't sure if you were talking about using it as a solenoid, or if you were planning to do something funny with sound frequencies (in which case I'd suggest a peizo disc instead).

[Template]

Hint: a speaker is a very sensitive solenoid.  They don't particularly like DC through them, but that's easy enough to account for.  You'll need a DAC and a uC and that's pretty much it.  Maybe I should get in on this...

Also--the geometry approximates linear for incident angles close to the normal.

Oh, okay. I dig. I wasn't sure if you were talking about using it as a solenoid, or if you were planning to do something funny with sound frequencies (in which case I'd suggest a peizo disc instead).

They're both linear actuators known to work into the kHz range...

[Rococo Modem Basilisk]

I don't know that I have the equipment or fine motor skills to build a rotating mirror that can be driven by a peizo disc.

[Template]

I don't know that I have the equipment or fine motor skills to build a rotating mirror that can be driven by a peizo disc.

Use two solenoids to actuate two single-axis mirrors (or one double-axis mirror--trickier).


[*LASER*]:---\(Pivot Mirror 1)
             |
      (P M 2)\-----|SCREEN|

[Triple Zero]

Gonna be big.  And pricey.

This stunner thing is very simple by comparison, and is still costing an arm and a leg, and more time than I thought.

the article about the home-made stunner said the hardware cost somewhere around $250 total, IIRC?

[Rococo Modem Basilisk]

Initially, I was planning to use an AVR -- specifically, an AT90S8515 (which I have two of, and which sold for something like $5, and more like $2 if you order ten at once). Currently, that line is being phased out, and they suggest the ATMEGA8515 (same pinout, twice the flash memory, twice the speed, slightly cheaper last I checked) instead.

shit. those are disposable cheap. cheers.

http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/product_card.asp?PN=ATmega8515
http://www.avrfreaks.net/index.php?module=FreaksTools&func=viewItem&item_id=145
These would be the AVR resources. The $5 pricetag was from jameco, iirc.

[Rococo Modem Basilisk]

Okay, so I had a little too much caffeine, and half-built the thing (giving no heed to the fact that I had none of the required parts save a DC motor with a cam), unbuilt it, rebuilt the same half differently, rinse and repeat about six times. Having broken it enough times, I think I can safely say that if I get around to trying to build it some time when I'm not too manic to take the time to fabricate a stiff rod of the appropriate length and count the teeth on the gears, I could probably do it in an evening. The source code for the driver on the AVR should be easier, though I would probably need to know which method of driving the mirror and laser are being used and how many rows and columns should be used.

Protip: really ancient CDROM drives (the kind that look about twice as big as they should) often have a lot of gears and shit inside (a lot more than necessary). A smart man (read: not me) would just rearrange the gears and remove the stuff that would get in the way on the innards of such a drive and implement the display that way, then reassemble the drive and stick a lens where the door for the drive bay would be, rather than breaking the damned thing and scattering the gear assemblies all over the floor.

[Template]

Okay, so I had a little too much caffeine, and half-built the thing (giving no heed to the fact that I had none of the required parts save a DC motor with a cam), unbuilt it, rebuilt the same half differently, rinse and repeat about six times. Having broken it enough times, I think I can safely say that if I get around to trying to build it some time when I'm not too manic to take the time to fabricate a stiff rod of the appropriate length and count the teeth on the gears, I could probably do it in an evening. The source code for the driver on the AVR should be easier, though I would probably need to know which method of driving the mirror and laser are being used and how many rows and columns should be used.

Protip: really ancient CDROM drives (the kind that look about twice as big as they should) often have a lot of gears and shit inside (a lot more than necessary). A smart man (read: not me) would just rearrange the gears and remove the stuff that would get in the way on the innards of such a drive and implement the display that way, then reassemble the drive and stick a lens where the door for the drive bay would be, rather than breaking the damned thing and scattering the gear assemblies all over the floor.

Rows and columns are raster concepts.  We're talking about a vector display.  The instruction set is roughly {turn on, turn off, move(xy vector), return to center}, right?  Repeated/arpeggiated to make an actual image...

Something like that, right?

[Rococo Modem Basilisk]

Okay, so I had a little too much caffeine, and half-built the thing (giving no heed to the fact that I had none of the required parts save a DC motor with a cam), unbuilt it, rebuilt the same half differently, rinse and repeat about six times. Having broken it enough times, I think I can safely say that if I get around to trying to build it some time when I'm not too manic to take the time to fabricate a stiff rod of the appropriate length and count the teeth on the gears, I could probably do it in an evening. The source code for the driver on the AVR should be easier, though I would probably need to know which method of driving the mirror and laser are being used and how many rows and columns should be used.

Protip: really ancient CDROM drives (the kind that look about twice as big as they should) often have a lot of gears and shit inside (a lot more than necessary). A smart man (read: not me) would just rearrange the gears and remove the stuff that would get in the way on the innards of such a drive and implement the display that way, then reassemble the drive and stick a lens where the door for the drive bay would be, rather than breaking the damned thing and scattering the gear assemblies all over the floor.

Rows and columns are raster concepts.  We're talking about a vector display.  The instruction set is roughly {turn on, turn off, move(xy vector), return to center}, right?  Repeated/arpeggiated to make an actual image...

Something like that, right?

Right now, the mirror and the laser are driven by a single DC motor with cams and gears and shit. So, it's a pseudo-raster system, since all I control is when the light goes on.

[Template]

Okay, so I had a little too much caffeine, and half-built the thing (giving no heed to the fact that I had none of the required parts save a DC motor with a cam), unbuilt it, rebuilt the same half differently, rinse and repeat about six times. Having broken it enough times, I think I can safely say that if I get around to trying to build it some time when I'm not too manic to take the time to fabricate a stiff rod of the appropriate length and count the teeth on the gears, I could probably do it in an evening. The source code for the driver on the AVR should be easier, though I would probably need to know which method of driving the mirror and laser are being used and how many rows and columns should be used.

Protip: really ancient CDROM drives (the kind that look about twice as big as they should) often have a lot of gears and shit inside (a lot more than necessary). A smart man (read: not me) would just rearrange the gears and remove the stuff that would get in the way on the innards of such a drive and implement the display that way, then reassemble the drive and stick a lens where the door for the drive bay would be, rather than breaking the damned thing and scattering the gear assemblies all over the floor.

Rows and columns are raster concepts.  We're talking about a vector display.  The instruction set is roughly {turn on, turn off, move(xy vector), return to center}, right?  Repeated/arpeggiated to make an actual image...

Something like that, right?

Right now, the mirror and the laser are driven by a single DC motor with cams and gears and shit. So, it's a pseudo-raster system, since all I control is when the light goes on.

OK.  So, like the laser barcode reader at a grocery store?  You should be able to minimize parts if you do it right.  A barrel-shaped faceted mirror might make things lots easier...