Slow, Cheap Laser Projector Rev. 3 (uses Arduino and Adafruit Motorshield)

In this version Nippon PF35T-48L4 steppers have been attached to the gear boxes from Solarbotics GM17 gearmotors. This gives a resolution of 7.5 degrees / 228 gear ratio, or approximately 0.033 degrees. There is about 50 steps of play in the gearbox when switching directions. The laser module was modified to draw less than 20 mA and is driven directly from a digital IO pin on the AVR microcontroller. The control board is an Arduino Duemilanove with an Adafruit motor shield to control the steppers. 5V from a wall wart is supplied to the motor shield to power the motors. The motors and the laser are controlled via the USB serial connection with a simple Python library.


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1 Comment

  1. Hello, thanks for posting my video. People interested in this should look at http://elm-chan.org/works/vlp/report_e.html for a project that uses custom galvanometers and can go fast.

    Backlash is still a problem with this design. Software compensation doesn’t work well because the backlash expresses itself irregularly.

    The projector was to help with drawing elaborate figures in the snow.

    Also, I find your products very useful. Thank you!

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