LaserThing

The LaserThing is what happens when an old Laser Disk player is cannibalized.

This is engineered art. The laser shines up into a pair of alignment mirrors which are pivoted and actuated by 8 ohm speaker coils (go figure). Anyway, I built a small 8085 Microprocessor to provide a set of counter oscillating waves. What you get is a constantly changing and very mesmerizing red light/line design on the wall.

The original version was built in 1985. I stuffed all of the parts into a pair of aluminum boxes with a hole on one side that the laser shown through. Everybody loved the effect on the wall but the device was really pretty ugly. Some time around 1999 I decided that the mechanism and laser were very cool visually but hidden in an ugly box. So, I set out to redesign. I got rid of the plastic mirror actuator mounts, machined new aluminum mounts and placed the actuators on the end of a long brass rod. Next I mounted the laser and it's high voltage power supply about half way up the rod. The whole unit is about 4' tall top to bottom.

Everyone that has ever seen it has asked me to make them one. I have always replied, bring me an old laser disk player and I'll be glad to. No one yet has brought the parts and LD players are getting pretty scarce these days even at garage sales. Oh well...

The Base	The Laser and actuation mirrors	Arty photo 1	Mirror assembly This was remounted in version two onto a piece of machined aluminum, the plastic just had to go.	Bottom Of the two brass rods, the bog one is solid and provides structural support, the smaller one is hollow and serves as a conduit for the wiring.
Lasers are so cool!	Laser & Power The copper clad box is the High Voltage power transformer for the laser.	Cool!		Bottom of the laser mount
Base Top The power and reset switch are by the connector. The black knob and lever control a pan and tilt that aims the laser by moving the whole rod.	Connector The wires are all run in metal conduit. The last 12" of the run into the power base are actually copper tubing into a CD mic connector.	Laser Back As completion neared, it became obvious that no wires should be exposed so I split the actuator wires and routed them to the actuators inside 1/8" brass "fuel-line" tubing.
The Design on the wall	The Design on the wall	The Design on the wall	Diver board Note the powersupply - it was also salvaged from the laserdisk player.	Microcontroller Board