Motor for steering a laser beam

[maxsthekat]

Hi guys,

I'm trying to make a rudimentary projector of sorts using a low power (class 1) laser diode. I'd like to shine the laser onto two mirrors: one would control the horizontal portion of the scan, and the other would control the vertical portion of the scan.

My problem is this: what do you think is the best motor for this kind of job? It needs to be fast enough to allow for 60Hz refresh rates. Ideally, I'd like it to be as small as possible, too.

Thanks for your help!

-Max

 

[vk6kro]

Discarded scanners have very nice mirrors in them. These are strips about one inch high.

You could attach pieces of one of these mirrors to the sides of a square block which could then be rotated by a motor. This motor could rotate continuously and the mirrors would give a 4 times increase in scan speed. You would get 60 Hz with a motor rotating at 900 RPM.

You could do this with quite a small DC motor available at hobby stores.

The square block could be from an scrap piece of 1 inch by 1 inch timber.

 

[Mike_In_Plano]

If you're thinking about a video projection, one motor must move much faster, on the order of 15k sweeps per second.

 

[Integral]

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