Laser Light Show Controller Using dsPIC

A Microchip dsPICDEM Starter demonstration board is used to build this prototype laser light show controller as it features a 30F6012 processor chip.

Details

There will be a laser beam in a basic laser light show that is deflected by two galvanometer scanner heads wherein a mirror to steer the beam in horizontal and vertical direction is continuously moved by each of the galvanometer heads. A prototyping area is included in the board and is occupied with two connectors for power and analog input, voltage regulators, and the DACs. The construction of the system was simplified by the basic I/O circuitry contained in the board along with an RS232 interface.

The dsPIC controller will allow vector patterns to be uploaded from a PC or stored in flash program memory in a vector format while functioning as an arbitrary waveform generator (ARB). Two 14-bit DACs feed the analog output to a commercial analog driver board and two high-speed galvanometer scanners. This makes the entire system to be a Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) control loop where feedback is supplied inside the scanners through a capacitive sensor. Analog signals are usually accepted by the control loop.

Rest of the project