Projector death by laser

[GRisdale]

The other day my projector had a run in with a laser, and now has two lines of permanently green pixels... :D

And so begins the long winded insurance claim.

 

I have only found two Sanyo approved service centres in the UK, Multicare and TP Matrix. Does anyone know of any others before I ship it off? Also, does anyone have any idea what the repair cost is likely to be? I'm trying to establish whether it's likely to be at all viable...

 

It's a Sanyo PLC XP56.

 

Cheers,

Gareth.

 

PS. For anyone that didn't know - lasers and projectors don't mix! To be fair it was less to do with the laser tech and more to do with the clumsy stage tech who knocked said laser and didn't tell anyone...

[Stuart91]

For anyone that didn't know - lasers and projectors don't mix!

 

Out of curiosity, how powerful was the laser? And how far was it from the projector when the damage occurred?

[GRisdale]

Not certain, but I think it was a 30w ND-Yag(?). Range was about 12m.

 

Gareth.

[abbotsmike]

so how did it actually do the damage? pointed at the projector lens?

[Dmills]

30 Watts!

Yep that will do it, especially if it was Q switched.

 

The scary thing here actually is that a very high power class 4 laser was in a position to be knocked by a passing tech, those things really need a babysitter with them at all times (Especially if it is the usual ex medical Q switched variety).

 

The issue with anything using a Q switch is that the output is in ~20 nanosecond pulses at a few tens of Khz rep rate, peak power is many tens of KW, and the projector lens will bring that beam to a almost diffraction limited point on the image plane which will ablate the surface of the DMD or LCD, not much survives that sort of thing (Including vision if that had been knocked in just the wrong way).

 

Cameras are notorious for having sensors scragged by show laser systems in exactly the same way.

 

Regards, Dan.

[GRisdale]

Hmmm. Not sure if I may have quoted the wrong unit / number... I know for certain the beams were green. Units were two blocks bolted together, each block about half the size of a shoe box. Three of them needed 1A supply. Someone was talking about 30w ND-Yags, (which I know are green) so I assumed that's what they were...

 

To be fair to the laser tech he was very diligent about setting them up and programming them safely. We initially rigged the projector with a taped up lens cap until he was completely happy that the safe zone had been plotted and tested. He then had a gantry that was in the line of fire curtained off, just in case anyone might wonder up there.

 

Consequently he was thoroughly shocked and gutted when we realised what had happened.

 

The show went ahead (less projection) and none of the six HD broadcast cameras got hit...

 

Gareth.

[Dmills]

Sounds more like 30mW then 30W, but could still do it, especially if there was some 1064nM leaking out (YAG lases at 1064nm which is then frequency doubled to 532nm for green).

 

30W is into SERIOUS outdoor only, sort of shows.

 

Regards, Dan.

[Bobbsy]

The only 30 watt laser I've ever encountered was used for engraving letters into metal and had all sorts of safeties and protection built in. It could cut a groove into tough metal cases in a fraction of a second.

 

I sincerely hope if it was in a position where it could be easily bumped by a stage technician that it was nearer 30mW!

 

Bob

[johndenim]

Watch this idiot.

Warning! there is a swear word!