# Laser Vortex for $30 How-To



## HalloweenJared (Aug 31, 2008)

Cool idea. I'll have to add that to my plate for this year (too many things!)  Just as an aside, I was at Hobby Lobby today to get a styrofoam head for Madam Leota a la Mr. Chicken and saw a package of small round mirrors in a pack for like 2.50. They had a selection of sizes. The pack I got has probably 12-18 mirrors in it sized from a 3/8" diameter to an inch I'd say.

Anyway, thought I'd pass that along in case it might be useful...


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## HalloweenJared (Aug 31, 2008)

*motor gets HOT*

So I tried this out in my garage. VERY Cool effect! Instead of soldering a dime to the motor shaft, I temporarily cut a piece of hot glue stick and cut it at an angle and stuck it to the motor and glued the mirror to it. Worked well so I could fine tune the angle I wanted. Problem is, after having the motor run for 3 or 4 minutes, I noticed that the angle wasn't staying constant...turns out the motor was getting so hot that it was starting to soften the glue. Obviously soldering it isn't going to be a problem, but will the motor just conk out because it gets so hot? How often/long to you have your vortex running? It is just for a few minutes and then it kicks off for a bit?

Thanks for the great ideas - your webpage is great!


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## Garage-of-Evil (Feb 24, 2008)

Sorry for the late reply. the motor on mine never gets even a little warm. Sounds like your over loading it. With the heatsink on the module I can run it till the batteries die, which is many, many hours.


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## Mortissanguine (Aug 13, 2007)

I reeeeallly want to use this in my haunt...but am concerned about the whole LASER in people's EYES aspect...any thoughts on this?


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## Garage-of-Evil (Feb 24, 2008)

I would say common sense rules have to apply, as usual. 

Keep the cone big enough and positioned correctly to prevent it from hitting folks in the face. Use a low power module, like the 5mw. Remember you're using fog, and you're reflecting the laser of a spinning mirror. The intensity is nothing close to actually looking into the module full on. 

I know that all to well as I've accidentally looked at it a few times. I would liken it to a flash bulb x2, and I have no doubt if you made a habit of looking at the module full on you'd do some damage eventually.

That said, I don't have a light meter and I sure as hell don't have the background required to say "it's fine, don't worry about it", so caveat emptor.


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## Garage-of-Evil (Feb 24, 2008)

I would say common sense rules have to apply, as usual. 

Keep the cone big enough and positioned correctly to prevent it from hitting folks in the face. Use a low power module, like the 5mw. Remember you're using fog, and you're reflecting the laser of a spinning mirror. The intensity is nothing close to actually looking into the module full on. 

I know that all to well as I've accidentally looked at it a few times. I would liken it to a flash bulb x2, and I have no doubt if you made a habit of looking at the module full on you'd do some damage eventually.

That said, I don't have a light meter and I sure as hell don't have the background required to say "it's fine, don't worry about it", so caveat emptor.


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## frugal ghoul (Nov 4, 2005)

I've got my vortex done, now I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas how to present this outdoors? I have a space between bushes, but I was wondering about a protective, (semi?) enclosure? Thanks in advance.


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## Fatman (Sep 9, 2008)

I plan on making a vortex this year and just received my laser. It's looks great. 
I should mention it's the same model recommended in the GoE tutorial. 
I have an adjustable powersupply that puts out 1.5 to 12v at 300ma. 

The laser specs call for < 300mA. Am I assuming correctly that 300 mA will be too much for this laser? 
I'd hate to burn it out when I just got it. 

Here are the rest of the specs:

Beamvoltage: 3VDC
- Operating Current : < 300mA
- Output: <5mW
- Expected Life: 5,000 hours
- Wavelength: 532nm
- Diameter 1/2in, Lenght 2 3/8in
- wire lenght: 6in
- Class III a


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## Rev. Noch (Sep 2, 2008)

Fatman said:


> The laser specs call for < 300mA. Am I assuming correctly that 300 mA will be too much for this laser?
> I'd hate to burn it out when I just got it.


The laser is stating that it uses < 300mA. So if the only thing running from the power supply is the laser you will be fine. The laser will only draw as much current as it needs to run itself. Now if you start running other things off of the power supply and the current draw exceeds the 300mA, it's the PS you should be worried about overheating and/or burning up.


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## HalloweenAsylum.com (May 19, 2009)

I'd like to add that I had a chance to see the Garage of Evil guys doing their thing at the East Coast Haunt Club meeting this past weekend. I was there primarily to drop off some donations for door prizes, but I stuck around to see the seminars and they were great. I can't wait to make the laser vortex - it was so cool. It was like being inside a big green kaleidescope! I'm glad I got to see it in person. I also loved the foam cutter they made for under $20. I may be a Halloween retailer, but I love to give the TOT's a show at my house too and the laser vortex will definitely be a part of it this year!


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## Conman (Aug 7, 2008)

I know I'm a little late but I was looking at the how-to and I thought it looked amazing. So, I then got carried away and had to watch a bunch of pro, DJ lights in action. I saw a few really cool ones so I went and looked up the price. Anyway, I came across some cool finds at Target. Take a look.

First a manufactured Laser Vortex (not worth 100 $ though)
Eliminator Lighting Green Laser - Tarantula : Target

A colored Strobe light (didnt see it in action but it looks pretty cool)
Eliminator Colored Strobe Light - Criss Cross Effect (E-109) : Target

And finally...I'm considering this because its a great combo, a colored light/fog machine
Eliminator Dynamic Duo Fog Machine and Light (E118MKII) : Target

Thanks alot for the how-to, Ill definately be using this sweet effect!


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## dTor (Aug 11, 2009)

Here is a really good video of what this will look like.

YouTube - Green Laser Vortex


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## confucius101 (Aug 12, 2009)

*can someone*

cool effect.......... dose anyone offer these already built???? 
I would love to get a hold of one or two of them


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## dTor (Aug 11, 2009)

I am probably going to build a couple of these. I may do a couple extra if the first ones turn out well.


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## cryptoid (Aug 16, 2009)

hello: you guys should check out the( pocket laser light show) at coolstuffcheap.com,it is the same setup as your home made laser for $20.00 shipped. it will make a vortex as well as many other cool patterns.if you wanted to you could substitute the red laser in it with a more powerfull laser,i`m going to mod mine with the green laser you suggested and include it in my garage haunt,it`s a very cool and quality little product. you might consider pointing the vortex down so that people can walk thru it. as far as lasers go it`s always been my understanding that moving lasers dont do damage to the eyes but solid beams can?--cryptoid


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## HalloweenJared (Aug 31, 2008)

Interesting - let us now how it turns out.



cryptoid said:


> hello: you guys should check out the( pocket laser light show) at coolstuffcheap.com,it is the same setup as your home made laser for $20.00 shipped. it will make a vortex as well as many other cool patterns.if you wanted to you could substitute the red laser in it with a more powerfull laser,i`m going to mod mine with the green laser you suggested and include it in my garage haunt,it`s a very cool and quality little product. you might consider pointing the vortex down so that people can walk thru it. as far as lasers go it`s always been my understanding that moving lasers dont do damage to the eyes but solid beams can?--cryptoid


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## dTor (Aug 11, 2009)

I found a video of it on Thinkgeek.com.

ThinkGeek :: Pocket Laser Light Show


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## cryptoid (Aug 16, 2009)

it has several different adjustments so you can get it to make a lot of different patterns including a vortex.the farther you move away from the wall the bigger the pattern gets.it has a spinning mirror inside it, works great in the dark or on a light colored untextured wall,looks like it could be modified to a more powerful laser .--cryptoid


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## Fatman (Sep 9, 2008)

I finished my vortex and love it. I was hoping I could pair it with my FCG, however the light from the blacklight ruins the effect. I'm going to do a bit more experimenting with it before I give up. 

I've also discovered that if you make the circle too large it loses some of the effect as the vortex area is too wide, or maybe that was due to too much smoke.. I'm not sure. More testing will occur tonight.


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## Garage-of-Evil (Feb 24, 2008)

LOL - I "tested" for about two weeks after I finished the first one. Try "testing" with some Hendrix on next time.


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## RandalB (Jun 8, 2009)

Not to Step into GOE's thread, but you can eliminate the batteries alltogether if you are running a modded ATX power supply (ALA Scary Terry). A typical ATX Powersupply has a +3.3 VCD line that runs the laser module from GOE's build with no problems. Add a 12VDC Fan for the spinning mirror (I velcro'd my mirror on) and you can run the whole thing without worrying about the batteries dying in the middle of a walkthrough. 

I use the ATX Supplies to run my wiper motor props so I just ran a 3.3 and 12 line with some cheap 2 conductor wire to the vortex gen...

THANKS To GOE for the inspriation!

RandalB


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## slicerd (Aug 27, 2009)

I was reading through this thread and I was wondering if you could get a different effect using the same materials. 

I want to create a solid horizontal line across a whole room or area. If you have seen the first Alien they had a similar effect when they were in the alien space ship and found the eggs. There was a bunch of fog and I am assuming they were using a laser with a rotating mirror or a special lens. The effect was kind of a force field looking thing.

I figure two small pieces of mirror glued back to back then glued vertically on a computer fan should produce a similar effect when used with fog. I dont have anything to cut glass with so I have not been able to try this yet if I am hoping I can find some small 1"x1" peices of glass at home depot other wise I will need to get a glass cutter. I also don't have a fog machine yet but with any luck I will be able to get one closer to halloween.

Anyway what do you guys think?

Edit:
Also you can get green lasers from the site below I have a handheld battery powered one from them and then now sell just the base module.
DealExtreme: $7.29 5mW 532nm Green Laser Module (3V 11.9mm)

Note they are in china and shipping is slow ~3-4 weeks.

Edit:
Got all my stuff together today and it looks like this should work. I got a piece of wood and made a groove in it placed the glass into the grove and used hot glue to attach it all to the fan. I hope it will be strong enough. I rigged a laser to a little stand and clipped the on button down and I now have a solid line all the way around my computer room. Actually I had two solid lines because of the two pieces of mirror glued back to back but after a little fiddling with angles and placement it was one solid line and when pointed at the center of the mirror it covers almost the whole room. Now all i need is a fog machine to see it will actually produce the effect I want. If anybody lives in the El Mirage/Surprise area of AZ and has a fog machine and wants to see if this works drop me a line otherwise I will have wait till the fiance finds a job then maybe I can afford fog machine.

If anybody wants to see pics I could take some just let me know.


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## jayb (Aug 18, 2009)

O.K. so I started construction on one of my own, thanks for the thread. But I'm noticing that I can't get it to work with the resistor in line. I might have bought the wrong one, but I was wondering if it will work without it, or what it's particular function is, sorry for the noob questions.


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## StfRon (Aug 20, 2004)

The resistor will drop the voltage down and slow the motor, generally these little DC motors spin very fast. I did this effect a few years ago, and the motor spun the mirror right off because it was going to fast.

Your resistor is probably not allowing enough electricity through to spin the motor.


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## jayb (Aug 18, 2009)

O.K. I found the right resistor, and it actually works great. I was curious if I could use a 9 volt battery instead of all the giant D size, would make things a lot easier, didn't know if the extra 3 volts would do any harm to the components.


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## confucius101 (Aug 12, 2009)

does anyone have an extra setup 
they can sell me??? 
via pay pal =)


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## slicerd (Aug 27, 2009)

jayb said:


> O.K. I found the right resistor, and it actually works great. I was curious if I could use a 9 volt battery instead of all the giant D size, would make things a lot easier, didn't know if the extra 3 volts would do any harm to the components.



It would be an extra 6 volts. Right now you are using two D cells with 1.5 v each so 3 volts. The fan would work fine just run really fast but you might kill your laser module with 9 volts. You could always run them off two AA batteries personally I run my fan and laser off wall warts I tried to run them both off of one but it wasn't powerfull enough to spin the fan and power the laser. If you do go with wall warts make sure to check the volts with a meter what they print on the back and what the actual output is can be very different. I have a 12 volt that outputs over 20 volts and a 9 volt the is around 8.5.


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## GoolGaul (Nov 29, 2008)

*100 years ago I...*

100 years ago, I used to take the old school LaserDisc players apart (remeber the 12" CD-looking things?) and remove the laser and mirror mechanisms.

The mirror mechanism has 2 small electric solenoids in an X-Y axis configuration. When the solenoids were hooked up to an audio amplifier on the speaker outputs, the mirror would move around, and make non-symmetrical spirograph-like patterns.

Now I am kicking myself for not keeping them.

Go out garage-sale-ing and ya might find one. These mechanisms probably wouldn't go "bad" from disuse, as they are just magnets and coils of wire... And you'll likely find other goodies at garage sales too - I have found, just in 2 days alone, small clown dolls (everyone's scared of clowns), some porcelain-faced dolls (which creep up pretty nicely), a dozen wrought iron candle holders of various types (singles/multiples), and this great 7" high glass pryamid looking thing (which will probably get a rotating shrunken head or something similar).

ALWAYS stop at garage sales run by old people - they will have, you guessed it, OLD STUFF!


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## slicerd (Aug 27, 2009)

GoolGaul said:


> 100 years ago, I used to take the old school LaserDisc players apart (remeber the 12" CD-looking things?) and remove the laser and mirror mechanisms.
> 
> The mirror mechanism has 2 small electric solenoids in an X-Y axis configuration. When the solenoids were hooked up to an audio amplifier on the speaker outputs, the mirror would move around, and make non-symmetrical spirograph-like patterns.
> 
> ...


If you want spirograph like patters you could get one of these.
Pocket Laser Light Show :: Westminster Inc. :: ThinkFastToys.com

I have one and its pretty cool from what I understand it is easy to hack a green laser into it but I have not done that yet. This could be a easy hack to create the vortex like people are doing in this thread you can make just a circle with the manual controls and leave it there. Check out this site to see somebody that has already hacked theirs to use a green laser.

Pocket laser show mod


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## dTor (Aug 11, 2009)

I just ordered my green laser from ebay! I'm off to the Shack to get the motor now.


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## dTor (Aug 11, 2009)

Yay! It's done. Only took about 3 1/2 hours last night. I used the bottlecap method rather than grinding down the gears and soldering a dime on. This way, when I get it setup outside, I will have the ability to make slight adjustments to the angle of the mirror.

Great tut!


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## Hellspawn (Jul 2, 2007)

just saw this yesterday at Target

Color Beam Light Show - 11" : Target

anyone have any experience with it?


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## susan from creepy hollow (Aug 15, 2008)

I realize this thread is ancient history, but we're interested in buying one of these already put together and working... have tried repeatedly to contact http://www.halloweenlasers.com/index.html to no avail... anyone know them personally or have a set up they no longer use in their haunt?


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## RandalB (Jun 8, 2009)

Susan, 
Don't know about that particular system, but I can certainly walk you through making your own if you want. It takes minimal skill and, like the thread title says, it should cost well less than $30. Won't have all those fancy knobs and such, but it is just as spectacular as theirs. Most of the components are probably in your garage or house already. 

LMK,
RandalB


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## susan from creepy hollow (Aug 15, 2008)

cool i would appreciate that!


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## RandalB (Jun 8, 2009)

Ok,
How's your tech savvy? Are you comfortable with basic wiring on Low voltage DC stuff? No soldering needed but some wire cutting and splicing?

I ask becase there are two ways I know to put this baby together, Low Tech with wallwarts and batteries and slightly higher tech using an old PC power supply.

The PC power supply one is a little more expensive (unless you have an old PC laying around or know someone who does) but has the additional versatility of being able to 
power additional props or LED lighting or whatever. For example, I use the same power supply for the Laser Vortex Generator to run 2x Wiper motor props and a set of 12v Blacklight tubes.

Let me know and we can go from there. It may also be an idea to do this in a different thread so as not to steal the OP's thunder.

RandalB


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## Hobie14T (Mar 14, 2009)

Search for a guy named Industen or you can email him at [email protected] he sells them already made. I have bought many thing from him and everything has worked great.


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## GoolGaul (Nov 29, 2008)

I can make these.

There are a few things i'd need to know.

What color - Red, Blue or Green?

How strong? It doesn't need to be very strong, the concern is whether or not someone can get it in their eyes. If you are going ot set it up so it's impossible to get flashed, go a little stronger, and then you can have some ambient light. If it's possible to get flashed, then stay with lower powers (under 25 mw) and keep the space as dark as possible.
Adjustable speed? Nice but not necessary.
Do you want to trigger it somehow? This is very easy to do, but adds $
How big do you want the circle to be from how high? this tells me how to set the mirror.
Case or no? If you want to install it into something, a case would be a pain.

bare bones RED assembled would be about $100 + shipping. about 5 mW.
step up to a heavy duty 20 mW Green, with laser on/off control about $150 + shipping
100 mW Green (VERY BRIGHT) with analog controls for laser brightness/blanking and motor speed, in a nice sealed aluminum case... about $600 (but that is certainly more laser and $ than you might need. a direct hit from a laser like that can damage your vision)

I can also make Laser Lumia. Check out the very cool Flying Laser Ghost Those need a 100mW or more. A barebone lumia (easily installed into a stryofoam cooler -and than painted as an additional tombstone) would start at about $350 and can go up to $1500 for a red/green/blue with color mixing in a weatherproof case.


:::::KEY SAFETY NOTE:::::: If you are going to use one in a walk-through, you MUST USE ABSOLUTE CAUTION to protect your audience. You MUST ensure it is IMPOSSIBLE to directly shine into anyone's eyes. These things are no joke.

With the note above being said, for anything over 5mW, the prices listed include wavelength-specific goggles. These are mandatory, I will not sell anything over 5mW without them, no if's, and's or but's. Once you have goggles, I'll subtract the price of goggles for additional items. Again, safety first...

Just PM me if interested... I'll be happy to work with you to get you set up properly.

The Flying Laser Ghost was installed into the white cooler at the bottom of the video, was plugged in Oct 10th and was just unplugged last weekend, running 24/7 for a month. no problems.


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