Arduino
Android

Arduino
Project List

Arduino
Projects

Contact
Us

Privacy
Policy

Arduino
Android Arduino Project
List Arduino Projects
Contact Us Privacy Policy

Home

Arduino Projects

Arduino Projects

Arduino
Project List

Arduino
Android

Arduino
Project Ideas

E-Books

Tutorials

Pinouts

Sample
Code Library

Blog

News
& Updates

Electronics
News Updates

Contact
Us

HomeArduino
Projects    Arduino
Projects    Arduino
Project List    Arduino
Android    Arduino
Project IdeasE-BooksTutorials    Pinouts    Sample
Code LibraryBlogNews &
Updates    Electronics
News UpdatesContact
Us

»Lite
Brite LED clock using an Arduino

»The
tweiger counter

»Pocket
Photodiode Geiger Counter

»DIY
3D Controller using an Arduino

»Analog
Fabric Joypad using an Arduino

»“12
Thumbs” R/C LEGO Dragster

»Solar scare
mosquito

»An
Arduino Powered (Scale) Speed Trap

»Arduino Pong
Clock

»Strandbot
– a solar & arduino powered R/C motorized Strandbeest

»The
Ultimate FM Transmitter (Long Range Spybug)

»Make
your own programmable thermostat for $66 with Arduino

»Online
Thermometer using Arduino

»Self-balancing
skateboard/segw*y project Arduino Shield

»The
Ultimate Altimeter – A compact, Arduino altimeter

»IOS-Controlled
Arduino waveform generatora

»How
to control LED’s with Processing and Arduino

»Arduino
Waveform Generator Shield

»DIY
Flex sensor using Sugru and graphite powder (Resistencia flexible usando Sugru
y polvo de grafito)

»Bring
“dead” batteries back to life with a toroid and the Joule Thief
circuit.

You Are Here: Home
» Projects
» Auto Leveling Laser Cross
using Arduino

Auto Leveling Laser Cross using Arduino

Posted by: admin
Posted date: April 08,
2013 In: Projects, Sensor – Transducer – Detector Projects
| comment : 0

So this Lazy Old Geek purchased a Laser Cross. I created a manual leveling
Laser Cross to use for aligning stuff on my drill press:
http://www.instructables.com/id/ManualLevelingLaserCross/

Well, being a Geek I decided to make an automated platform that adjusts
automatically with an Arduino.

Well, the picture may look a little scary but I’ll break it down into little
bitty parts.

Step 1: Parts Lists

Parts List Laser Assembly
650nm <5mW Laser Cross Module Diode
$4.85 ebay
The laser diode in the module is an HLM1230

I made my laser current source using this:
http://www.rog8811.com/laserdriver.htm

Parts List Laser Current Source
LM317 regulator $0.24
TaydaElectronics.com
100 Ohm potentiometer $0.21 TaydaElectronics.com

1N4001 diode $0.01 TaydaElectronics.com
10uFd 50V capacitor $0.03
TaydaElectronics.com
47 Ohm resistor $0.01 TaydaElectronics.com
(used
instead of the two 10 Ohm resistors)
PCB I used a hunk of the following:

5* Breadboard Bread Board Prototype 432 Points 5*7cm
$1.39 ebay
Did not
use a pushbutton

Parts List Tripod Mount
6 x AA battery holder with 2.1mm plug
AdaFruit.com $5.00
http://www.adafruit.com/products/248

1 used plastic cutting board
1 discarded music CD player mechanical
assembly
1/4 x 20 nut
Miscellaneous 6-32 and 10-32 hardware
2 Mitsumi
M35SP9 stepper motors salvaged from old printers. These are unipolar stepper
motors. If you have or get different stepper motors, you may have to design your
own interfacing and modify the software accordingly.
1” 7/16” vinyl
tubing
Hot shoe bubble level $0.99 ebay.com Hot shoe is a camera term.

Parts List Arduino-clone
L.O.G. $10 Arduino (modified)
http://www.instructables.com/id/LOG-10-Arduino/

1 ULN2003 Darlington driver $0.20@ TaydaElectronics.com
2 BS170 FETS $0.26@
TaydaElectronics.com
1 Dip switch 4 position piano $0.34@
TaydaElectronics.com
1 FreeScale MMA7361 Module inclinometer accelerometer. I
got my in an ebay auction for $9 but they’re available for $10-$14 from
ebay.
PCB I used another hunk of the following:
5* Breadboard Bread Board
Prototype 432 Points 5*7cm
$1.39 ebay.com
Totally cost is less than $30,
most for Arduino-clone and battery box.
I am not going to go into the details
of making the Laser drive current source as it is explained in the above
website.

The HLM1230 is designed for 25mA or less. This is how I determined the 47 Ohm
resistor value. (See picture) I added a 2.1mm power plug from my scrap pile.

Step 2: Laser Safety and Information

***********************WARNING**********************************

Any laser you buy will have a DANGER stick similar to this one. The particular
laser that I am using is 5mW. The typical laser pointer is 1mW. Now I’m haven’t
researched laser safety that much but as I understand it, even a 1mW can damage
the eye if looked at directly. This one is five times more wattage so use
carefully. Do not aim it at a person or
animal.
***********************WARNING**********************************

Some readers may wonder how the cross is generated. Search Ebay.com for this:
650nm <5mW Laser Cross Module Diode
Some of the pictures (See picture)
show that this module actually projects a red cross. This is created by a
special lens used in this module. You can adjust the orientation by rotating the
lens mount.

By the way you can get lenses that generate just lines or multiple lines and
other patterns.

Step 3: Tripod mount

My original design used two music CD cases. They seemed to be fairly sturdy
but not too heavy and about the right size. However, the plastic is rather
fragile to work with. I ended up with a lot of cracks and it wasn’t very stable.
So my next design uses a stiff plastic cutting board, I got from my cousin.

Design: I decided on a three point design with a bottom and top
piece of plastic. The bottom piece is attached to the tripod. The top is
attached to the bottom with three long bolts. The upper left corner is a fixed
pivot point, the upper right and lower left corners have bolts attached to
stepper motors so that the top piece can be leveled. After the problems I had
with the CD cases, I decided to design this one a little better and started with
a drawing for the base. (See picture)

Tripod base:
My CAD program isn’t that good and I’m not very good
at using it, so the drawing is not really clear. From the plastic cutting board,
I cut a 5 ¾” x 7” piece.
In the center I marked an X for the hole where the
tripod nut will go.
Then I drew four lines to locate where the three points
for the pivot point and stepper motors go.

Tripod Mount:
In the center, drill a 3/8”
hole. This was determined by measuring across a ¼ x 20 nut. All tripods use ¼ x
20 bolt to mount the camera or in this case my fixture. The hole is a little
smaller than the nut.
To embed the nut: Thread a ¼ x 20 nut onto
a bolt. (The nut gives you more leverage with a wrench to pull the nut into the
plastic) Put a washer on the bolt. (See picture) Slip the bolt through the
central hole in the bottom piece and put a nut on the bolt. (See picture)

Center the nut over the hole. Use a 3/8” wrench on the top side to pull the
bottom nut into the plastic. (See picture)

Measure and draw the four lines on the base. Choose the corner for the pivot.
I chose the upper left corner.
The upper right and lower left corners are the
stepper motor corners. (Lower left is not used) They are 4.25” from the pivot
corner. For these, you also want to mark the locations for the mounting
hardware. I found the specifications for the M35SP9 stepper motors. The mounting
holes are 42mm apart or 21mm from the center.

I used 10-32 hardware for the standoffs. So drill a 3/16” hole for the pivot. I
used 6-32 hardware to mount the stepper motors so I drilled 9/64” holes for the
motors.
I left the gears on my stepper motors so I drilled 5/8” holes using a
spade bit for the gears and tubing to pass through.

Pivot point: The only long 10-32 bolt I
had was 2 7/8” so I put a nut on it, screwed it through the pivot hole and put a
nut on top. I put two nuts on the bolt screwed them down about 1/2” for the
pivot point and tightened them together.
Near the motor locations, I also
drilled a couple of big holes for the wires to pass through. The motors will be
mounted underneath but the wiring will go to my custom Arduino on top of the
base.

Steppers: I installed the steppers with 6-32 hardware. I cut two
short pieces of 7/16” vinyl tubing and stuck it over the gears. Then I stuck two
10-32 x 2” stove bolts into the tubing. If everything goes right, the three
bolts will line up with the top assembly.

Major
Components in Project

Arduino

regulator

resistor

For more detail: Auto
Leveling Laser Cross using Arduino

This Post / Project can also be found using search terms:

arduino laser

arduino laser driver

auto leveling laser detector circuit

laser land leveling detector circuit

Tweet

‹ Previous Next ›

Project Ratings:

(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

Loading
...

Related posts

Lite
Brite LED clock using an Arduino

DIY 3D
Controller using an Arduino

Analog
Fabric Joypad using an Arduino

An
Arduino Powered (Scale) Speed Trap

Leave a Comment

Click here to cancel reply.

Name*

Email*

Website

Submit Comment

Captcha *
=
3 +
5

(Spamcheck Enabled)

Popular

Recent

Comments

Tags

Wii
Nunchuk Controlled Model Train using Arduino
April 13, 2013

Beginners
guide to building Arduino robots with Bluetooth and Android
March 21, 2013

Audio
Input using an Arduino Board
March 28,
2013

Arduino
Seven Segment Display Tutorial
April 03,
2013

Using
The PCF8575 i2c i/o Expander To Read Inputs With Arduino
April
06, 2013

Lite
Brite LED clock using an Arduino
August 21,
2014

The tweiger
counter
August 21, 2014

Pocket
Photodiode Geiger Counter
August 21, 2014

DIY
3D Controller using an Arduino
August 21,
2014

Analog
Fabric Joypad using an Arduino
August 20,
2014

admin:
Hi Satyaban, Here is the link to its code:
http://www.instructables.c ...

Henrik:
You could also check out the open source MySensors
library and build i ...

Satyaban:
Where is the code for one digit count down timer and
where to paste. P ...

mehdi:
hi tnx for this schema but i want to multiplie rows(20
rows) can you g ...

Dilip:
Please send me the code or upload it on the site. I can
not find it. ...

alarm
analog
android
arduino
arduino
esplora atmega328 audio
bluetooth
button
camera
chip
circuit
clock
code
control
controller
digital
display
diy
e-book
game
keyboard
laser
lcd
led
light
microcontroller
motor
news
programming
radio
remote
rfid
rgb
robot
sensor
servo
shield
solar
technology
temperature
tutorial
twitter
usb
wireless

Arduino Projects

Arduino
Battery Projects

Calculator
Projects

Arduino
Video – Camera – Imaging Projects

Arduino
Car Projects

Clock
– Timer Projects

CNC
Machines Projects

Development
Board – Kits Projects

How
To – DIY – Projects

Game
– Entertainment Projects

GPS
Based Projects

Home
Automation Projects

Interfacing(USB
– RS232 – I2c -ISP) Projects

Internet
– Ethernet – LAN Projects

Arduino
LCD Projects

Arduino
LED Projects

Medical
– Health based Projects

Memory
– Storage Projects

Metering
– Instrument Projects

Arduino
Motor Projects

Other
Projects

Phone
Projects

Arduino
PWM Projects

Radio
Projects

Arduino
RFID Projects

Robotics
– Automation Projects

Arduino
RTOS – OS Projects

Security
– Safety Projects

Sensor
– Transducer – Detector Projects

Sound
– Audio Projects

Temperature
Measurement Projects

Categories

Blog

Compilers

E-Books

News
& Updates

Programmers

Tutorials

Facebook

Advance Search

Select Category:
Select a CategoryArduino
Android\nArduino Programmer
Projects\nArduino Video – Camera – Imaging Project
Ideas\nBattery Projects\nCalculator
Projects\nCar Projects\nClock
– Timer Projects\nCNC Machines
Projects\nDevelopment Board – Kits
Projects\nFeatured\nGame – Entertainment Projects\nGPS
Based Projects\nHome Automation
Projects\nHow To – DIY –
Projects\nIdeas\nInterfacing(USB – RS232 – I2c -ISP) Projects\nInternet – Ethernet – LAN Project Ideas\nInternet
– Ethernet – LAN Projects\nLCD
Projects\nLED Projects\nMedical
– Health based Projects\nMemory – Storage
Projects\nMetering – Instrument
Projects\nMotor Projects\nOther
Projects\nPhone Projects\nPinouts\nProjects\nPWM Projects\nRadio Projects\nRFID
Projects\nRobotics – Automation
Projects\nRTOS – OS Projects\nSecurity – Safety Projects\nSensor –
Transducer – Detector Projects\nSound – Audio
Project Ideas\nSound – Audio
Projects\nTemperature Measurement
Projects\nTutorials\nVideo – Camera – Imaging Projects\n

Enter Search Terms:

Last Visited:

Prototyping
a Tennis-Tracking Device in Shenzen: A Lesson
August 01, 2014

Analog
In, Out Serial using Arduino
June 11, 2014

Simplified
Electric Imp to Arduino Due Tutorial
June 09,
2014

twitter

facebook

google
plus

rss

© 2013 Powered By Wise Technologies, Use Arduino for Projects | Privacy Policy

Read more:

3 wires interface for LCD display
using Arduino

DIY Flex sensor using Sugru and
graphite powder (Resistencia flexible usando Sugru y polvo de
grafito)

Open Source Hearing Impaired Alarm
Clock using Arduino

Close