Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!snorkelwacker!apple!bldrnr
From: bldrnr@Apple.COM (Brian Hurley)
Newsgroups: alt.hackers
Subject: Laser Hack
Keywords: Laser, music, toys
Message-ID: <37923@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 18 Jan 90 07:27:38 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, CA
Lines: 44
Approved: ha


Hi ho,

All this talk about hacking has made me interested in getting one of my pet
toys back on the bench to gain ascention to a new level of uselessness.

Background:
About a year ago I bought a trashed Pioneer LDV-1000 LaserDisc (the 35-Lb
monster in the Black case) player, and tore it apart to get at the HeNe tube,
and the scanning head. In a few hours I had chopped out the power supply,
defeated the interlock and had the tube running great.  The next step was to
wire up the x-y scanning surface mirrors to a couple of simple audio amps
(LM386's for those in the know) and wired this unholy creation to my CD players
headphone output.

Wow!  Read instant Laser Show!  Ok, big deal a diagonal red line with fuzz
around it where the two halves of the stereo image differ.  My next addtion
was a crate for the beast and borrowing the digital delay pedal,( and later
the flange pedal) from my guitar, I was able to turn out a slightly more
interesting light show.

Read squiggly figure eights, gyrating elipsoids, and more fuzz.



Now I would like to expand on this beast.  Here are a few options I had
in mind, but if anyone could suggest more interesting possibilites, I would
like to hear them.  If anyone else out there has been eyeing one of these
relics, and would like to know how to turn it into a toy, I can provide
the needed info to pull it off:

1: more analog circuts: filters, my analog is weak, but I can build filters, and
amps from diagrams...

2: simple cpu, digital-analog, etc...

3: A-D to CPU to DA for a more elaborate abstract music box...

4: leave it as is...


        - brian

                bldrnr@apple.com