In an inexpensive leveling laser for home use, (such as the Lazerpro) how is
the line or cross produced?

D. Whyte wrote:
In an inexpensive leveling laser for home use, (such as the Lazerpro)
how is the line or cross produced?

I think they are using coherent light from the laser through a mask.

--
Regards ......... Rheilly Phoull

"D. Whyte" writes:

In an inexpensive leveling laser for home use, (such as the Lazerpro) how is
the line or cross produced?

A line can be produced with a simple cylindrical lens like a glass rod.

But they probably use a holographic optical element, like the kind found
in laser pointers with 27 pattern heads. These are just very simple being
either a line or cross. Search for HOE - holographic optical element.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/
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"Rheilly Phoull" writes:

D. Whyte wrote:
In an inexpensive leveling laser for home use, (such as the Lazerpro)
how is the line or cross produced?

I think they are using coherent light from the laser through a mask.

Not quite a mask but probably a holographic optical element.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Sites: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

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In article , Sam Goldwasser wrote:
"Rheilly Phoull" writes:

D. Whyte wrote:
In an inexpensive leveling laser for home use, (such as the Lazerpro)
how is the line or cross produced?

I think they are using coherent light from the laser through a mask.

Not quite a mask but probably a holographic optical element.


I have a cheap Harbor Freight line beam. It looks like a refraction
grid that makes the line. looks like IIIIIIIIII to make a horizontal
beam.

greg

Sam Goldwasser wrote in message
...
"Rheilly Phoull" writes:

D. Whyte wrote:
In an inexpensive leveling laser for home use, (such as the Lazerpro)
how is the line or cross produced?

I think they are using coherent light from the laser through a mask.

Not quite a mask but probably a holographic optical element.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Sites: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header above
is
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in the
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But what produces the verticality/horizontality ?
The only one I was familiar with 20 or so years ago was a pro bit of kit
using a gyroscopic spinner to obtain the a level plane of rotation, took
about 30 seconds to achieve the level.

--
Diverse Devices, Southampton, England
electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on
http://home.graffiti.net/diverse:graffiti.net/

(GregS) writes:

In article , Sam Goldwasser wrote:
"Rheilly Phoull" writes:

D. Whyte wrote:
In an inexpensive leveling laser for home use, (such as the Lazerpro)
how is the line or cross produced?

I think they are using coherent light from the laser through a mask.

Not quite a mask but probably a holographic optical element.

I have a cheap Harbor Freight line beam. It looks like a refraction
grid that makes the line. looks like IIIIIIIIII to make a horizontal
beam.

Yep, that's another way, so perhaps that could be called a mask.
That's probably even cheaper than the HOE, but quite effective.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Sites: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

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"n cook" writes:

Sam Goldwasser wrote in message
...
"Rheilly Phoull" writes:

D. Whyte wrote:
In an inexpensive leveling laser for home use, (such as the Lazerpro)
how is the line or cross produced?

I think they are using coherent light from the laser through a mask.

Not quite a mask but probably a holographic optical element.

But what produces the verticality/horizontality ?
The only one I was familiar with 20 or so years ago was a pro bit of kit
using a gyroscopic spinner to obtain the a level plane of rotation, took
about 30 seconds to achieve the level.

You can't use two rod lenses as that will just smear out the line produced
by the first. But the holographic optical element can essentially be made
to produce any kind of image, so that's one way of doing it. They could
generate two lines and then combine them but that's excessively complex.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Sites: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

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ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is included in the
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Sam Goldwasser spake thus:

"D. Whyte" writes:

In an inexpensive leveling laser for home use, (such as the Lazerpro) how is
the line or cross produced?

A line can be produced with a simple cylindrical lens like a glass rod.

But they probably use a holographic optical element, like the kind found
in laser pointers with 27 pattern heads. These are just very simple being
either a line or cross. Search for HOE - holographic optical element.

So no rotating mirrors? That would have been my guess. But maybe too
complex and prone to breakage for so simple a tool.


--
I hope that in a few years it [Wikipedia] will be so bloated that it
will simply disintegrate, because I can't stand the thought that this
thing might someday actually be used as a serious reference source.
Because in its current form, it's not to be taken seriously at all.

- Horst Prillinger (see
http://homepage.univie.ac.at/horst.p...06/000623.html)

David Nebenzahl writes:

Sam Goldwasser spake thus:

"D. Whyte" writes:

In an inexpensive leveling laser for home use, (such as the
Lazerpro) how is the line or cross produced?
A line can be produced with a simple cylindrical lens like a glass
rod.
But they probably use a holographic optical element, like the kind
found
in laser pointers with 27 pattern heads. These are just very simple being
either a line or cross. Search for HOE - holographic optical element.

So no rotating mirrors? That would have been my guess. But maybe too
complex and prone to breakage for so simple a tool.

Some professional leveling lasers do use an upward pointing laser with
a rotating 45 degree mirror above it to produce a line 360 degrees around
all vertical surfaces.

But the cheap bubble level replacements don't.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Sites: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header above is
ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is included in the
subject line. Or, you can contact me via the Feedback Form in the FAQs.

"Sam Goldwasser" wrote in message
...
David Nebenzahl writes:

Sam Goldwasser spake thus:

"D. Whyte" writes:

In an inexpensive leveling laser for home use, (such as the
Lazerpro) how is the line or cross produced?
A line can be produced with a simple cylindrical lens like a glass
rod.
But they probably use a holographic optical element, like the kind
found
in laser pointers with 27 pattern heads. These are just very simple
being
either a line or cross. Search for HOE - holographic optical element.

So no rotating mirrors? That would have been my guess. But maybe too
complex and prone to breakage for so simple a tool.

Some professional leveling lasers do use an upward pointing laser with
a rotating 45 degree mirror above it to produce a line 360 degrees around
all vertical surfaces.

But the cheap bubble level replacements don't.
Thanks for the many informative resonses, folks. This Lazerpro unit has no
moving parts. I was curious about how these devices work, and also wanted
to determine if the line produced would be extremely straight or if it
would have some curvature as from an imperfect lens. Don Whyte
--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Sites: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header above
is
ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is included
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subject line. Or, you can contact me via the Feedback Form in the FAQs.