Comments on: RS-232 serial laser link

By: Doktor Jeep

Doktor Jeep — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:06:06 +0000

is there a USB adaptation of this?

By: Rebel smash

Rebel smash — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 18:29:13 +0000

Now this is cool. A shame it’s for rs232, really.

But if someone designs something like this for the usb-protocol, I’m in!

By: mightytwin

mightytwin — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 18:24:51 +0000

Hah. Both the hex shmitt trigger ic, and the rs232 driver arrived today. And guess what: The rs232 ic was shipped from Germany in a envelope, pretty banged up.
But the shmitt trigger arrived from texas, usa, by priority air mail, in a big arse box! Wonder who lost the most to satisfy a non-paying customer…

By: tim

tim — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 21:04:18 +0000

anybody know what would be required to change this circuit to work with usb on each end?

By: bob

bob — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 00:10:43 +0000

hey matt

im interested in your above projects

if you have any website with info about those projects I would appreciate to see it. if not, contact me to the following email address so we can have further conversation : hackaday@hushmail.com

thx in advance

By: MightyTwin

MightyTwin — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 22:05:02 +0000

Parts ordered. ;)

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 09:57:14 +0000

Oh! Forgot to mention it. Try bouncing it off your sister's(or whoever's window) when she's on the phone to her boyfriend with no modulation input and just output it straight to an audio amp. Oh wait, no don't do that its illegal. :p

fuzzy

P.S.
By the way, we used a cheap set of mini binoculars with our sensor at the focal point mounted in our xciever box, we just cut the binoculars in half to make two trancievers.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 05:08:35 +0000

This is cool. We made something like this for our TI-85’s using a laser LED back in the day so that we could transfer programs without linking with a cable. One of the other students tried to turn us in for cheating but the professor was so impressed that he said that if we could come up with something like that we knew enough to pass his exams anyway so he let it go.(it was an electronics class.)
Keep up the great work

By: Mr. Spork

Mr. Spork — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 16:39:25 +0000

Okay. Now, do it with ethernet!

By: randomdreams

randomdreams — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 05:54:15 +0000

This guy has a simple analog laser pointer setup:
http://sci-toys.com/scitoys/scitoys/light/light.html
I've built it and it transmits sound quite well. It could also make for a good start for data transmission. For higher data rates, I think a photodiode might be a good idea.
I've found places (can't find the link right now, sorry) that sell laser diodes with collimating lenses for under $3 each, although all you get is the diode, the lens, a small thermalsink that the laser's mounted on, and a resistor soldered onto the laser leg. But they make for a cheap laser spotlight, when you get about 20 of them and drill a bunch of matching holes in a bit of metal for them to all press into.

By: ...

... — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 02:30:21 +0000

EXE for the C code shown in this project:

http://www.qsl.net/n9zia/wireless/laser/laser_data/index.html

By: Wim L

Wim L — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 02:17:02 +0000

Back in the late ’90s I built a laser link based on a design by a guy in Melbourne (Derek Weston’s UPN-LT, you can still find it with google). Roughly similar, except that it used IrDA protocols (and modulator/demodulator chip) instead of running async serial directly over the optical link. I gather they had a small city network going there for a while using these transceivers. Unfortunately the big difficulty in laser comms is aiming, not modulation. There are more things than you think that can put your link out of alignment. You really need some sort of self-adjusting optics to do this for any length of time.

By: joe

joe — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 14:15:26 +0000

do you know ronja project?
http://ronja.twibright.com/

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 11:52:02 +0000

pm sumitgood@gmail.com and I will host the files/images.

Regards.
Chris.

By: ashish

ashish — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 10:46:20 +0000

archive.org works. Well..here's a similar project I found: http://www.tkk.fi/Misc/Electronics/circuits/laserlink.html

I hope this site doesn't go down in 20 minutes!