16A lot of engineers, scientists, builders, makers, and hackers got their start as children with LEGO. Putting those bricks together, whether following the instructions or not, really brings out the imagination. It’s not surprising that some people grow up and still use LEGO in their projects, like [Steve] who has used LEGO to build an optics lab with a laser beam splitter.
[Steve] started this project by salvaging parts from a broken computer projector. Some of the parts were scorched beyond repair, but he did find some lenses and mirrors and a mystery glass cube. It turns out that this cube is a dichroic prism which is used for combining images from the different LCD screens in the projector, but with the right LEGO bricks it can also be used for splitting a laser beam.
The cube was set on a LEGO rotating piece to demonstrate how it can split the laser at certain angles. LEGO purists might be upset at the Erector set that was snuck into this project, but this was necessary to hold up the laser pointer. This is a great use of these building blocks though, and [Steve] finally has his optics lab that he’s wanted to build for a while. If that doesn’t scratch your LEGO itch, we’ve also featured this LEGO lab which was built to measure the Planck constant.
LEGO is well-suited for optics! See also this EHSM talk: http://ehsm.eu/2014/index.html#OpticsPhotonicswithLego
You´ve been brianed. Not off the bench, but in the field.
16What’s with the number at the beginning?
16I was thinking the same thing. 23is a better start to a puzzle.
Thanks,
Topsy Kretts.
When I started ramanPi, one of my intentions was to create a set of lego compatible blocks for different optical components…as well as a few generic mounts. It’d be great to see someone produce and open source a set.. I’d be willing to help too!
A question in the community is there somewhere a place where you can get cheap beamsplitter cubes?
Beam splitter cubes are usually not cheap, and they are available for dichroic (wavelength separation / combination) applications or for polarization separation / combination applications.
PS3 optics sleds are one source depending on what you are trying to do-
http://www.instructables.com/id/7-colour-laser-optics/
You could try bonding two right angle prisms with optical epoxy (UV cure) to produce a polarization dependent beam splitter cube. The anti reflection coatings on the prisms would need to be selected appropriately for your wavelength.
this is my kind of hack!
I used to make laser light shows with spinning mirrors attached to lego motors
Hi all. I just saw this, and I had to tell you about the prism and spectrum that I just made out of Lego. https://ideas.lego.com/projects/116822
It’s actually up for voting on the Ideas site, and enough votes will send it into review by Lego for production into an actual set.