Laser Scanning

Pakistani Coin

2011-06-02T08:36:00.000-07:00

I have shown the bigger objects i scanned but i can also scan smaller object. See the following Coin almost of the size of 1 Euro Coin. My setup still needs more tweaking. The coins are placed on Sea Shell. In the middle vanes of the shell you can see the small dots that are natural.

Sea Shell Scan

2011-05-24T08:07:00.000-07:00

Today i scanned a sea shell collected during my last visit to sea side. It was a small shell, need more improvement in scan. however here you go.

Scanning of Wooden carved Sofa

2011-05-19T11:23:00.000-07:00

Recently, i had a visit to a small city chiniot and i found a market full of wooden carving artifacts. I had a two night stay at Faisalabad near chiniot city and enjoyed the wooden carving market. I purchased a sofa set and beautifully carved Dinning table set.
As the Sofa set does not have a Table, so i am going to scan the carving of sofa to get the table made on my CNC.
today i just checked how the scan results of carving.

Addition of Low-cost CA-45 Nokia Cable as USB Support to ATMEGA328

2011-02-28T23:40:00.000-08:00

Ohh.. My controller can not do plane-less scanning and it can't interface with the laser scanner software.. This is because i have no Serial port connection at micro-controller hardware to send/get data from the Scanner software through Laptop USB port... I searched the Internet and found some expensive USB FTDI cables 15 US Dollar up to 20US Dollars.. :( that is not a cheap option... So decided to hack Nokia data cable for that...

Today i went to bazar and searched a CA-45 cable and i found it 80Pakistani Rupees( I US dollar=86 Rupees).. It has only 4-pins out toward the Mobile side connector and very close pins... Difficult to find the right pins i.e. GND, TXd and Rxd..... I put a small wedge at the edge and the connector pop out into two.. and i found only 3-wires coming out of connectors..RED, BLACK and WHITE... the RED one was connected to the external body of the connector, so in first guess i found it GND.. but to confirm, i used multimeter and it was GND, the BLACK and GND gave me 3.5 Volts and WHITE and GND gave me some 0.2V DC.. As the TX pin is always at high voltage as compare to Rx so found that the BLack=Tx..I also found that the Device appears as COM5 in device manager.. Hurra..that was a success....

As windows 7 has no Hyperterminal available so i downloaded a 30 days trial of "Hyperterminal Private Edition".. Then i combine the Rx and Tx pins and started the terminal with :

“Bits per second:” to 115200
“Data bits:” to 8
“Parity:” to None
“Stop bits:” to 1
“Flow control:” to None
and COM5 port selected and typed in Hyperterminal window... and the Keyboard keys Echoed on the hyperterminal window.. so my Tx and Rx pins are rightly identified...

Laser Scanner Hardware is working

2011-02-26T04:14:00.001-08:00

Just completed and tested the Laser scanner hardware. It took a long long time to complete this project. Now i can scan and send the models to my friends abroad. Sorry freinds i was late due to this project.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAGcEoj_yQ0

My new Laser Controller Hardware

2011-02-12T06:19:00.000-08:00

Today, I designed an integrated circuit for my laser controller. The circuit contains ATMEGA 328P chip, Two IRF540 for Laser and Light control and Easy driver 4.4 as a stepper controller.

The etchining process finished within 30minutes of work with Ferric Chloride solution applied with sponge. Now i have to drill holes and mount the components. Hope the experiment will not fail;)

EDIT:
Oops.. I have blunders in the above circuit which i found during the mounting of components.. Both LM-317 power supplys has errors in it, that when i corrected then found that the grounds are not connected ... After rectification, i found that the ATMEGA328P sockets and wiring ARE WRONG , then checked the EASYDRIVER and it was also flipped AND I ABANDONED THE PROJECT;)...

I will keep continue the work on this project until i figured out all the craps ... Just completed the new circuit board .. corrected almost every thing.. Power supply are tested.. Still the final testing of Arduino and easydriver require..

Laser Scanning of Bead and Toolpath Generation

2010-12-08T08:26:00.000-08:00

Recently did a laser scanning of Back side of a small Bead.. The purpose is to make a wooden Frame for one of the oil-painting i bought from Paris....The scan will help me making toolpath for carving into wood and later installation of Beads at strategic places...

Turbocharger impeller Scan with new Hardware

2010-12-05T08:20:00.000-08:00

Recently received new CCD Mono camera ad a focusable line laser.... I made new camera and laser mount setup and just did a test scan of small turbocharger impeller... The setup is good but my gearbox is not repeatable, i have just to upgrade the gearbox to get more good scans...

CNC Machining of Laser Scanned Rooster by Waynee Hill

2010-11-15T07:28:00.000-08:00

Hi,
Some time ago i laser scanned a wooden Rooster in my home (My son has broken his legs now)... Waynee Hill asked me to machine this model on his CNC machine... I provided him the model in OBJ format and he created the two-sided Tool path with Vectric Cut3D software...

He was kind enough to partially share with us the pictures and videos of Rooster...

Here is the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT25spN4ulw

Banana Scan

2010-10-20T10:28:00.000-07:00

I have seen lot of Banana's scan on the internet so i also tried one to take the credit . This banana is special as i didn't added any powder or spray on it.. You can see the dark areas are not scanned.. However i am in process of combining the scans and let the Poisson fusion works on it.. Following is the Color depth image of misc. scans:

All the scans:

and finally combined:

GAS TURBINE BLADE SCANNING (Work in Progress)

2010-10-16T09:11:00.000-07:00

Today I have scanned the Gas Turbine Blade... The scanning went good and i have done total 14 scans of it in Horizontal position.. Tomorrow I will scan it in vertical direction to get the missing details...

Here is the Partial Assembling of the Blade...

Dragon Head Scanning for Mayo Pardo, USA

2010-10-15T05:37:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago i received a Dragon Head for Laser scanning from Mr. Mayo Pardo , USA... He want to make a Mail box out of it on his CNC.. He wrote me about his idea of How he will machine it:

"For the machining technique, I was thinking of cutting the head as a left side and a right side.Each side will need to be cut in several slices which I will glue together.Then I would glue the left and right sides together to complete the head. This is going to be a challenging project for me! And then to paint it to look like the model is another challenge"

Mayo is involve in Styrofoam carving business and we can see some cool work of him in the following websites...

www.DesignCutters.com

www.GuitarCenterpiece.com

www.StyroLetters.com

It was a difficult scan because of intricate details and undercuts.. Moreover, the size of Dragon head was very small.. I did about 17 scans from all the angles to collect maximum details out of it.. the final 3D model is about High resolution 58Mb file... The scaling of the Dragon Head will not loose resolution...

Here is the dragon Head I received:

Here is the Color depth images of some of the scans:

Following are the scans in Assembled form:

and the final water tight 3D model:

Duck Scan

2010-10-11T08:11:00.000-07:00

Today I did duck scan for one of my friend.. Here are the results:
The Original duck:

1- Color depth image.

2- Opening all the scan...

3- Scan arranged to get them assembled

4- Scans Aligned and merged after clean up the base.

5- Fusion results of all 08 Scan

Bunch of Leaves...

2010-10-09T23:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday i was walking outside and found a beautiful tree. The Leaves of the tree were connected through small branches and hanging toward the ground.. I collected a small branch and tried to scan it..
Last year when i was in Italy i saw some trees with similar leaves.. ..The same leaves i saw on many ornamental art displayed various parts of Paris and Italy......Unfortunately i not remember the name of that tree, it seems that the Tree is Holy in Christianity or in ancient roman empire...

I have placed the leaves bunch into a Book and closed it overnight..In the morning i scanned those leaves...

Rooster Scan Revisited- Windows Crash and Recovery

2010-10-09T06:11:00.000-07:00

I have a window crash last week and after that i have done many scans but this Rooster scan was carried out Planeless... Here you can see the color depth image...

Here is the Various scans of the same Rooster with different view angles and orientation...

Here you can see all above scan in assembled form..

and Here is the Simple fusion results..

Pigeon Feather Scan

2010-10-08T09:09:00.000-07:00

Today, When i was in the park with my little son i found a pure white feather.. I picked it up and found that it was a pigeon feather....I kept it for my laser scanning purpose..

Here is the Quick laser scan of the same...

San of Palm Tree - After Windows reinstallation....

2010-10-06T08:22:00.000-07:00

Hi,

I have just scanned a Palm tree that can be placed very easily on my Palm... Due to problem and subsequent crashes of Microsoft Windows...I removed all the cables and reinstalled the Fresh Windows XP.... The scan was started and without adjusting parameters i got following satisfactory scan.. Scan is not Excellent but in my category it is Fine...

Orange Scan

2010-10-04T09:08:00.000-07:00

Recently Oisin asked me to scan some fruit so that he can see the results... I just plucked an orange from the tree and did two scans... Now you can comments about the quality of the scan...

Case Study- Scanning of Metallic Carved Horse

2010-10-01T22:13:00.000-07:00

i have a metallic horse with fine carving details... To test and improve my laser scanning setup i put this horse into practice: Following were the goals of this case study:
1- To determine How minute details i can get on such shiny metallic objects
2- To adjust parameters Hardware as well as software to achieve my goal
3- To do a Planeless scan and merge

A Fine powder spray was done on the Horse to make it dull but in such a way that the details can be viewed with the webcam... My Laser is mounted on 1:256 Gear box that is driven with stepper motor... I am using DIY SLA7062M based stepper driver that can run the stepper motor in 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 and 1/16 micro-steps ... To get the fine details at 800 x 600 camera resolution and 150mm calibration scale using green line laser i changed the microstep mode from 1/2 step to 1/16 steps.. Now I have resolution of (200 x 16x 256 =819200 pulses per one complete rotation i.e.0.000439 degrees/step ). This resolution is fine enough to get the Horse details from 3meters distance from the Webcam...However i have kept the horse about 300mm far from the Camera ...Following are 4 multiple scans of the horse:

The results I found were satisfactory as the Webcam Logetech9000 has the limit... To get more fine details I have to do:
1- To get expensive CCD Monochrome camera
2- To get fine green line laser that should be focusable

The thinner the line the more details we can get.

Grape Vine Scan Vs Grape Leaf Scan with Old setup

2010-09-29T08:08:00.000-07:00

Recently did laser scanning of grape vine.. The results are not good, as i have achieved unsatisfactory results .. The resolution was not good as the small capillaries in leafs can not be seen :(...

I have to improve my laser scanner setup to get the details as close as Human Hair.... I think with proper adjustment of laser scanning parameters and Laser line thickness reduction i would be able to achieve my target resolution...

The Grape Leaf i did about a year ago has some fine details in it.. You can click on the picture below and you will find how High resolution i got from my previous setup.. As i have achived the results earlier so i can achive the results now too.. I need patience, hardwork and dedication to achieve this goal..

Pump Impeller Scan

2010-09-28T07:06:00.000-07:00

Recently i have got an order to get scanning of a High RPM pump impeller ... I did 09 scans and merged them ... The scans were quite accurate.. I have still work in progress of this project:)

Grape Leaf Scan

2010-09-26T10:09:00.000-07:00

To make some relief for wood carving i am scanning different shapes and orientations of Grapes leaf.. Attached scan represent one of the Leaf i scanned today...

Kitchen Lighter Scan

2010-09-25T22:46:00.000-07:00

One of my friend abroad send me a Kitchen lighter for scanning purpose.. He needs the model to be CNC machined for some Sign work... I did a quick scan and aligned them.. It took 02 hours for complete process...

Computer Fan Scanning

2010-09-24T18:51:00.000-07:00

Here is the quick scan of Computer fan. It is dark in color so i tried to get the feelings what comes out of this scan.. The results are pretty promising.

360 degree Spray Bottle Scan

2010-09-23T11:03:00.000-07:00

Attached you can see the scan of spray bottle .. Total 9 scans , each scan cycle took 2minutes.. Approximate height of the spray bottle is 250mm and 80mm in diameter...

The alignment and stitching was a difficult part due to symmetry in the model.. However, i learn a lot in stitching the scans... The results are attached...

Laser Scanning Translucent object- A difficult scan

2010-09-22T22:23:00.000-07:00

The following basic things to be looked into before Laser scanning:
1- Object should not be shiny
2- Object should not be dark in color

3- Object should not be transparent (glass etc.)

4- Environment lightining should be dark

yesterday i did a scan of Translucent object.. The scan was difficult as the laser spread inside the body of those birds.. However, with some parametric adjustment , i was able to scan and merged all scans very well for such type of object...

A Souvenir From ROME

2010-09-22T10:00:00.000-07:00

Currently doing a difficult scanning of a Souvenir that i brought from ROME last year. It has dark at some floral locations and in centre ... I didn't sprayed anything on it and just took three scan of it.

As currently i have no server available to upload these scanned files, so this can be provided Free on request by email.

Laser Scanning of hand carved wooden Corbel

2010-09-20T11:37:00.000-07:00

I have purchased some carved furniture during the latest visit to Chiniot (city of Pakistan). Chiniot peoples are highly skilled wood carver and i was amazed to see the amazing wood carving through out the visit... As i have no laser scanner with me at that time, so i brought some of wooden carved pieces to test my new laser scanner setup..

Due to Dark polish on the corbel, laser scanning was not possible.. so i applied talcum powder with brush...I didn't show the that white Corbel to my wife, this is just because i don't want my wife to throw away the laser scanning stuff ;) ... i did some quick scanning of the corbel and stitched them together.. Attached are the scan results just out from Laser scanner.. All scans were carried out with plane-less technique...

Free 3D Models

2010-09-20T02:43:00.000-07:00

I have been here for a long long time and never saw a site that offers free 3D models that can be machined on CNC... my purpose is to offer 3D carving models and files that i have done in my life time...
I will share my 3D models only if not used commercially or if somebody use it commercially then give me small donation to keep up my addition of new models going.
Keep visiting as i am soon finding a way to add free 3D models on this blogsite.

My-LaserScanning: The Need of this New Blog

2010-09-20T02:22:00.000-07:00

The subject is as vast as my never lasting DIY projects... Been involved in CNC machining, Embroidery software and DIY embroidery machines and now in DIY laser scanning... My ever first blog
www.my-woodcarving.blogspot.com
has converted into amalgamate of all above mentioned projects... The need of this new blog was following:

1- To relive my wood carvers and related users from watching the laser scanning in the woodcarving blog and taking stress, i plan to separate the laser scanning related projects from CNC wood carving projects... I do know that CNC machining does not complete without CAD model and especially if you have some Laser scanning.... However, i love my followers and guest and give them full honor and respect for watching my work...

2- To generate revenue.. If you come daily and keep watching my work, i get minute amount of money.. so keep watching and joining this blog because the income generated will be used on other DIY projects... As a hobbies't, i know how much amount we expend in experimentation.... So if you want to post your advertisement with a little amount to me, i can place here...

From onward this blog will be dedicated to Laser scanning work ...