has anyone here ever built (or tried) a light harp?

[syntaxera]

Been thinking about giving it a shot. Has anyone had an experience building one? Or know of a schematic I can get started with?

[MrHat]

I guess you mean a laser harp type instrument?

I think these stray more into the world of synthesizers and MIDI keyboards.  I would suggest having a search for Light to MIDI and then buying a cheap MIDI module (like an old Yamaha SY series or similar) to make the sounds.

Apologies if you are talking about something else!

[egasimus]

I'm considering this. I got 10 5mw red laser LEDs from eBay, but those @#$%ers are so tiny they probably would be no good.

I read an article which described a RGB laser harp using only 3 lasers and a rotating mirror - the lasers would have to be quite powerful, I guess.

[artifus]

is the laser just a light source? what is the receiver? is the system linear or just a switch? i've not googled laser harp yet, i just have vague memories of jean michel jarre waving his hands about on stage in front of a light show. are you talking about a midi controller or an 'optical theremin'? (light controlled oscillator?)

A laser is a device that emits light

as is a light bulb, an led or the sun.

The harp is a multi-stringed instrument

as is a piano, guitar or...

so, an instrument that uses beams of light instead of strings, no?

über super dooper hyper drive or what not usually just means fuzz. sometimes referred to as an amp. don't believe the hype.

[egasimus]

Yeah, well the laser harp I have in mind is basically a MIDI controller that triggers notes when I cross the beams. I prefer the 'open-frame' variety, which is what Jarre uses - i.e. I can't just put LDRs or something on the other end of the beams. I'd also prefer it to be linear, although a trigger-only harp is better than none, and certainly good enough.

I've asked on some Russian forums and they gave me this idea: use one powerful green laser (100mW at least, but 200mW is better) and a stepper motor with a mirror. The stepper motor spins very quickly, and the laser fires at full power, but only when the motor is in the correct positions - this way, one beam is split into several. Since the laser is pulsed and not constantly on, I guess I can squeeze a little bit more power out of it, too.

Effectively, I have only one beam firing at any one time, which greatly simplifies LDR-based detection - just read the LDRs when the corresponding beam is fired. An alternative would be a laptop with a webcam (PS3 webcams can work at up to 120fps at low resolutions - isn't that cool?)

Add a glycerol-based smoke 'machine' on the side, and a Taurus-style set of bass pedals, and I'm my own one-man show on the street, besides looking awesome on stage. Probably gonna have to look into how to prevent kids from staring into my lasers, though

[superferrite]

God that sounds amazing.  Lots of delay.  And a Phase with a gigantic sweep.  The sound of Space!