DIY Laser levelling using webcam and laser level

[John McNamara]

Hi All

Today I ran a test on a webcam generously sent to me as a gift from a forum member. A wonderful gesture.

I do not know much about the sensor apart from the fact that it appears to be dated 2012.

The test was made using the sensor and .008" piano wire as done before.

When I tested it with Joe's software it counted 93.7 pixel lines to measure 0.2mm
My previous tests with a Microsoft webcam over the same distance of 0.2mm counted 47.56 lines.

The new tests prove the camera given to me has almost twice the resolution of the Microsoft unit.

0.0021mm or 0.00008 inches. per pixel line.

The new camera also displayed less noise and was less sensitive to stray light. All in all a better unit. I will try to find out more about it.

The latest results have really inspired me to to press on with improving the mounting of the camera and better light control. I will report back here with my results. Maybe the Webcam driver software can be used to adjust the sensitivity. That would be useful.

There may even be higher resolution webcam sensors available.... technology marches on.

The accuracy now already achieved will enable the unit to be used to easily test large precision machine tables for flatness if the catenary equation sag corrections can be applied to the measurements.

All this started with Joe's software, Thanks Joe.

Regards
John

Three images below