DIY Laser levelling using webcam and laser level

[devmonkey]

Hi John,

It looks like you are using a very old version of the software, I would just download the ready to go latest version, this has the smoothing you need for actual measurements, plus a load of other enhancements, see my previous posts.

When used as a light sensor with a laser and no optics I have testing in pitch darkness and bright light and there is no variation at all, this is because the laser saturates the sensor.

When used as a camera, i.e. focused on an object such as a screen ambient light has to be completely eliminated both front and back of the sensor, you get some shine through the pcb even. I put mine in a black box.

When used as a shadow camera without optics and the shadow generator (wire in your case) very close to the sensor you should be able to just put a very intense light source behind the wire, this will saturate the sensor which is what you want, you will need some diffusion material to even out the light source as I mentioned before.

The software automatically scales the intensity plot, assuming you can generate enough contrast between the thing you are measuring and the background.

You should be able to get very repeatable measurements down to 3um, when using as a shadow camera make sure you tick the invert box in the prefs.

Keep at it!

Joe