DIY Laser levelling using webcam and laser level

[Michael Gilligan]

That’s a tricky question, Joe ... but here’s the best I can do for the moment:

In an ideal world, a perfect laser beam would would be refracted by a perfectly cylindrical lens to produce a perfect line on a cylindrical surface.

In the real world, however: Our ‘laser diode’ is an imperfect source and will be refracted by imperfect optics ... with the inevitable [but practically impossible to estimate] consequence that the line will be imperfect.

That said: Your proposed test seems very appropriate.

MichaelG.
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Edit: This is a little laboured, and is intended for an audience of ophthalmic opticians, but it may be helpful to anyone struggling with the general concept of cylindrical lenses: https://youtu.be/vHugCo2md_o
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Edit: Note, however, that for the laser line generator we are using a negative cylindrical lens
... See Application 8, here: https://www.newport.com/n/beam-shapi...ndrical-lenses
... and for convenience, here’s a direct link to Application 1: https://www.newport.com/n/focusing-and-collimating