DIY Laser levelling using webcam and laser level

[devmonkey]

Hi All

As some of you may know I am interested in using a stretched very fine .008" piano wire to determine straightness using a microscope.

I want to try this too John.

As for the sensors, certainly the one i'm using, the resolution is simply amazing. This sensor that came from a £7 webcam from amazon has an active area ~2mm wide, this is 640 pixels, so ~3um pixel spacing. You can quite easily with the averaging achieve sub pixel accuracy. That thesis is excellent, looks like he averaged a few thousand frames.

I've decided to use this new sensor as it is easier to mount and seems to behave exactly the same with the laser as the one I was previously testing.


It is out of one of these:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01L1XAQAS/