Autocollimators 1: Introduction
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 เม.ย. 2021
- In this episode of the Machine Tech Video Blog, I hang out in my garage and talk about autocollimators - optical instruments capable of measuring tiny angles of less than an arc-second. I walk through the design of a simple autocollimator. And I use a fun little optics discovery kit to demonstrate some basic concepts in geometric optics. To purchase the kit for your own use, do an eBay search for "Optical Concave Convex Lens Prism Set Physical Optical Kit Laboratory Equipment".
For further reading on this topic, check out "Metrology with Autocollimators" by K. J. Hume. It's a fantastic book, albeit hard to find.
Production Notes: A big thanks to my students and everyone on TH-cam and Instagram who encouraged me to start making long format videos again! The last year has been pretty rough, but I'm really excited to be creating content again. I am trying to streamline my production process so I can put out videos more quickly. I am also switching up the presentation style a little bit to be more casual and conversational. I hope you enjoy it! By the way, autocollimators are a technology related to the ultra-precision lathe I have been wanting to build for a while. Air bearings are another related technology, and I have restarted work on the videos for that series as well.
Juicy jams by Sun Hop Fat - "Yègellé Tezeta": www.sunhopfat.com/
For daily posts on related content, check us out on Instagram @laneymachinetech
For more about Laney College, check out the website: laney.edu/machine_technology/
AND BE SURE TO SMASH THAT "LIKE" BUTTON! - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
you're like a cool uncle that visit once a year but has best stories :) nice video thanks.
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I need to reflect on this..... Great video. Love the format.
Cheers,
Tom
lol thanks, Tom 🤙
You just blew me away with a wealth of information presented in a great format with a perfect practical demonstration. 10/10 !
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Your students are very lucky. You are an amazing teacher!
Thanks! Your kind words are very much appreciated!
I'd love to see a whole series on this topic. I think guys like Robin Renzetti and Keith Rucker have ignited an interest in this stuff.
I think the world is ready for super-precision 💪
Robin renzetti and Keith rucker have one
@@melvinmeppelink2576 Yes, both of their videos are excellent! But they only briefly touch on how autocollimators work as a background to their main projects: Robin’s fabulous mirror system and Keith’s eyepiece, mirror sled and planer rebuild. This series is all about the autocollimator itself, including how to build one yourself.
Glad to see you back. I enjoy your videos a lot. Thanks!
Thanks!
Yay for autocollimator month!!
Begin the festivities!
Glad to see you back. I know you said you took down a few videos that didn't fit the channel but have you taken down others as well, TH-cam doesn't think I've watched anything you've made. I'll have to watch them again!
Nope! Just those videos I put on the other channel (Laney Machine Tech). I haven’t posted anything in a while 😬
Excellent! very interesting and very well presented.. PLEASE consider a practical demonstration too, such as testing surface plate, etc... Thanks for producing this and sharing.. Much appreciated.
This is what I am also looking forward to
Adam: and that's just how light travels; in a straight line.
Me: but but but gravitational lensing tho
Seriously though, every video you put out is informative, funny, concise, interesting and... we need more!
Thank you! I’ll try to keep up the pace. This video was a lot easier to make than my previous videos and I don’t think the content suffered for it. Re: gravitational lensing, I believe it’s space-time that curves and makes light appear to bend from our perspective. But it’s relative and from the light’s point of view it’s going in a straight line the whole time.
@@LaneyMachineTech When space is curved in our universe, straight lines remain straight, but the _parallel_ line rules no longer apply. Lines that are parallel in one region of space can intersect somewhere else. The most confusing part is that there can be more than one straight line between two points.
Fortunately, I never plan to calibrate equipment anywhere remotely close to a black hole or neutron star.
@@hamjudo You hurt my gray matter.
It's mindblowing how such a relatively simple device can be so useful
Agreed!
Nicely explained and great format. Thanks for sharing
Thank you!
Wov, a clear and crisp explanation of optics that I don’t think I’ve seen anywhere else!
You are a true born educator☝️☝️☝️
I am so impressed with this video, hopefully you will continue to upload interesting content👍👍👍
Thanks! I really appreciate that. The little optics kit opened up a great way to present these concepts.
THE LEGEND IS BACK! thank you Adam!
Great video from the sexiest machinist on the interweb!
🤣👍
Wow thanks Adam!
This is THE tool I need to take with me to visit the Egyptian structures to measure the flatness of the huge polished granite boxes in the Serapeum!
😂
One point you missed is that Collimator mirrors are First Surface Devices. Even so, it brought back memories of my days in the Physical Dimensional Lab when I calibrated those beasts.
Don’t worry, that will most certainly be covered in the subsequent videos. 👍
Thank you for the amount of effort you put into these videos.
Keep helping people get excited to learn.
You bet!
Wow this is too awesome for words. There is only one other homemade autocollimator on TH-cam that I know of so I’m glad there is now a growing interest in this absolutely profound technology. The insensitivity to longitudinal position shown around 15 minutes is incredible. From the books I’ve read I assumed it would work out something like that but seeing it in real life is so much more helpful to understanding the principle.
Thanks! I’ve been getting a lot of use out of that little optics discovery kit. Editing the next video right now!
I don't remember who you are or why I subscribed to you, but I am glad I did because this video was fascinating. I hope to see you make the DIY autocollimator as that would be a very fun project to reproduce.
Keep up the good work.
😂 Well, glad you found me!
Excellent mini-lecture, very clear and concise. Looking forward to more
Thanks!
Thanks for the great intro, hopefully lots more awesome videos on the way!
Thanks! I hope I can keep up the pace this time! I already have the second video recorded.
This was a great video! Very clear on an obscure topic for many of us. I look forward to watching the rest of the series.
Great introduction to the optics of autocollimators!
I'm definitely looking forward to the rest of this series as well as the ultra precise lathe. Thanks for sharing this!
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Thanks, this is useful information. you have shown the essence of his device in the best way.
Amazing! Such a clear explanation.
Thank you! That little optics kit is GOLD.
Great explanation Adam! Well done.
Those 9 guys who hit the 'unlike' button, prove that science is not for all.
More so, because they are not ready to observe and listen, when they are being explained in the easiest way possible.
Great job. Keep posting.
great stuff! can't wait for the rest of the series
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Your explanation is freak awesome. I have no ways to thank you for your help to understand some optics concepts.
i was waiting for your channel content for so long.
You’re a true fan!
This is what I always wondered. Thanks for this.
Great job, as always! 🙌
Thank you!
Great presso of a tricky subject.
You are such a card!
Looking forward to the build video and will surely make one myself.
Thanks for saying so 😂
I have a buddy who works with assembly line automation and he was telling me about these devices. The high level concept makes sense, but having it broken down like this is an amazingly relevant and useful video for you to have. Excellent explanation! Bringing back all my optics physics lectures from college that I sorta forgot most of. 😂
So glad to hear it!
Everything I wanted to know about the autocollimator, but was afraid to ask! Thanks and please continue....
I’ll try not to let you down!
Hello Adam. Glad to see you back at the videos again. Keep going, you rock!
Thank you! I’m happy to be making videos again too.
I have a degree in space science, it involved lots of astronomy, optics, physics etc. This was a great video, explained more in 15 minutes than many lecturers managed in 3 hours.
I'd always wondered how these worked now I'm looking forward to what's next.
I’m so glad to hear that!
Another excellent video. You are very, very good at this. Thanks for sharing your skills!
Thank you for your kind words!
Easy production an turned out awesome!!
Thanks! I was happy with how this came out and I was able to finish it within a couple days 👍
🤯 Amazing!!! Now my Brain 🧠 hurts. Super interesting Adam, great video! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Thanks, man! Super excited to share this with folks!
Brilliant - well done!
Thanks!
Great Demonstration!... Thanks
Oh man... so many puns to make! You sure were able to keep me focused. Thanks for shedding light on the subject. It always helps to see these concepts through a different lens. You've gotten really good at making sure that your personality doesn't come across flat. I like that you were able to show parallels between the costly equipment and the cheap kit. You have a really interesting angle on the subject matter. Your presentation clearly mirrors your passion. Ok, I'll stop... Sorry everybody.
Great video! I can't wait to see what you come out with next. I've started filming a tiny bit but I have a long ways to go before I have anything decent enough to convey a clear message to my students.
Only after becoming a father could I truly appreciate that type of joke 😂 Well done, sir! This video was shot with an iPhone 12 using the FilmicPro app. I also used a Rode SmartLAV+ external lapel microphone plugged into the iPhone. Editing was done in Adobe Premiere Pro, but it could have been done in iMovie or any other editor. I think it came out great! Smartphone cameras have come so far and they can really hold their own against DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, which themselves aren’t perfectly suited for video. The low light performance of the new iPhone is breathtakingly good and you can record high quality shots without floodlights lol I can highly recommend the setup I used here.
@@LaneyMachineTech at the moment I have been using my crappy old beat up samsung phone and a cheap lav mic from amazon. I just need to find more time to experiment and get all of the information across.
Well done. Excellent explanation. 👍
Glad you liked it!
That was so interesting and so simple the way you said it... that's why It's Awesome!!. Greetings from Venezuela!!
Thank you!
Can I go back in time and have you as my teacher? This video was incredibly informative without being entirely bland. Thanks for sharing!
great video Adam!
Thank you, Simon! 🙌
Oh man, this looks awesome. As one of the soft-handed nerds who watch your channel, I'm really looking forward to the theory parts. Thanks for sharing this knowledge, and I hope this year shapes up well for your classes! In only paying attention to my side of the bay, but it seems like we might be back to normal in SF this fall.
(Optics is still vaguely magic to me, despite taking AP physics from a semi-retired thin film physicist 20-odd years ago. He got tired of designing radar absorbing finishes for missiles, and decided to teach high schoolers how to design them instead. Good times, but some oddball exam questions for the optics section.)
Thanks! I think autocollimators are a great way to discover (or rediscover) optics because they are really simple. And the basic light path enables you to make other useful tools, like refracting telescopes and interferometers. As for classes, we’ve been doing online lectures and face-to-face labs all throughout the pandemic. It was a real challenge and we had to basically redesign our curriculum. But it’s gone really well so far! I am excited to get “back to normal” one day - hopefully soon.
Thank you for ur explanation 🎉
Nicely presented! 14:40 is an excellent demonstration, I anticipated the return spot to remain in its position on the focal plane, but I hadn't anticipated the return beam to translate across the lens even though in hind site it is what must happen!
Thank you! That little optics kit is such a powerful tool for gaining intuition in the subject.
Great video. Thank you
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The make video would be the cherry to the autocollimator pie. Just waiting for it to come.
If you don’t already follow us on Instagram @laneymachinetech, you should! There will be extra build notes there 👍
i am amazed!
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Great video!
Thank you 🙏
Hatts of to your explanation sir. Your explanation is very grate.
Awesome! This is a neat subject!
Glad you think so! Because you’re gonna get an earful of it 🤪
@@LaneyMachineTech BRING IT! :D
Loved it
Yes!!!! Can I have more please!!
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Great video! If you had used what's known as a first-surface mirror (a mirror that has its reflective coating on the outside of the glass so that the light never has to enter the glass), then the reflected laser light would have have been very crisp as it wouldn't have been diffused by the poor optics of the glass. These mirrors are used in Newtonian telescopes as the optical flat.
Absolutely! This cheapo optics kit didn’t come with first surface mirrors, but they are an absolute necessity in autocollimator systems. I will be covering this when I get to component selection. 💪
I liked, I subscribed, I clicked the bell, I brushed my teeth! Cheers!
Thanks! Since you’re an optics expert, I hope you keep me honest on the optics theory 👍
Great video.
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Thank you for this great explanation! I somewhat knew how they work but I think now I really do 🤣
Glad to hear it! In the follow-up videos, I’ll discuss more of the nitty gritty.
Cool video, thank you!
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The explanation can be expressed as wow.
Amazing video! I have a question, can I use this tool to check wether my camera lenses are correctly focusing on infinity?
Welcome back
Good to BE back!
Curious on the next air bearings video - part 4. Just discovered your channel and was very much in to seeing what happened after the anodizing video. Can you give us an update?
Great video! Could a collimator be used to align a sailboat propellor shaft with the output flange of its motor? With the boat out of the water and the shaft removed I would mount the collimator below the hull in the the P strut, and shine the light/laser through the prop shaft log, into the the boat where the beam would be reflected off a mirror mounted to the output flange of the motor. Probably overkill, but I’d like to hear your thoughts. Thanks
Excellent explanation. Can you teach how to make perfect flat straight edge? I want to build a CNC bed for laser printer and milling. Would like the CNC frame to be perfectly straight as possible down to 1 micron.
Can you go over a telescoping auto collimator such as the D-275? D-271?
Thanks
You’re welcome.
Emm this is something that needs looking into
Don't get me wrong, I am totally ready for a FOCUSED (heh) series on autocolimators, but I'm still super interested in the air bearing series. Are you planning on continuing those videos?
That’s the plan! The air bearings and autocollimators are basically all part of the same larger project (the ultraprecision lathe). The footage for the air bearings series is already shot, but the production method I selected for that series is WAY more time consuming. So I’ve started editing it, but I’m also trying to find a way to get it done efficiently without sacrificing content, if that makes sense.
@@LaneyMachineTech oh man, I didn't know these were all part of a master plan! Now I'm super excited! Do what you gotta do, sir 😁👌
Could you create a system to measure small surface plate flatness relative to a larger surface plate?
keep in mind how deep the light is inside the box and where it starts from so if the box was removed i am sure if would be all most ontop of the out coming light
In this particular case it doesn’t matter where the light originates inside the source. The light rays combine at the focal point of the lens, but beyond the focal point they diverge again. So as long as the light source is placed on that same line, it can be placed beyond the focal plane. I hope that makes sense.
I made my own autocollimator and I am a little confused. A lot of the videos I see, the FOV seems telecentric, where the image of the reflector seems to stay the same size. When I back off the target on my own setup, the crosshairs do indeed stay aligned, but the FOV shrinks. You can still see the crosshairs, the reflected image of the mirror just shrinks.
My focal length is 150mm, objective is 10x.
autocollimator is a great tool to aline things(linear rail)but it's hard to get those old models,new one with computer and electronic(possible ccd)is very expensive
Yep, I have three of the older-style autocollimators. I tracked them down for a decent price over the last couple years, but they all had something which needed to be fixed. You can also make a DIY version with basic machining skills.
ok, i got how autocollimator work, but i hope we will get know how and where autocollimators application. because till this video i even didn't know they exist
Yep! I should be able to talk about that. But there’s some more info I want to cover about autocollimators so I can design and build one. In the video, I did mention one application (evaluating the flatness of a surface) which is the most common application. I will discuss this application at least.
@@LaneyMachineTech oh, build an autocollimator, that is even more interesting!
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you know when it's really good and you're just about to bust but then the chick does something amazing and it gets 10x better when you didn't even think it was possible? that's what watching this video feels like after watching the anodizing one. I quickly googled autocollimators a few hours ago and put the concept in the backburner to look up later. Now I just clicked on your video and it's better than I ever even expected.
Some feedback though, not a very good thumbnail. I have a trick with the URLs to get into the uploads playlist from the current video (so I can see videos before and after ordered by upload date), and these last 3 were by far the least appealing ones. Maybe black and white isn't so good. Really it pales when compared to everything on the right side of my screen. And the orange text is barely noticeable too.
I don't think Imma watch all the collimator videos today cuz it's already late and puny humans such as me need sleep, but I sure will tomorrow. I also hope you're still doing the airbearings one, bit of a blueball here on that. Thank you for the effort man and thank you for the great videos that come as a result. Keep it up!
5 seconds in, and my OCD is screaming about the washers (and missing bolts) on the cover hinges.
🤣 Someone just gave me that little mill and the flimsy hinges exploded the first time I turned it on. I have new hinges and fasteners sitting on the mill table just out of the camera frame. Literally the first thing I thought when I watched the footage for this video was: “Oh crap. This will be the first thing someone comments on.”
@@LaneyMachineTech LOL, thanks brother. I'm Aspergers and very OCD. Happy to fulfill your prediction. Great video, thank you.
That sure was a lot of information but it also wasn't nearly enough.
Get ready for the fire hose 😂
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