Hello everyone,

It has been along time since a post. I have been busy
with work and am in the process to relocate to the San Juans
in southwestern Colorado. Recently, I was able to visit
the historic site of the Ames power plant, Nikola Tesla's
first AC power plant. I like the old history of such places.

As I left, the laser project worked very well. Serial data
was streamed from PC to 8051 and output designs were drawn on
a wall. My interest had been rekindled due to visiting another
commercial laser show at the Cave of the Winds in Colorado.

I've acquired a green laser module and two more identical
galvos. Today, I began work on mounting all four motors and
two laser modules to pieces of acryllic blocks for a neater
looking appearance. I also build a seperate power supply
section. The laser modules and motors will run through a
seperate 5V regulator and filter system than the logic. Before,
it all ran through one and there was plenty of noise in the
system - even with huge capacitor values between Vcc and GND.
I've begun to rewrite the software to simultaneously allow for
two beams and will replace the serial system with a USB system.
After unpacking all of my electronics stuff, I made the
startling discovery that my new motherboard/cpu doesn't even
have a serial ports anymore. Are these going away in general?

I hope you all have had a productive year since my last post,
and I welcome any e-mails with special projects you've completed
as I'm always interested in others' developments.

Best regards!