Great News! It is all working… it is cool to see how different songs produce different “shows”! Now the girls are completing research on the history of lasers, types of lasers, applications, etc. for their presentation! Thanks so much for the idea and your help. I appreciate it!

We recently replaced my car stereo and one of the old speakers from the car worked using a smaller mirror… thanks! I was able to try it out with just a laser pointer. The car speaker won’t fit in the box from Jameco, so I think we will just build one. I don’t see any project boxes much bigger out there.

So, the science project is moving along…. yea!

What I did for my mirror is just break it and then use a pair of needle nose pliers to form it into a tiny circle. If you aren’t comfortable with that, I know craft stores will sell small circular mirrors.

I’m not sure why your laser quit working – zbolt.com is a rather confusing site where I can’t figure out how to buy anything, but if you’re happy and received product, then that’s 90% of the worry gone. Really what is likely is that they import lasers from China/whatever and the quality control is just a little lax – technically you shouldn’t be able to buy a 30mW laser period in the US.

I think it just failed – there’s something called the “bathtub curve” with electronics, describing how they either tend to fail in the first few days or they’ll last for years. Hopefully it’s not too much trouble.

In the meantime, you can just go out to a dollar store and buy a regular small red laser pointer for five bucks or so. You can then build everything else, use the red laser pointer to check that it’s working, and then just slot the green laser into place when you get it in the mail.

I think you are right about the speaker connections and weight of mirror… we can get ahold of a smaller mirror and are looking for a different speaker. I didn’t realize the weight of the mirror would be a factor. Thanks!

The laser did quit working – not sure why. I purchased from zbolt.com in Oregon. I couldn’t purchase yours due to FDA regulations. I purchased the 30mW laser module w/ heat sink. It was the most affordable I could find in the states. They are sending a replacement. Very accommodating company. So, perhaps it did just overheat or just fail?? I am concerned about the same thing happening again. There was a little circuit board wrapped up in heavy rubber. After the laser quit working, a green light continued to light up on that, but no laser beam.

Thanks, again, Geoff, for your time. I so appreciate it!