Messages

1

DACs / Re: UK Newbie wants to build a correction Amp

« on: August 15, 2010, 05:58:25 am »

I'm just using a laptop for portability but I do have an arcade cabinet PSU that will give me +/-5v

I could use that until my DC-DC converter turns up. I  guess it will work but give me less deflection ?

2

DACs / Re: UK Newbie wants to build a correction Amp

« on: August 14, 2010, 05:58:37 am »

most of the components arrived today, however my supplier was out of stock of the DC-DC converter. It's on back order but could take a couple of weeks. i guess i can use batteries for now.

So, just waiting for the soundcard to arrive and I can crack on.

is there any way to interface a soundcard/amp to MAME ?

3

DACs / Re: UK Newbie wants to build a correction Amp

« on: August 13, 2010, 06:17:29 am »

Tell us a little bit about yourself! How did you get into lasers? What kind of equipment do you have? What do you expenct to accomplish? Also, please post a lot of pictures! We love pictures!
James. 

I guess I got into lasers in a big way after seeing my first Tangerine Dream concert.

My first personal laser was a simple pen pointer I bought on vacation in New York probably about 14 years ago  I remember being blown away I could "spot" water cooler towers half a mile away with something that I could hold in my hand and the first thing I did when I got home was build a "spirograph" to project it through.
My next purchase was a proper laser crab and I soon had the puny 1mw diode out of it a replaced with the guts of my laser pointer. ,  Although it produced nice patterns they only projected onto a single place so my next build was a slow moving pan and tilt mirror to clip in front of it and sweep the pattern around the room. This was operated by serial driven servos and controlled from a laptop running a BASIC program I wrote to define the sweep patterns. It later got further upgraded with a nice green diode


My next purchase was a 40mw green DMX laser. It only used stepper motors and the built in patterns left a lot to be desired but looked good on simple stuff like fans, time tunnels and liquids skies. And if I pulled the pattern down into a spot I could X-Y control the beam using fast computer controlled DMX. I still use this at parties but in conjuntion with Diffration gratings to get lots of nice beams because as I say the patterns aren't that great.


My lastest is a CR-TEC "Super-3" laser this is  a 150mW 635nm Red + 120mW 532nm Green with "high speed gavlo scanners" whatever that means, I haven't been able to determine exactly what speed they are yet and have so far only been running it on DMX with the built in patterns. The built in patterns are only 8bit so I'm expecting much better out of it when I get it working through the ILDA port


In conjunction with my other hobby,  old Arcade games http://www.arcade-museum.com/members/member_detail.php?member_id=356481 what I would love to get working once my correction board/soundcard is built, is a large asteroids or Battlezone projection :-)

4

DACs / Re: UK Newbie wants to build a correction Amp

« on: August 12, 2010, 06:54:10 am »

Hi James,
 
 
Sorry my previous posting was incorrect i meant to say I can see 3 caps being used in the -Vref circuit diagram. So where do the other three come into play ?
 
I have the -Vref Diagram and the Op-amp diagram. am i missing something else. is there a diagram ffor the DC-DC converter ?
 
and also do these diagrams supercede this circuit i found on your site ?
http://laserboy.org/p_laserboy_95.html
this circuit uses Zeners which aren't on your parts list as well as different value caps and pots
 
Would this be a suitable soundcard ?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/USB-7-1-channel-Sound-Card-Box-SPDIF-Hardware-8Channel-/280547481708?pt=UK_Computing_ComputerComponents_SoundCards
 I notice a lot of 7.1ch chards are actually only 6channel anolog and the full 8 channles are only accessble from the SPDIF signal. This one however seems to have full 8 channel analog out

 
I don't use Skype but I can easy install it if need be. I'll get my parts together first and i might give you a shout. Good to know there's someone at the end of the line if i get stuck.
 
 

5

DACs / Re: UK Newbie wants to build a correction Amp

« on: August 11, 2010, 05:10:06 am »

Thanks,

I'm just putting a parts list together based on the info you gave in this post

http://laserboy.org/forum/index.php?topic=277.msg3263#msg3263

In your parts list you have 6 x  10uF capacitors
but in the accompanying diagrams i can only see 3 being used for the DC-DC converter circuit.
Please can you advise  where are the other three are used  ?


 

6

DACs / UK Newbie wants to build a correction Amp

« on: August 10, 2010, 07:15:34 am »

Hi All


I'm new to the forums.


I have a red/green(yellow)  DJ laser that I have been running off DMX to show it's inbuilt patterns. Now i want hook up the ILDA port on it and see what it is really capable of.


It has proper galvos not steppers, though i am unsure of their speed (any easy way to check this ?) and the lasers seem to be TTL controlled.


As it says in the above title I want to build a correction amp.
All the links to components i've seen in the forums so far seem to be US sites. I wondered if there was anyone here could recommend some UK suppliers for the components, especially  for the DC-DC converter.


Also some recommendations for a suitable USB sound card please ?


Many thanks in advance.