Messages

1

DACs / Re: Soundcard DAC for Linux - buy a prebuilt one?

« on: April 14, 2011, 10:51:52 am »

James,

We picked up an EasyLase 2 box and have just started playing with it!

I have one question, I have not been able to find any documentation on Laserboy, is there any sort of info on how to create new animations and such? or will I have to figure it all out via trail and error?

Thanks!
-Lydia

2

DACs / Re: Soundcard DAC for Linux - buy a prebuilt one?

« on: February 21, 2011, 06:52:32 am »

First off: Sorry for the delay! Google did not like my mail server (functioning only as a relay) relaying email from your domain, I have changed my email address to go directly to my gmail account now so I should get notified properly

WOW! Thanks for the info, that's quite a bit more detail than I had expected, I will have to take a multimeter to our laser to figure out exactly how it is built. Thanks again for the great detail, You answered my question precisely and inverting the output is an *awesome* idea that we may have to tinker with.

We have not played with Laserboy too much as of yet, without a DAC we are not sure what our laser can really handle so we have not invested a whole lot of time into it, instead we've programmed the DMX controllable settings, which were far more useful than I thought they'd be. Once we get our hands on a DAC we'll start programming logos and animations for our use as well as learn how to use it in a performance oriented way. Laserboy does not seem to be designed for performances, but rather for creating and producing animations (which is very useful!), or perhaps there is a mode to use it in that would provide that functionality? All of the performance oriented laser control software I've found seems to be for windows

Do you have a time line for when you might build a DAC for us to buy? we have some shows coming up where we probably won't be doing anything fancy with lasers, but we'd like to get the DAC into our hands so we can start learning to use it and incorporate it into a future show.

Ah I have close to 15 years of Linux experience these days, at my day job my primary responsibility is SAN and Unix (AIX/Linux) systems administration. As a sysadmin I mostly write glue code, python having become one of my favorite languages these days, with good old shell scripting being a big part of what I do, and of course, perl. I have not written much C code since my college days, so I'm quite a bit rusty. In my off time Genetic Algorithms are a hobby of mine and I have a project that will be released once I find time to finish the webpage, I'll let you know when it's up

Thanks again James!
-Lydia

3

DACs / Re: Soundcard DAC for Linux - buy a prebuilt one?

« on: January 09, 2011, 05:01:12 am »

Hi James! Thanks for the welcome!


I certainly do have LaserBoy built and running, the software is the easy part for me


I would *LOVE* to buy one of your DACs! It really looks nice and I love that you sign the box, clearly you have confidence in your work

How long do you think it will take for you to build one? We are *really* eager to get started, but I'm sure you've got enough of your own work to do.

Oh! I do have a question for you, our device has both an In and an Out for the ILDA interface, I'm *guessing* that this means I can chain together two or more devices. In this case both lasers would display the same animation, or would there be a way to display a different animation on each laser?

Thanks James!

4

DACs / Soundcard DAC for Linux - buy a prebuilt one?

« on: January 05, 2011, 12:09:50 pm »

Hey all, we just got a laser, this model: http://www.chinesedepartmentstore.com.cn/osc/product_info.php/products_id/1700

Which has 15K motors, *not* 30K motors, but that's beside the point.

I've been doing a lot of reading about the how to get the ILDA interface working with a Linux box and the soundcard DAC really seems to be the way to go when it comes to working with a Unix box (plus it's cheap!). Admittedly I have not done all the research I can do, I still have lots of reading to do but we are *really* eager to jump right in. Now I'm not nearly as good with a soldering iron as I am with a *nix machine, and most of the tutorials I've seen are very electrical engineer oriented, and quite likely a bit much for my skill level, likely leading to a brick or poorly functioning DAC.

So my question, is there a place (or a person) from which I can purchase a prebuilt soundcard DAC?

If not are there some instructions around that are a bit more forgiving for us more software oriented people?

Lastly, I've seen mention of an IRC channel hiding somewhere, is that still running? I'd love to get in there and maybe ask a few questions and learn from the general discussion that goes on there.

Thanks all! I can't wait to start playing with this all and (eventually) writing some fun code!